Inside Katsina’s biodiesel producing farm

Located about 20 kilometres from the Katsina state capital, Walin Hausa Farm occupies a vast stretch of semi-arid land, running into 53.4 hectares. As the territory of the farm is big, so is the concept of the farm too, when it was conceived and executed in 2011. The farm has a good number of hectares […]

Located about 20 kilometres from the Katsina state capital, Walin Hausa Farm occupies a vast stretch of semi-arid land, running into 53.4 hectares. As the territory of the farm is big, so is the concept of the farm too, when it was conceived and executed in 2011.
The farm has a good number of hectares of jatropha plant, an orchard of mangoes and guavas, an animal husbandry section, with a horse stable, a cattle and sheep coop, a chickenpen and a large part of the land for cultivating cereal crops.
According to the Managing Director of the farm, Dr Abduljalil Umar Abdullahi, his father, Justice Umar Abdullahi, former President of the Court of Appeal, who has the traditional tittle Walin Hausa, decided to set up the farm as one of his retirement projects to help in fighting desert encroachment.
Abduljalil said farming is a passion his father would have liked to have enjoyed earlier in his life but his work as a judge didn’t allow him so now that he is retired, he is enjoying it, adding that the idea to establish the jatropha component of the farm was his father’s usual way of always seeking for alternative means to improve on the lives of the people around him.
“It was from their association for environmental protection and prevention of desert encroachment that he came across agriculturalists who had special interest in a plant called jatropha. Jatropha is a drought resistant plant that produces seeds which can be pressed for oil.Incidentally, in order to conserve and protect the environment, the whole world is looking for alternative sources of energy.  Jatropha produces high amount of oil and it happens to be a local plant. The locals use it to create barriers and boundaries for their houses and farms but it is ironic that they do not know its economic value,” he said.
He said his father was so fascinated with the idea that he did not waste time in setting up the farm and procuring the machinery that would process the jatropha into biodesiel.
“It is so amazing to know that at such a time in your life you stumble unto something, you believe so much in it, and you go ahead to commit a lot of time and resources just to prove to the world that yes I can do this and actually improve the lives and well being of the people in the villages.
“There are a lot of things that come out of it, apart from the biodesiel. The by-products that you can use to make household materials like candle, soap, shampoo and insecticides. He also went ahead to train people in the local communities around the farm on how to make these by-products so that they can improve their economy and livelihoods. Apart from that, also from the farm, jatropha is a seasonal plant, when the seed is not so much in stock you can also do other things. Presently, we are using cotton seed to produce eadible oil. You can still get by-products from the cotton seed which produces the cake that comes out which also serves as animal feed,” he said.   
He said the farm’s main business is planting Jatropha, tending it, harvesting the seeds and processing biodesiel from them. The farm also rears cattle, goats, guinea fowl, horses, besides keeping bees and nursing an orchard.
Abduljalil said the farm started in 2011 and it is still growing. According to him, the jatropha seedlings where brought from Abuja in 2011 and transplanted on the farm, adding that the second batch was brought in 2013 and transplanted; and it will continue like that until their desired target is met. He explained that the plant can be transplanted either in the middle of rainy season or towards the end of rainy season, while they are watered conscientiously to ensure that they do not die.
The medical doctor who combines his civil service job as a director in the Katsina state ministry of health with overseeing the running of the farm said there are two solar panels for pumping water for both plant and animals; apart from two wells that also serve the surrounding villages.
The process of producing biodesiel is as tedious as it is fascinating. The jatropha is a seasonal plant and it produces seeds after a year. When the seeds are matured, they are harvested, dried and taken to the store. From the store, they are taken to the production factory, where they are crushed and the oil squeezed out using the expeller machine.
Rabi Yusuf, who is the co-ordinator of the farm told our reporter that when jatropha is out of stock, they usually go to Funtua to buy cotton seeds to get the biodesiel factory running.
“We get bags of cotton seeds from Funtua, especially when our jatropha becomes scarce. A trailer load of the cotton seeds costs N1.7 million. Inorder not to stop production, we crush the cotton seeds with the expeller machine and extract oil and cotton cake. The oil is consumable when treated and it is also used in the production of biodesiel. The oil, after it is collected, is poured in a drum, and because we are yet to get filter, we use the local process of treating the oil. Custic soda is added into the drum of cotton oil and boiled. You allow it to settle and then you filter to get the consumable oil and the waste product which can also be used in producing soap,” she explained.
Rabi, who said the oil is sweeter than groundnut oil, added that the cotton cake, which is the first by-product in the production process, is a proteinous supplement for cattle.
She said the farm gets market for the household products from the surrounding villages and from Daura and Katsina, adding that the farm has four factory workers and seven others working in the other sections with the farm employing more hands on a casual basis during the planting season.
The production manager of the factory, Usman S. Usman said at the height of production , the farm can produce a drum of desiel in two days.He explained the process thus: “As we take it in the factory, we grind it. After grinding it, we spread it outside to dry. Then we take to the expeller machine where we squeeze the seeds to bring out the oil that we want to produce the biodesiel. When we get the amount of oil we want, we filter it and transfer to the biodesiel processor tank. From there we go to the laboratory and tiltrate the oil to get the exact catalyst we want. The catalyst of our production is potassium hydroxide. We also have a certain amount of methanol we use in our production. We then use the weighing balance machine to get the catalyst after the potassium hydroxide must have desolved in the methanol and we move it into the processor tank and then the oil circulates together with the methroxide. After certain minutes, the machine will switch off automatically and in 30 minutes, the by-products will settle down. Then we drop the glycerol and move onto the washing stage. After washing with water, we then filter it and collect the desiel. The process takes a whole day,” he said.
Usman also said  the factory at its infancy stage (started production two years ago) produces only for household consumption, though few people come to the farm  from Katsina to queue for the biodesiel, adding that there are plans to buy and install a bigger processor machine.
Speaking to Sunday Trust, son of the Mai Angwan Yankwakai, Ibrahim Adamu, said the siting of the farm at their village has brought development closer to them. According to him, the management of the farm has established a school, paved the road to the village and has taken over the provision of drugs and equipment to the primary health care clinic.
“Before Walin Hausa farm came here there was no school but now over 300 of our children are getting western and Islamic education. The clinic was abandoned but now, if not for the strike, we were getting free medical treatment. We were in the dark but he has brought us to light because there are things ordinarily we could not afford but now we get them. He has opened our world,” he said.
He added that whenever a villager is sick and the sickness can not be treated at the primary health clinic, the management of the farm would bring a specialist from Katsina town to take care of the person.
“Initially when he came to purchase the land for the farm we were skeptical, we thought he had come to cheat us but he has turned out to be different. He has employed our youths and taught so many of us to be self reliant. He has trained about 100 of us here in producing household items like candle, soap, shampoo, cream (petroleum jelly) and insecticide. We are farmers and we thank God for bringing him to us, to show us that there are other things we can do with our lives,” Adamu said.
Chairman of the Walin Hausa Foundation, Justice Umar Farouk Abdullahi (rtd), said establishing the farm and engaging in community work had been part of his retirement plans long before he actually retired in 2009.
He said he grew up around Katsina and since the main preoccupation of the people is rearing animals and farming, it was only right that he taught the local people better ways of doing the things they want, adding that he was giving his best back to the society that did so much for him.
District head of Batagarawa, Mallamawa Muhammad Dikko said he has heard about the farm but has not been there. “From what I hear the farm is very big with a school which teaches Western and Islamic education. Beyond that I don’t know anything about it. It is a personal initiative but it is good,” he said.
The district head said the reason he hasn’t visited the farm, even though it is in his domain, is because nobody has ever come to him to inform him officially that a farm of that capacity has been established in his district.
“Nobody has come here to tell me anything. But maybe because he is my uncle, he thought it is not important to inform me officially,” he said.
With grave concerns about the environment and many advanced countries exploring the use of eco-friendly sources of energy, it remains to be seen how Nigeria will embrace  jatropha farming.