Farming has lifted me above my peers – Health worker

What are you producing?I cultivate okra, maize and tomatoes exchangeably – when I cultivate okra this season, the following season I will plant tomato during dry season. For the wet season, I only cultivate rice, beans and maize.How do you sell your produce after harvest?We sell to dealers because there are no processing industries here. […]

What are you producing?
I cultivate okra, maize and tomatoes exchangeably – when I cultivate okra this season, the following season I will plant tomato during dry season. For the wet season, I only cultivate rice, beans and maize.
How do you sell your produce after harvest?
We sell to dealers because there are no processing industries here. I have not registered with the GES programme so I buy all my seeds, fertilizers and insecticides in the market. I am not kin about registering with GES because they do not distribute seeds and fertilizers in time and I would not want to delay planting until I get seeds and fertilizers from them. I buy my seeds and inputs especially for irrigation in advance to avoid delay. At my tomato farm that you saw, I applied six bags of fertilizer there. That is for fertilizer only. Can I get six bags of fertilizers from GES? Since I know I am benefitting from farming, I decided to be spending money to buy all the inputs I need.
Most of the farmlands here are farms used by the out growers of the defunct Vegfru Company. Do you do soil test before planting?
No, we do not do any soil test. But because of the experience we have in farming, once we go to a farmland we know the crop that will do well in that farm. When a farmer sees a farmland that will be good for groundnut or maize he will know.
As a government worker, what motivated you to go into farming?
Before taking up appointment as a health worker, I worked with Vegfru Company as an out grower. That was where I got the experience to farm. Additionally, the present administration in the state has been urging people to embark on farming. Again, farming is the major occupation of the people of this area. My farming activity does not affect my job as a health worker in anyway. I go to farm after closing from work. I make a lot of money from farming. Financially, farming has lifted me above my peers as most of them including my seniors come around to borrow money from me. I am proud of that because everybody knows I get my money from farming.
About your tomato farm, can you tell me how much you spent on it and how much you hope to get after harvest?
The tomato farm is just one acre but I have so far spent over N60,000 on it apart from my direct labour. As it is now, if I am offered N200,000 on that farm I will not take because I know I will get far more than that after harvest. Let me tell you the secret of farming. If a farmer devotes his time and takes good care of his farm by apply the necessary inputs in good time, he will surely have good yield. That is exactly what I am doing.
I am not sure you complain of delay in payment of salary.
(Laughter); honestly, if I have my way I will get every worker to embark on farming and forget about embezzlement. We get a lot from irrigation farming even though it is money consuming as well. We spend money to pump water to our farms which you do not do during wet season. The yield from irrigation is higher than what you get from wet season farming. During irrigation, the farmer regulates the water unlike during rainy season when he has no control over the water getting to his farm.
Of the crops and vegetables that you are producing, which one brings you more money?
It is okra; none like it. Once you start harvesting okra, you will be harvesting it after every three days. It does not spoil easily like tomatoes that get rotten in few days. You harvest maize only once. The highest you can harvest tomatoes is four times. You harvest your okra farm more than 10 times. We sold 50 kilogrammes bag of okra N2,500 here and if you can take it to Jos you will even get N3,200.
We have a union of okra farmers here. We hire vehicle, fill it with okra and detail one of us to go and sell and come back. That is why we do not have glut of okra. The local dealers buying from us here do not price it well that is why we are now taking our okra to Jos to sell ourselves.