The people of Lola Prefecture have high expectations of the Nimba Iron Ore Project for job creation and local economic development. While the Project will create a certain level of high, moderate and low-skilled employment opportunities, the number of jobs will be modest. More opportunities will come from indirect economic activity stimulated by the Project, where people can supply goods and services to the Project, to those employed by the Project or through induced, broader economic activity.
To address the needs and expectations of the surrounding community, SMFG seeks to catalyse broad, inclusive economic opportunities that can build on the presence of a significant industrial enterprise such as the Nimba Iron Ore Project.
However, agriculture in Lola Prefecture is generally under-productive and focused on subsistence technologies. Most local farmers have poor access to improved varieties, reasonably priced credit and agricultural inputs like fertilisers, pesticides and machinery. Their ability to process, store, transport and market products is generally low. The poor returns on their investments – labour, land and purchased inputs – discourage them from investing. Farmers themselves are keenly aware of these obstacles and eager for progress.
Its philosophy of working with the people and with the land, in harmony with the environment, but at a scale that is commercially sustainable, appeals to SMFG. It is new to Lola Prefecture.
They then take these skills and inputs to their own farms. This creates a multiplier effect: the core farm will create local jobs for full-time labourers, seasonal harvesting labourers, managers and processing staff. The core farm then catalyses employment and income for a larger number of smallholder farmers, who become micro-enterprises in their own right.
We seek to design and implement several full value-chain agribusinesses that address both job creation and local food production. The businesses will generate high-value crops for export and biofuels, and support land uses compatible with the Nimba Mountains Biosphere Reserve.
This initiative will be informed by the Regional Development Planning Study.