Nondo Investors Co. Limited

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is a plant well known for its yellow petals. They grow best with the right weather conditions and boost farmers’ incomes when produced optimally. However inefficient agricultural practices, lack of market access, and climate change contribute to its low productivity.

In mitigating the effects of climate change on the crop, Nondo a CRAFT Business Champion is supporting farmers through climate smartness and by strengthening the market base.

Nondo is convincing targeted farmers to adopt resilient sunflowers by providing the farmers with access to improved short-cycle seeds and farm inputs. Then it trains them on CSA practices and the use of weather information. In addition, the company facilitates the dissemination of weather information to the farmers by SMS. Futhermore, Nondo is equipping the collection centers with tarpaulins and threshing machines to reduce post-harvest losses.

Key Interventions

Enhance the capacity of 3,000 smallholder farmers to improve sunflower output by 15% through climate-smart agronomy, linkages to input suppliers, and mechanized farming by 2022.
Improve resilience to climate Change amongst targeted farmers through the promotion of appropriate climate-smart agricultural practices.
Improve efficiency in soybean inputs delivery, agronomy, and markets access
Improve business turnover by at least 10% through developing new market channels and increasing volumes of soybean marketed.

About Nondo Investors Co. Limited (“Nondo”)

Nondo is a SME active in the maize, paddy and sunflower value chain. Currently sunflower is the smallest of the three activities the company is running, but with participation in the CRAFT project, it will further grow this business. Nondo provides the 1,200 smallholder farmers with access to seeds and other farm inputs, extensions services and transportation of the sunflower grains. The company buys the majority of the sunflower grains from the farmers and processes these grains to sunflower oil and sunflower seed cakes. Then its products are sold to both retail and wholesale customers, in the domestic as well as the international market, via outlets (domestically) and agents (export).