Tapioca Residue Pellets (TRP)

In a world facing unprecedented challenges in food security and environmental sustainability, Indigo Farms and Bioresources emerges as a beacon of innovation and practical solutions. With projections indicating a 50% surge in demand for animal products by 2050, and Nigeria's population expected to hit 300 million by the same year, the urgency to revolutionize the agriculture value chain is paramount.

At the heart of livestock farming success lies the quality of feed, constituting a significant portion (70%) of production costs. Yet, traditional ingredients like cassava, maize, and soybeans, which double as dietary staples, pose a dilemma. Indigo Farms tackles this head-on by converting cassava waste into Tapioca Residue Pellets (TRP), offering a sustainable and cost-effective alternative for high-quality animal feed formulation.

Nigeria, boasting the world's largest cassava production (54.8 million tons per annum), faces the unavoidable challenge of managing 5-8 million tons of waste annually. Indigo Farms not only addresses this environmental menace but also transforms it into economic opportunity. By repurposing cassava residues into valuable feed ingredients, we contribute to a circular economy, reducing carbon footprints and mitigating environmental degradation. 

Our commitment to excellence is evident in the rigorous quality assurance tests our products undergo, ensuring the utmost safety and efficacy. So far, we've supplied over 30,000 tons of our TRP both in export and to renowned companies like Flour Mills of Nigeria and Olam, as well as to several small scale Feed Mills. Our impact reverberates locally and globally. In the realm of rural development and economic empowerment, we have spearheaded comprehensive training programs, empowering over 630 individuals. Notably, 65% of our trainees are female, and 45% are youth. These training initiatives cover every facet of the supply chain and the production of High-Quality Pellets. With adequate resources, our ambition is to replicate our triumphs across various regions of the continent. We envision achieving this through strategic partnerships with the private sector, international governmental organizations (IGOs), and regional economic communities like ECOWAS. Our overarching goal is to fortify the local economies of rural areas, fostering sustainable growth and prosperity for all.

• In Nigeria, the cassava production capacity is about 54.8 million tons annually (Faostat, 2018). Indeed, it eliminates approximate 5-8 million tons of cassava pulp and peels from the Garri and cassava starch factories alone. But the root’s exceptionally short shelf-life means that more than 40% of its yield is lost before it is processed and the effluent discharge (Cassava Bagasse) of about 250,000MTPA is channeled to the environment and streams within the host communities (FMITI, 2018).
• The effluent discharge from these factories is negatively affecting both the flora and fauna on its path. This is due to the deformation of the top soil, increased acidity, cyanogen and foul odour of surface water. This amount of cassava pulp is usually dried to feed cattle or fertilizer. However, drying of cassava pulp has its disadvantages such as air pollution, difficult storage and transportation which we have managed to overcome as a business.
• The processing includes mixing of fresh cassava pulp with dried cassava starch, pressing and drying of pellets. The Commercial production results show that when the mixing ratio between cassava starch and cassava residue is 1:10 – 1:5, the cassava pulp pellets after drying achieved the required technical specifications.
• Hence, it has high volume density, the dried specific weight of the pellets is about 700 kg / m3, the breaking strength of the pellets is greater than 2 kg, the tanning time of the pellets is greater than 116 minutes in water, the moisture content of the pellets is remained in 13% after drying in 5-5.5 hours.
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There are about 38 million smallholder farmers in Nigeria (20% of the country's population). Due to post harvest losses associated with cassava, their bargaining power is diminished during glut season or leads to reduced income after harvesting the perishable tubers. Now, they can earn extra income from the sale of the cassava wastes to Indigo Farms during starch and Garri processing within their clusters thereby ensuring a 38% increase in income.

Within the host community, the availability and affordability of Tapioca Residue Pellets to about 2300 cattle owners has reduced the perennial farm breach between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and crop farmers’ conflict especially during the peak period of dry season by 35% ensuring that energy spent by cattle herds over long distances during free grazing is conserved and milk yield is improved.

We have also worked on the GIS mapping and Remote sensing system to ensure the grazing routes and cattle markets used by the pastoralists within the ECOWAS (West African Corridor) is secured with availability, accessibility and affordability of quality feeds and peaceful resolution of farmers herdsmen conflicts.

This has reduced cattle rustling (theft and insecurity) within the middle belt of Nigeria. 

Leadership Team

• Damilare Ogundipe, Founder & CEO: Living in the rural community over the past decade and coupled with a background in environmental science and a passion for sustainable development, Damilare leads the company’s strategic direction and business development efforts. Spending over 2 decades within the rural communities to develop the backward integration program of the Federal Government of Nigeria in the cassava value chain. This has given him the experience and proximity to understudy the problems and challenges associated with the 'forgotten ones' living at the base of the pyramid while speaking  to the farmers' heart to heart to feel their agribusiness pains.
• Abiodun Osunmadewa, Business Development Manager and  Stakeholders Engagement: Abiodun brings over a decade of GIS mapping design experience, focusing on innovative and sustainable solutions to ECOWAS region’s rural development and economic empowerment. Traveling within the ECOWAS corridor as the boots on the ground to ensure last mile delivery of the Tapioca Residue Pellets during the traction stage convincing local farmers and nomadic cattle owners on 'why' to buy the product.
• Ogudipe Esther, Senior Partner, Procurement: Esther is responsible for Raw materials aggregation and sustainable profits from collaborations with communities and going to the last mile with proximity to the mobile processing factories in mind. She ensures improved women and youth participation through our door to door advocacy and awareness.  

Our commitment to excellence is evident in the rigorous quality assurance tests our products undergo, ensuring the utmost safety and efficacy. So far, we've supplied over 30,000 tons of our Tapioca Residue Pellets both in export and to renowned companies like Flour Mills of Nigeria and Olam, as well as to several small scale Feed Mills. Our impact reverberates locally and globally. In the realm of rural development and economic empowerment, we have spearheaded comprehensive training programs, empowering over 630 individuals. Notably, 65% of our trainees are female, and 45% are youth. These training initiatives cover every facet of the supply chain and the production of High-Quality Pellets. With adequate resources, our ambition is to replicate our triumphs across various regions of the continent. We envision achieving this through strategic partnerships with the private sector, international governmental organizations (IGOs), and regional economic communities like ECOWAS. Our overarching goal is to fortify the local economies of rural areas, fostering sustainable growth and prosperity for all.

Challenges such as seasonal constraints hinder our full potential. We need other Solver Teams and partners to design and implement the construction of an air dryer system that can be used for drying cassava wastes from 78% moisture content to 12-13% moisture content. To overcome these hurdles, we seek strategic collaborations, aiming to upscale our production capacity and enhance equipment efficiency. With an injection of a drying technology/equipment (Solar/electric/hybrid), our daily output could soar from 10 tons per day to 30 tons per day, meeting over 80% of current demand and positioning us for exponential growth to ensure year-round availability of cassava peels.

The feeding of livestock with cassava wastes have been achieved from time immemorial by our grandmothers in the villages. However, the innovation brought to the table is the significantly improved capacity in terms of Production Quality and Quantity from less than 1 ton per day to 10 ton per day capacity. The International Quality parameters like moisture content and ash content well-met. The link below shows the analysis results from SGS Laboratory and a foreign Third party lab for phytosanitary requirements and quality parameters to be met before the export of our first 3 consignments.

This has catalyzed broader positive impacts from other within the manufacturing space as multinational companies have started looking inwards to backward integration using locally available raw materials as alternative to imported raw materials thereby by saving scarce FOREX.

Also, this innovation has changed the market place dynamics as women and youths in the hinterlands who are known as the forgotten ones have become more financially empowered and created an entirely new niche from this products thereby transforming their livelihoods to leave the bottom of the pyramid. The pressure on maize, a major staple food in Nigeria  has reduced, leading to lower inflationary prices in commodity markets and food security.

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Agriculture is broadly divided into four sectors in Nigeria–crop production, fishing, livestock and forestry. Crop production remains the
largest segment and it accounts for about 87.6% of the sector’s total output. This is followed by livestock, fishing and forestry at 8.1%, 3.2%
and 1.1% respectively. Agriculture remains the largest sector in Nigeria contributing an average of 24% to the nation’s GDP over the past
seven years (2013 – 2019). In addition, the sector employs more than 36% of the country’s labour force, a feat which ranks the sector as the
largest employer of labour in the country.

According to PwC, one of the major challenges in the Nigerian Agric sector is the absence of value addition and supply-chain linkages.

Nigeria focuses mostly on food production, thus neglecting the
processing and manufacturing segment of the value chain. The chain
reaction that arises from shortages of resources, lack of financing for
small-scale farmers and inefficient transport systems, exacerbates the
development of food production along the value and supply chain.

The introduction of the Tapioca Residue Pellets has ignited a theory of change or logical framework leading to the support from the two largest multinational feeds firms recently releasing a Press Statement to temporarily suspend the procurement of maize and sorghum in order to boost local contents in feed formulation. 

In addition to illustrating logical links between activities, outputs, and outcomes, a strong theory of change provides evidence to support the existence and strength of those links, such as third-party research, findings from a process or impact evaluation, data from interviews with your target population, etc. 

Please find below a list of our activities with relevant links:

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Premier Feed Mills Ltd (PFM) in February 2024, temporarily suspended offtake of maize and sorghum. In the interim, the company continued her commitment to local content development, finding innovative ways of serving the customers’ needs with the products they love. Indigo Farms was a beneficiary of the backward integration project of the Flour Mills of Nigeria.

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In Nigeria, 40.1% of people are poor according to the 2018/19 national monetary poverty line, and 63% are multidimensionally poor according to the National MPI 2022. Multidimensional poverty is higher in rural areas, where 72% of people are poor, compared to 42% of people in urban areas.

To measure your progress effectively, consider the following steps:

1. What WE want to achieve

To revolutionize food, feed and fuel through innovative, sustainable agro-allied raw materials that enhance quality of life and environmental health .

To be the leading force in creating eco-friendly energy storage and circular economy solutions, contributing to rural development and economic empowerment for communities at the base of the pyramid nationwide by 2030.

2. Set a deadline

2030.

3. Set milestones

Nigeria is divided into six geo-political zones namely:

South West 2024

South East 2025

South South 2026

North West 2027

North Central 2029

North East 2030

We hope to establish our regional presence in each of the zones on a yearly basis for direct impact at the grassroot level and community development through our business activities.

Our SMART goals

SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based.

• Providing specific tasks to track: 
• To revolutionize food, feed and fuel through innovative, sustainable agro-allied raw materials that enhance quality of life and environmental health: We will invest 20% of our net Profit on Research and Development.
• Biographite: Six hundred million people in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have modern energy -- so African nations are working to develop their energy resources. For many, the energy they do have comes from hydro. But Africa also has huge volumes of renewable natural resources. The major challenge is storage via batteries. 
• Identifying the goals as measurable: 
• Sustainable Tacca Multiplication and Adoption Systems:  Due to its documented resilience in severe drought, Purdue University has listed Tacca as one of the important famine crops. It is therefore not subjected to shortages imposed by seasonality and can fetch smallholder farmers income all year round.
• Making sure our goals are achievable: 
• Each of the regional branches will have Key Performance indicators and specific Routes to Markets models targeting each of the factories and linking the farmers to the factories for improved livelihoods.
• Identifying if our goals are still relevant: 
• On a quarterly basis, these goals will be considered as a strategic point of impact for relevance in our business retreats and partnerships with development organizations, especially the European Union, building on our existing collaboration on the International Zero Waste Day achievement.
• Creating time-based outlines for our plan of action: The annual and quarterly business retreats will be an avenue to engage several development partners and ensure timely delivery of results with alignment of purpose. 

5. Document and review progress

An effective method for measuring progress is documenting it. Purpose beyond Profit will need serious management for sustainability and record purposes.  A baseline study will be conducted to be sure about the BEFORE and AFTER effects on the Proportions of the population impacted will also be noted.

The technology in use is the conventional one used for cassava processing but adapted to cassava wastes process. 

The link below shows our Cassava Waste Factory complete process.

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full-time staff: 36

part-time staff: 51

Contractors or other workers: 109

Total: 196

For the past 7 years, perfecting the solution to the cassava waste challenge involves continuous improvement. From the idea stage to proof of concept and minimum viable product stage in 2022, the team was committed to bring the idea to reality.

The product launch was in september, 2022 and we started commercial production in January 2023 and exported the first container (40ft) in March, 2023.

We have team goals for becoming more diverse, equitable, and inclusive, actions we have taken to achieve those goals include:

1. Deliberately employing local residents within the community.

2. Outsourcing from indigenous companies

3. Headhunting female professionals within the industry and providing creche support for nursing mothers.

4. Ensuring payment parity with all staff on the pay roll irrespective of age, background and religion.

Business Model Canvass for Indigo Farms can be found in the link below.

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Financial Statement Indigo Farms

PDF Document

Password: 9199

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