Benue rice farmers expect abundant harvest despite challenges

Rice farmers in Benue State are expecting an abundant harvest in the coming weeks despite numerous challenges confronting their different farms. Our correspondent gathered from a cross-section of the farmers in the state that some of the challenges require government’s intervention while they also need more education about the best practices to improve yield. VitalisTarnongo, […]

Rice farmers in Benue State are expecting an abundant harvest in the coming weeks despite numerous challenges confronting their different farms.

Our correspondent gathered from a cross-section of the farmers in the state that some of the challenges require government’s intervention while they also need more education about the best practices to improve yield.

VitalisTarnongo, a major rice farmer in the state, is currently developing seeds for the 2020 season. He cultivates a total of 150 hectares of rice farm in Makurdi.

He decided to use part of the field to develop seeds because, according to him, “the companies (agro) are giving us grains instead of seeds. I bought the seeds for planting from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Kano. I want to multiply the seeds for farmers.”

To achieve the desired result, he has already cultivated 50 hectares, strictly for seeds, while the remaining 100 hectares would be used to produce grains. Of the 50 hectares, he transplanted up to four, which consist of a total of 80kg bags of rice planted at 20kg bag per hectare.

So far, he said he had spent N400,000 per hectare, incurring at least N1.6million as cost of transplanting the four hectares while the remaining field was cultivated by broadcast planting.

The least yield he expects from one hectare of the transplant is 80 bags of seed.

Tarnongo said the transplant method was far better and costlier than broadcast, adding that while he spends N262,000 per hectare as cost of land preparation to harvesting on broadcast, he had spent a minimum of N400,000 per hectare as the cost on a transplant.

He also noted that a minimum of 20 people was required to do the transplanting for one hectare in three days, thereby incurring more expenses, apart from other charges.

For the broadcast, Tarnongo expressed hope that the 146 hectares cultivated solely for grain production at the cost of N262,000 per hectare, making it equal to N38, 252, 000 spent on the farm, would, however, yield an impressive profit at the end of harvest.

“At harvest, 50 bags per hectare, multiplied by 146 hectares, will produce at least 7,300 bags. Now, a ton of rice consists of 10 bags, while 50 bags equalled five tons,’’ he explained.

This means that if he sold 50 bags at N10,000 per bag, he would make a minimum of N500,000 per hectare, which implies that his sales would run into N73 million when the over 7,000 bags of expected harvest is sold, thus, leaving him with a profit of over N40 million.

He is, however, worried that the large farm, situated at Ntyar village on the outskirt of Makurdi, has been invaded by herds of cattle. He believes that if nothing is done about the situation, his efforts and money would go down the drain.

“Herders are the challenge. They have allowed their animals to encroach into the farm and eaten up my rice twice at Ntyar. They have eaten up to five hectares, and I have reported the matter to security operatives,” he said.

Another challenge is the access road to the area, which has become very deplorable because of the floods. It is so bad that it would likely pose resistance to transporting harvest to available markets.

But he is optimistic that there would be a good harvest because he involved all the best practice, using organic herbicide instead of chemical substances.

Tarnongo wants the government to assist farmers like him with land development. He appealed to the state government to adopt the late Aper Aku’s style of land acquisition for farmers in all the 23 local government areas in the state, saying that in that way, farmers are clustered and trained, and extension service would no longer be a problem.

Apart from Tarnongu, a few other small scale farmers in different locations in the state, such as Enebi Adoka, Michael Terkimbi and Ahua Sese, pointed to the fact that the cost of land preparation and labour was too much burden to bear. They called on the state government to provide a means to ease their work on fields.

The chairman of Rice Farmers Association (RIFAN) in Benue State, Fidelis Iyorumgwa Akosu, said that more people cultivated more rice in the state this year than the previous season.

He is, however, worried that different patterns of rainfall in parts of the state this year would greatly affect the outcome of the harvest.

He said while the rains did not begin on time in the state this year, some areas were lucky to have it steady, whereas other localities had it sparingly, making it difficult for farmers to weed their farms. In some instances, the plants couldn’t germinate well due to the varied factors.

He also mentioned chemicals and labour as challenges facing rice farmers in the state because of the high cost of purchasing the substances for application on the farm or hiring hands for manual labour.

“Chemicals and expensive labour are factors militating against the farmers’ progress, especially as they have to use manual labour due to lack of mechanisation,’’ he said.

Akosu informed that out of the 6,000 registered farmers of the association, only 2,364 for the rainy season and more than 600 for dry season rice farming are currently under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) anchor borrowers programme.

He said after exhausting options to retrieve loans from farmers, the association was planning to drag them to court so that they would pay.

The chairman of rice farmers further stressed the need for government to take advantage of modern technology available to farmers to improve their production, especially as harvest draws near and the process seems difficult.

“In this state, land preparation remains difficult. There are also no facilities to make the job easier. The cost of labour is very high. Marketing is also challenging. Besides, some of our farmers are not properly trained. Rice farmers should be trained. There should be good extension services,” Akosu maintained.