Inside Danja’s local sweetener factories

But the people have other uses for their sugarcane, one of which is the development and production of mazarkwaila or sugarawardoki, an unrefined and non-distilled sugar prepared from the sap or the juice of sugarcane. Known around the world as jaggery and consumed in many Asian and African countries as a sweetener, the method still […]

But the people have other uses for their sugarcane, one of which is the development and production of mazarkwaila or sugarawardoki, an unrefined and non-distilled sugar prepared from the sap or the juice of sugarcane.
Known around the world as jaggery and consumed in many Asian and African countries as a sweetener, the method still fairly popular in Danja Local Government Area of Katsina State where sugarcane farms are thriving.
Our correspondent who was at Unguwar Garba NaJaki in Danja Local Government Area observed many sugarcane farmers working in their local sweetner producing factories.
Malam Lawal Sa’idu, a sugarcane farmer in the village, said there are not less than 75 jaggery plants in the village.
According to him, the production process of the local sweetener involves: the use of horse, generator or motorcycle that turns the engine which squeezes the juice out of the sugarcane.
The sugar juice is then cooked for about two hours during which particles of cane stalks are sieved from it.
After it becomes brownish and thick, it will then be poured into ‘Kwatarniya’ (a local basin made of mud) to cool down before it is molded, using the small aluminum molders.
It will then take the brown sugar about 20 minutes to cool, become solidified and ready for use.
Individuals in Unguwar Garba village built small stores and shops where they keep the sweetener in cartons before they are transported to various markets in Katsina and other neighbouring states.
The secretary, sugarcane farmers association in the village, Alhaji Nura Sani, said the local sweetener production started in Unguwar Garba Najaki about 85 years ago.
“Sugarcane farming is the major occupation of our people here and jaggery production starts from the month of October up to the month of September of the following year during which sugar is ripe and ready for harvest,” Nura said.
He added that farmers in the village prefer sugarcane farming to any other type because “in a farm that can give you five bags of sorghum, when sugarcane is cultivated in it and the farmer turns the sugarcane into sweetener, he can earn up to N200,000.”
According to Nura, variety of sugarcane matters, explaining that the white slender type, called ‘Kwandagi’ and ‘yar fetur’ in Hausa, is more suitable for jaggery production than the conventional black sugarcane.
Daily Trust gathered that Unguwar Garba Najaki supplies local markets in Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kano and Niger states as well as Niger Republic with jaggery.
The villagers transport the sugar to the markets.
A farmer in the village, Abduljaleel Nuhu, 34, said youths in the village and its environs earn up to N1, 000 a day.
“An average sugarcane farmer in this village that turns his sugar cane into jaggery will earn at least N1m. As for those that work as labourers in the farms and factories, they earn not less than N1, 000 a day and we have, at least, 13 people working under each of the seventy five machines we have in the village.”
He added that on the eve of production, all the villagers that are mostly commercial drivers, suspend their driving jobs and concentrate on jaggery production.
He said that “in the month of December, hardly will you find an able bodied man in this village because they are all in farmlands for jaggery production.”
Another sugarcane farmer and supplier of the production machines in the village, Liman Sanusi, lamented that with the decline of jaggery production across the country, the machines used in the production are now hard to get.
“I travel to places like Kebbi, Sokoto, Jigawa and Niger Republic to buy second hand machines at the exorbitant price of N200, 000 and above. Our major problem in this sugar business is the machines which are hard to get.”
He said they source their horses from Damagaran in Niger Republic and Jigawa State.
The chairman Gamzaki social club that deals with sugarcane farming, local sugar production and community development in the village, Alhaji Sani, called on people, particularly rural dwellers to explore opportunities in their doorsteps, saying God has blessed Katsina State with fertile land for agricultural production.
“With the current state of the economy and mass unemployment, people should not fold their arms and wait for government to do everything for them,” Sani said.