Mission Progress Report

One bean, measured in public.

Bambara groundnut fixes nitrogen into tired soil, survives on rainfall that fails maize, and has been grown almost entirely by women for as long as anyone has recorded it. That makes it a climate crop, a nutrition crop and an income crop at the same time. This page is where we show our working.

We are pre-launch. Most numbers here are baselines and targets, clearly labelled as such. Nothing becomes an achievement without a document behind it.

Report 01 · Pilot year, Abuja, NigeriaBambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea)Updated August 2026

The dashboard, at a glance

Four counters we will keep on this page for as long as ChiNdü exists, whether they flatter us or not.

  • 20

    ha

    Hectares under Bambara rotation

    20 of 250 ha by 2027

    Easy Bite Farms, our own 20 hectares in Abuja. Part farm, part laboratory: different Bambara varieties are grown under intercropping trials to test yield, composition, spacing and drying before any crop enters the pantry. Findings are verified at the Dilomat Research Centre in Port Harcourt.

    In pilot

  • 6

    Growers on the record

    6 of 120 by 2027

    Named, contracted and paid on agreed terms. A grower only appears publicly once written consent and an original interview are on file.

    In pilot

  • 1

    Batches with a live Crop Passport

    1 of 15 pantry lines

    Batch BB-001 is the first fully traceable lot: origin, processing method, lab results and claim wording, all readable from the pack.

    In pilot

  • 15

    lines

    Products in development

    3 in trial production, 12 in formulation

    Fifteen pantry lines across breads and snacks, milks, teas, powders and gift packs. Three are in trial production from pilot harvest material; the rest are in formulation.

    In pilot

  • 0

    of 12 plots

    Land under women's names

    First 12 titles targeted for 2027

    Our widows' land title programme has not started transferring documents yet. We will publish the count the moment the first title is registered, and not a day before.

    2027 target

Pillar 01

Climate action

Bambara groundnut is a legume. It fixes its own nitrogen, it survives on rain that would fail maize, and it grows in soils most commercial crops reject. Those are agronomic facts, not marketing. Our job is to measure what they mean on our own hectares.

  • Nitrogen fixed per hectare, per season

    Published research

    60–100kg N/ha

    Range reported across Bambara field trials

    Nitrogen the plant pulls from the air and leaves in the soil for the next crop. It is why Bambara is traditionally rotated ahead of cereals, and why our fields need less bought-in fertiliser each cycle.

  • Synthetic nitrogen fertiliser avoided

    In pilot

    Measuring

    Season 1 of 4 recorded

    We log every input sack across the 20 hectares. The figure is only worth publishing after four seasons of comparison against the same land under maize.

  • Rainfall the crop needs

    Published research

    300–500mm

    Versus roughly 500–800 mm for maize

    Bambara sets pods on rainfall that leaves cereal fields empty. In a drying Sahel this is the difference between a harvest and a failed year.

  • Irrigation used on pilot plots

    Baseline

    0litres

    Fully rain-fed

    The pilot is entirely rain-fed. No borehole, no drip line. We will publish it honestly if that ever changes.

  • Shell and husk sent to landfill

    Baseline

    0%

    Returned to soil or used as fuel

    Pod shells go back to the fields as mulch or are used as cooking fuel by the households that process them. Nothing is trucked away.

Carbon accounting is deliberately absent. We will not publish a tonnes-of-CO2 number until an independent assessor has walked the fields.

Pillar 02

Health and nutrition

Bambara is one of the few plant foods that carries protein, complex carbohydrate and fibre in one seed. We are not claiming it treats anything. We are documenting what is in it, and measuring what people notice.

  • Protein content, dry seed

    Published research

    19–24g / 100g

    Higher than most pulses used in UK plant milks

    Composition varies by variety and season, which is why each batch is tested rather than assumed. Batch figures appear on that batch's Crop Passport.

  • Dietary fibre, dry seed

    Published research

    5–6g / 100g

    Fermentable fibre for the gut microbiome

    Fibre is the part of the seed your gut bacteria actually eat. It is also the part most ultra-processed plant milks remove.

  • Batches independently lab tested

    In pilot

    1 of 1

    100% of released batches

    Every batch that reaches a person is tested for composition and contaminants before release. The certificate is linked from the passport.

  • Founding circle members tracking a 90-day baseline

    In pilot

    Open

    Recruiting for the first cohort

    Self-reported sleep, energy, mood and digestion, recorded privately and pooled anonymously. Observational, not a clinical trial, and we describe it that way everywhere.

ChiNdü products are foods, not medicines. Nothing here diagnoses, treats or prevents disease.

Pillar 03

Farmer income

Bambara has historically been a woman's crop, grown for the household, sold at the roadside for whatever the day offered. A commodity price with no floor is how a good crop stays poor. We buy on contract instead.

  • Price paid above prevailing local farmgate

    In pilot

    +35%

    Committed floor price, pilot contracts

    A floor, not a ceiling. If the market rises above our floor we pay the market. The floor exists so a bad year does not wipe out a household.

  • Payment terms

    In pilot

    14days

    Against a 60–90 day regional norm

    Slow payment is the quiet tax on small growers. Fourteen days from weighing, paid directly, no intermediary deduction.

  • Value added before export

    2027 target

    Target

    Shelling and drying moving in-country

    Raw seed leaves value behind. We are moving shelling, drying and milling closer to the farm so the margin stays where the crop grew.

  • Growers with a written, signed contract

    Baseline

    100%

    All 6 pilot growers

    Terms in writing, in the grower's language, with a copy they keep. No handshake volumes.

Pillar 04

Widows and land ownership

Across much of West Africa a widow can farm land for thirty years and still lose it in a week. She works it, feeds a household from it, and holds no document that says it is hers. Bambara is overwhelmingly grown by women. Securing their title is not a side project, it is the point.

  • Pilot growers who are women

    In pilot

    67%

    4 of 6 growers

    Consistent with how Bambara has always been grown. We are not creating this pattern, we are paying for it properly.

  • Widow-headed households in the pilot

    In pilot

    2

    Of 6 grower households

    Each is contracted in her own name, paid into her own account, and named on the passport for her batch if she consents.

  • Land titles registered to women

    2027 target

    0of 12

    Legal groundwork underway

    We are working with local legal counsel on customary-to-statutory title conversion. It is slow, expensive and the single most durable thing we can fund. The counter stays at zero until a document exists.

  • Percentage of gross margin ring-fenced for the title fund

    2027 target

    3%

    From first commercial sale

    Taken off gross margin, not profit, so it survives an unprofitable year. Audited and reported in every mission report from launch.

Land title work is done with the household's consent and legal representation. We do not hold, broker or benefit from any land interest.

The road

What happens next, in order.

  1. 2025

    Easy Bite Farms established

    Twenty hectares in Abuja secured as a working research farm, with verification handled at the Dilomat Research Centre in Port Harcourt. First Bambara variety trials planted.

  2. NowIn progress

    Pilot harvest and grower contracts

    Growers on written contract, 14 day payment terms and a floor price above local farmgate. Composition testing on every batch.

  3. Late 2026In progress

    Crop Passport

    In progress. Batch BB-001 will be the first lot with origin, processing, lab results and permitted claim wording readable from the pack.

  4. 2027

    First land titles and in-country processing

    Twelve widow-headed households targeted for registered title. Shelling and milling moved closer to the farm. 250 hectares under rotation.

  5. 2028

    Independently audited report

    Third-party verification of soil, income and title figures. Everything on this page moves from our word to somebody else's.

How we report

Five rules we hold ourselves to.

  • We publish targets before we hit them, and we leave the misses on the page.

  • No figure moves from 'target' to 'achieved' without a document behind it.

  • Growers are named only with written consent, and paid whether or not they consent.

  • No tonnes-of-carbon claim until an independent assessor has walked the fields.

  • Our products are foods. We do not claim they treat, prevent or cure anything.

Read the evidence

Every claim on this page traces back to a batch, a grower or a published reference. Follow it wherever you like.

Open the Crop Passport Meet the growers The bean that feeds the soil

Investing, stocking or partnering? The same figures are what we take into every room, unchanged.