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Nafissa Amidou Abdoulaye, Managing Director of Salma, a company based in Niamey, Niger, has made a name for herself in the field of agricultural processing. 

Nine years ago, Nafissa Amidou made a courageous decision to leave her career as a midwife, epidemiologist and international consultant to embrace a greater mission: food processing for ruminants. 

This transition, far from easy, bears witness to his determination and ambition for agricultural development.

"I didn't know anything about entrepreneurship. And as a modern intellectual woman, people couldn't understand why I started producing cattle feed. The difficulties are there, but they can't stop me", testifies Nafissa Amidou Abdoulaye, director of the Salma company.

Its fruitful partnership with the Institut national de recherche agronomique du Niger (INRA), in collaboration with the Conseil ouest et center africain pour la recherche et le développement agricole (CORAF), has been pivotal in its ascent. 

Thanks to this collaboration, she gained access to innovative formulas for producing highly nutritious livestock feed, laying the foundations for a flourishing business.

"Without agricultural research, I'd never know about formulations for cattle feed production. Research is doing extraordinary things that need to be capitalized on. We need researchers and we need to support them in their work", stresses Nafissa Amidou Abdoulaye.

Today, Salma employs over fifteen dedicated workers. 

Equipped with a modern plant operating at full capacity, Salma produces an average of 30,000 tonnes of feed a year, helping to boost the local economy.

But for Nafissa, this is just the beginning. She is already looking to the future. She plans to increase her workforce to over thirty employees and is aiming for annual sales of around 1 billion FCFA. 

For Salma, agriculture is vital. We need to encourage producers to produce, because that's where the residues come from, such as oil cakes for cattle feed processing. 

Discover Nafissa's inspiring story in this video