A marketing innovation highlighted by the first Access to Seeds Index for Western and Central Africa is the ‘Value Kit’, brought to the market by the Nigerian seed company Value Seeds. While in Abuja to present the result of the Index at the Seedconnect Africa conference, Timothée Pasqualini and Ido Verhagen were of course eager to see the box, on display at the company’s exhibition booth, with their own eyes.
Business developer Samson Okolo explained: “The kit brings together all the inputs that the farmer needs for planting maize or rice on a plot of a 1/4 hectare: the seeds, the fertilizer, and the CPP (crop protection products; agrochemicals, pesticides). The box has everything.” The prize of a Value Kit is 40.000 Niara (110 USD) and could produce yields that deliver farmers a revenue of around 110.000 Naira (305 USD).
“We also guide farmers through the use of the kit,” marketing manager Elias James added: “The box contains a leaflet that guides farmers through every step but our company also have extension workings in the feld that provide training and advice to get the best results”.
Go to Value Seeds scorecard
