Soybeans is a tropical legume which can be found in various states in Nigeria such as Oyo, Kebbi, Jigawa, Nassara, Benue, Kwara, Gombe, and many other states. The crop performs well in the Southern and Northern savannas of Nigeria where rainfall is more than 700mm.
After planting, soybeans usually take 100 – 150 days to fully mature and be ready for harvest. When mature, the edible legume comes rich in nutrients such as protein, fiber, iron, magnesium, calcium, and other vitamins and minerals and are thus highly nutritious and included in many meals.
Soyabeans are grown and processed into products such as soy milk, soy protein, soy flour, tofu, and many other food products. They are also processed into oil or used to make feeds for the animal feed industry.
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) reports that worldwide consumption of soyabeans is nearly 11 million tons with Africa consuming about 618,000 tons annually while using another 4,800 tons for animal feed.
However, before soyabeans became so popularly consumed in Nigeria, many Nigerians didn’t know what soybeans was.
In 1987, the IITA, guided by Principal Researcher, Dr. Kenton Dashiell, set out to combat widespread malnutrition in Nigeria and thus, launched a project with the International Development Research Center to encourage the use of soybeans in daily meals. This is because soybeans contain 40% protein and are therefore richer in protein than any other common vegetable or animal food sources in Africa.
Since then, the production and consumption of soybeans in Africa increased significantly as the vegetable improved nutrition among all the socio-economic classes of citizens in Nigeria. In recent times, Nigeria is reported to be the largest producer and consumer of soyabeans in Sub-Saharan Africa. (IITA, 2017).
This also led to an increase in the number of soybeans farmers in Nigeria. However, with factors such as poor storage and transportation systems, there was still a dent on soybeans production in Nigeria. Therefore, to improve soybeans processing and distribution and meet up with the high demand of soyabeans in Nigeria, Farmcrowdy is using well-equipped aggregation centers to improve soyabeans production.
The Farmcrowdy Aggregation center in Gombe state uses tech to improve soyabeans processing and distributing efforts across different states in the country. The tech-enabled aggregation center is located in rural communities and is managed by youth entrepreneurs.
With the Farmcrowdy well-equipped Aggregation centers across the country, bags of Soya beans grown by Farmcrowdy farmers are processed and distributed across the country. Our trained specialists harvest and dry the soya beans before packing them into bags and weighing them. The bags of soya beans are then transported to different parts of the country.
We visited our aggregation center in Gombe state where soybeans were being processed for distribution. Click here to watch our tour of the facility and see how soybeans is processed.
