On losing his job with a tyre company in Burkina Faso in 2008, Mr. Abdoulaye Sawadogo turned to farming to eke out a living and to feed his family. Today he is not only feeding his family, but is impacting on the society as a seed producer. He is happy today that he has become employer of labour and no longer an employee, writes JIMOH BABATUNDE.

I am Abdoulaye Sawadogo, the Managing Director of   Neema Agricole, a seed company in Burkina Faso. The company was established in 2008 after I lost my job with a tyre producing company and then decided to go into farming primarily to feed my family.

“Though I have been involved in farming on part time since 1994, but not until 2008, when I lost my job that I decided to take to farming and establish a company.”

He did not start by going into seed production immediately but started out planting mostly banana for the market, at the same time producing maize for the family.

It was in the course of cultivating maize that he learnt about improved seeds developed by scientists and he went after it. “When I started I was cultivating mostly banana for the market, at the same time producing maize for the family use before I learnt that there was improved varieties of maize developed by scientists and went to get for my farm.”

World of seed production

That moves paid off as he unknowingly began a journey into the world of seed production. “After planting those improved seeds not withstanding that I planted late, I discovered I had more yields than my neighbours who planted early.”

The feat did not go unnoticed by the neighbours who came asking how he achieved the miracle which he explained to them and started giving them same seeds to plants.

“It was from here the idea of selling seeds came to me and I went to the scientist that I needed training in seed production and that was how the journey started.”

For Abdoulaye Sawadogo, seed production has become a rewarding choice for him, apart from being employer of labour;   he was producing maize on one hectare of land before, but now plants on more than 800 hectares of land.

“I was producing not more than 100 metric tonnes before, but today I produce several thousand tonnes. My company has several employees and from every angle there is growth that comes with great satisfaction.”

He added that part of the satisfaction he has is that the company has been able to impact positively on the community as they have been able to buy an ambulance for the community, gave food to schools and less privilege homes.

Abdoulaye Sawadogo is proud that he has made a name for himself as a professional seed producer in his country, Burkina Faso and beyond as his company was in 2012 named the best seed company in Africa by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Speaking on his company relationship with AGRA, Sawdogo did not mince words when he said “AGRA has made me the business person I am today as the head of a major seed company in Burkina Faso. I have benefited a lot from trainings and technical support that has made me who I am today“

AGRA to him has been a pillar of support as they have “given me the support and encouragement to the level I never dreamt of getting to in this business. Now I believe more in myself than ever before.”

Before AGRA, he had 18 temporary staff, but today the company has 27 full staff, he works with 125 out- growers on permanent basis and the casual workers are over 1000 people.

For him meeting the 10,000 metric tonnes of annual seed production and sales target for seed companies is achievable in a year with the technical support from AGRA and what he has on ground, but to him there are other issues that need to be taken care of like warehousing, market and creating awareness among farmers.

“The issue of warehousing, the issue of number of agro dealers that will buy from you and enough marketing capacity to get to the farmers are things to be considered.

“If you produce 10,000 metric tonnes of seeds , the question is how do you raise awareness among the farmers, so it involves a lot of preparation and strategy as well as others things not to produce the seed itself but to set up a total system.”