Bauchi kid farmers in mass production of vegetables

While the male children are into commercial production of fruits and vegetables through irrigation farming, their female counterparts are engaged in hawking the produce at motor parks, markets and to dealers supplying other towns and villages.13-year-old Musa Yusuf is one of such kid farmers who together with his nine-year-old brother, Auwalu harvests two hectares of […]

While the male children are into commercial production of fruits and vegetables through irrigation farming, their female counterparts are engaged in hawking the produce at motor parks, markets and to dealers supplying other towns and villages.
13-year-old Musa Yusuf is one of such kid farmers who together with his nine-year-old brother, Auwalu harvests two hectares of assorted vegetables through dry season farming.
Musa said when he saw other youth from the community going into irrigation farming and making money, he and his brother also joined, adding, “the farmland belongs to our father, a primary school teacher. He only cultivates the land during the wet season. I had two cows and my brother has one. Our father helped us to sell the cows. We bought seeds, fertilizer, paid some people to help us till the farm and bought water pumping machine.”
He also said:“We joined a team of young farmers that organizes communal farming. The group will go and work on the farm of a member today then go to another member’s farm the next day. By so doing one will never be tired,” he said.
He explained that rather than the usual complete harvest of a farm, they gradually harvest theirs depending on buyers’ demands. He said most of the buyers are children who buy and take the produce to markets in nearby towns and villages to sell.
Musa who cultivates garden eggs, carrots and water melon, said they realised N250,000 to N300,000 in the two years that they started the project.
Yunusa Jibrin, 17 years old, who said he is into the production of pepper and maize on a one and a half hectares of farmland at the irrigation site, noted that irrigation farmers in the area require government assistance through provision of input and sinking of boreholes.
Commenting, Chairman of Jama’are Local Government, Alhaji  Adamu Aliyu, said the council is doing a lot by providing free seeds, sprayers, herbicides and insecticides to the farmers in the local government and helping them to redeem their fertilizer through the GES programme.