Drought affects harvest in Kebbi

He said in this year’s harvest, he recorded an increase of over 40 bags. “I have harvested more than 30 bags of bambara nut and over 100 bundles of millet. The harvest is still ongoing with about 30 percent remaining.“The bambara nut will be sold out while the millet is farmed and stored for my […]

He said in this year’s harvest, he recorded an increase of over 40 bags. “I have harvested more than 30 bags of bambara nut and over 100 bundles of millet. The harvest is still ongoing with about 30 percent remaining.
“The bambara nut will be sold out while the millet is farmed and stored for my family’s consumption alone.
“I have two wives and 18 children, 11 of them are currently working with me in the farm,” he said.
Bambara nut, popularly called ‘gujjiya’ or ‘kwaruru’ in Hausa language currently sells between N3,700 and N4,000 per bag.
The situation is however not the same for farmers in Argungu and some parts of Gwandu where millet is the common crop produced.
The Sarkin Ruwan Argungu, Hussaini Makwashe said this year farmers recorded poor harvest of millet in the area due to drought, adding that lack of enough rainfall has affected the final yield of millet thereby reducing the quantity and quality of harvest in the area and most parts of northern Kebbi State.
“This year, I only harvested 60 bundles as against over 100 in the past. This is because it did not rain for about one month. This is not a good yield but we thank God for his mercy,” he said.
On other crops such as rice, Makwashe said water has flooded most parts of their farmlands thereby slowing down the rate of growth and germination. Some farmers said the flood completely destroyed their rice plantations.
“Our rice farm had been over flooded, but the water level is reducing and we hope to salvage what we could during harvest in November. Government has warned us before now, but there is nothing we can do than to pray since we do not have alternative place to farm,” he said.
The situation is the same in places like Birnin Kebbi, Bunza, Kalgo and some parts of Dakingari.
Abubakar Danjuma, a rice farmer in Bunza said almost all of his farm was submerged in water.
“My farm that is by the side of the river is in water. We inspect our farms using canoes because the entire farms are flooded,” he said.
In Zuru, Alhaji Usman Dan’inna said he has already harvested over 50 bags of white maize and had sold red maize to those cooking and roasting it as local snacks.
“I have sold the sweetened red corn worth about N90,000 to N100,000 to corn vendors in Zuru. This year’s harvest is very good and we hope to have a better one next year. I will preserve the maize until around early next year when the price must have gone up from the current price of N4,000 per bag to around N7,500,” he said.
Dan’inna said he has already cleared the maize farm and has planted beans. He however complained of late and inadequate allocation of fertilizer through the GES programme of the federal government and high cost of chemicals in the open market.
“The GES fertilizer was allocated to farmers about three months into the farming season. Most farmers had to buy from the open market to apply to our farms and store the GES fertilizer for next season. The price of chemical applied for beans has gone up. It sells for N1,300 against N900 last year.
“I could not plant millet because of quelea birds and nobody to look after the farm,” he said.
Kebbi State Chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) said it has concluded plans with the state government to buy the harvested grains produced in the state to encourage the farmers to produce more.
The secretary of the association, Alhaji Muhammadu Idris made the disclosure in an interview in Birnin Kebbi. He said the state government successfully applied the same method to the rice farmers, adding, “the farmers were encouraged and produced more rice which made Kebbi State to be among the major producers of rice in the nation,” he said.
Idris said the state has provided market for the rice largely produced locally in the state at Labana rice processing mill and the state SURE-P trust fund.
He added that the price of 50 kilogramme bag of rice at the local market is N4,500 while Labana and SURE-P trust fund buy from farmers at N6,500.
“Maize, guinea corn produced largely in Kebbi South Senatorial District and millet produced in Kebbi North and Kebbi Central Senatorial districts will be bought directly from the farmers at N8,500 instead of N5,500 or N5,700 market price per bag.
“It is difficult to ascertain the exact figures of the harvest in the state due to the fact that many farmers do not bother to intimate the association of their harvest at the end of the season. However, we are optimistic that the harvest this year will be very good,” he said.
The state coordinator of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Kevin Tekpat, said the ministry is making effort to ensure that the commodity gets good market value to encourage farmers to harvest more.
He said the ministry has held several meetings with up-takers to the grain markets in the zone in order to come up with good market modality.
“Kebbi has redeemed over 127,000 farmers this year, 2013. Each of the farmers got two bags (one bag of Urea, one bag of MPK) and 12 kilogrammes of rice or maize seed, looking at the comparative advantage of rice and maize according to areas,” he said.
The Director, Produce and Pest Control, Kebbi State Ministry for Agriculture, Muhammad Lawal Argungu, who spoke on behalf of the Commissioner of Agriculture, Alhaji Isah Mohammed, said that Birnin Kebbi, Kalgo, Augie, Gwandu and Arewa LGAs experienced no rain for about a month which, he said resulted into poor harvest of millet in the area.
“Government has encouraged farmers with improved seedlings to have good harvest of millet, maize, beans, rice, bambara nut, groundnuts, water melon, sweet potatoes, cocoa yam, pepper, sorghum and sugar cane,” he said.