Farmers Participation & Engagement
Dangote Agricultural Services ( DAS )
DAS is a pioneering DFL initiative to render Expert Crop Advisory and Agronomy Services to enable better farm productivity and prosperous Farming Communities in Nigeria and Africa.
DAS strives to improve agricultural yields through systematic farmer education and empowerment in Nigeria and gradually across all African Countries.
DFL's DAS -Team of agronomists will provide crop advisory and solutions to farmers in their field. DAS Services Include :
- Present Practices Analysis to advise methods to Increase Productivity for Existing Crops
- Nutrition and Soil Management
- other key aspects involved in the successful production of farmers' crops.
Fertiliser Extension : Challenges
Several challenges dodge the agricultural productivity and profitability across Africa. The challenges are :
- Generalized/ blanket fertiliser recommendations
- Imbalanced use of nutrients
- Limited or no access to soil test results/ soil testing laboratories.
- Poor linkage with research and extension team
- Poor quality fertiliser
- Lack of technical knowledge by farmers on appropriate fertiliser use.
- Low adaptation of fertiliser recommendations.
DAS is committed to improve agriculture yields through Farmers' Education
and Empowerment in Nigeria and gradually across all African Countries.
Dangote Fertiliser has embarked on the pioneering program - DAS to undertake massive Farmer Training and Capacity building to improve agriculture yields through Farmers' Education and Empowerment in Nigeria. DFL will gradually extend DAS program success to all other African Countries with the ultimate goal of helping Africa realise the dream status of emerging as the "Food Bowl of the World". The Ambitious Programme includes :
List of services
- Farmers Meetings
DAS will conduct regular meetings with Small Farmer Groups and Mega Farmer meetings. These interactions will help the DAS team to understand the issues faced by the farmers, advice remedies and ensure proper implementation on the fields.
- Training of Trainers ( TOT )
DFL's DAS team conducts Training Programmes for the Farmers trainers on major crops specific ideal agronomic practices before each planting season. The Training Programmes will establish a unified approach and solutions for the farmers' issues and enable the desired results systematically and scientifically.
- Field Days ( Green & Brown )
List Item 2
Brown Field and Green Field visits are important periodic events planned by DAS for farmers and dealers for showing farmers the result on the principle of ”Seeing is believing”. Key techniques of Soil - Study, Preparation and Norishment at various stage of the crop will be demonstrated in these field visits.
- Spot Demonstration
List Item 3
Demonstration of the crop results comparing areas with Fertiliser Application and without Fertiliser.
- STBD Demonstration
List Item 4
DAS will conduct Soil Test Based Fertiliser Demonstration (STBD) with all data recording and calculating CB ratios. The demos will reinforce ideal agricultural practices in farmers and also alienate them from age-old non-productive techniques.
- Crop Literature
DAS will update and support the farmers with knowledge sharing through Leaflets, Product, Crop Literature, and Posters distribution.
- Soil Testing Services
DAS's Soil Testing Services creates awareness of soil testing and optimum fertiliser use based on mapped Soil Types in various states of Nigeria. DAS team will advise farmers on remedies for the farm-based Soil Testing results.
Effective Farmers Engagement - Training & Capacity Building
Dangote Agricultural Services has drawn up exhaustive programs for the benefit of the farming communities.
The program includes :
- Farmer Meetings
- Farmer Training
- Field Demonstrations
- Soil Testing Services - Mobile & Static Labs
- Exhibitions
- Fairs
- Training
- Contests for dealers & farmers
- Cultural and Social Festivals
- Farmers Co-operative Societies & Unions
- Distributors / Agents Meetings
- Agricultural Research Seminars
- Use of Promotions such as Rebates, Discounts and other Marketing Mix
- Exposure Tour
- Effective Awareness Creation
