Inside the Ultra-Modern Kwara Shonga Farms

As darkness slowly gives way to dawn, Shonga community slowly rises from sleep after the cock’s crow. The day’s activities gradually pick up, with the young employees hurriedly trudging into the White Zimbabwean (Zim) farms to earn the day’s wage. As early as 5 O’clock in the morning, activities in the farms are slowly picking […]

As darkness slowly gives way to dawn, Shonga community slowly rises from sleep after the cock’s crow. The day’s activities gradually pick up, with the young employees hurriedly trudging into the White Zimbabwean (Zim) farms to earn the day’s wage.
As early as 5 O’clock in the morning, activities in the farms are slowly picking up and our tour into the over 13,000 hectares of farmland, has just begun.
Waking up in Shonga farms is a morning unlike any other, because of the beehive of activities of the few individuals living on the farms. Everybody moves around in a very purposeful manner, like that of a person   who has a task to accomplish, and is set on doing just that.
Before 6 o’clock, the few houses are empty of workers. Everybody is in the farm, except the few security personnel in their tattered outfits, stationed inside the open gate.
Movement around the various sections of Shonga farms proves to be an uphill task, because of the lack of easy means of transportation and the loose sands that are found on almost all the winding foot paths. This is so even for someone enjoying the luxury of moving on a motorcycle, the common means of transport available to a privileged few, except the white farmers.
After spending close to eight hours travelling from Abuja to Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, making the necessary contact with the state government for access into the Zimbabwean White farms in Shonga village, I decided to pass the night in Ilorin to head to the farm by morning where I would   pass another night.
Driving for another two hours from the state capital, Ilorin from Abuja and an additional two hours drive, passing through several villages, we finally arrived Shonga village, passing through  several villages in the three districts of Edu Local Government Area (LGA) consisting of Lafiaji, Sharayi and Shonga, my target location.
I finally found myself facing the rusty gate hanging on stiff hinges which leads into the now famous Shonga farms, leaving behind Shonga village where the locals dwell. The prominent features visible are  the large population of  trees, a few houses built by the government to house the few staff of the River Basin and the Kwara State government that reside there , and the untarred sticky, muddy red earth access road,  leading into Shonga farms.
I spent the night in the farms located in Shonga district of Edu Local Government Area, consisting of three districts, after obtaining official permission from the Ministry.
Accompanied by the Public relations officer of the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources Mr J. O. Bamidele and a tour guide, a level 14 officer of the State Civil Service, Mohammed Yahaya, who is the Area Agriculture officer attached to Shonga farms.
Viewing the farms from the gate through tree tops, reveals an endless stretch of forest with a gradually downward sloping terrain that merges at the skyline. The eyes can never see its end. 
As earlier mentioned, access into Shonga farms where the White farmers reside is strictly by permission from the Kwara State government. Without this, no farmer would pay the least attention to you, or even grant you entry into the farms to see some of the state of the art facilities there.

Shonga dairy farm
Our first point of call, the Pineleigh farms, is one of the thirteen farms of 1,000 hectares each. It consists basically of a large cow shed that houses the cow breeds, the milking parlor, a veterinary clinic for checking the health of the animals, a power house and a state of the art processing factory unit.
We got to the dairy farm at 6:20 am, just as the cows were being prepared for their usual morning ritual, the first stage in the milking process.
I watched as they were arranged in a straight file from the shed into the milking parlor, through a restricted area lined with iron rids, forcing a cow at a time to pass through into the well ventilated and disinfected dirt free milking parlour.
The cow shed is the home of the cows, a resting place and sometimes a calving spot. A feeding trough is usually kept here, where food rations are poured in for the cows at various feeding intervals.
Slowly, each cow is positioned directly by a milking machine as it is attached to its tits,  and the electronically controlled milking machine is switched on.Painless milking just began, to end in a few minutes.
Dr Shettima is the resident Veterinary expert on the Pineleigh farms. He attends to the health of the cows consisting of two varieties of cow breeds present on the farm. These are   the Friesian and Jersey breeds, which have been imported into the farm and are believed to be high milk producers, with maximum adaptability to hot weather conditions or the tropical region.
He said the animals are kept in the best health condition, so that they would be able to produce high quality milk and in reasonable quantity.
“Feeding also determines to a large extent how much milk a cow can produce. So we give them high quality feeds and make sure they are very comfortable in their sheds. This will give us good results and we use modern dairy production and livestock husbandry with the most modern technology,” he explained.
Owner of the farm Paul Retuaff, says they produce fresh milk for sale within Kwara State, but are looking out for buyers who would take the milk beyond the state.
He said Nigerians are not used to taking fresh milk compared to powdered milk.That is why the market for milk is still poor.  But most of the milk is now being converted to Yoghurt, a more acceptable market with better patronage, compared to fresh milk.
“We see that most people prefer to take yoghurt instead of fresh milk. So, we now produce yoghurt and the market is great. Milk is highly perishable if not stored in the refrigerator.So the problem of light in other parts of the state makes this difficult too,” he explained.
Although Shonga enjoys uninterrupted electricity supply from a 15mva power station, most of the locals do not have refrigerators while the state capital, Ilorin, suffers persistent power outage.
Mr Higgins is the manager of the farms. He says the major challenge facing Shonga dairy is the issue of a market outlet for the milk produced by the cows, and he says each cow produces up to 15 liters of milk per milking session.

On the road to Shonga
On the road to Shonga, we came across a few industries that are springing up to take advantage of readily available raw materials from the farms. One of such is a starch processing company. My guide explained that the factory has a mother station in Umuahia, Abia state.
For Usman Ahmed, it has never been this good until the arrival of the Zim farmers.He now enjoys electricity, occasional income from the Diary farm and there is a good road link. The once excluded village to other urban areas, especially Ilorin, the state capital.

The Chicken Abattoir
Twenty-five minutes drive away from Pineleigh farms, the chicken slaughter house of Shonga can be sighted. The chicken abattoir is a specially designed slaughter house, where the killing and packaging of the birds are done.
Chicken from a neighboring poultry farm are brought in for slaughter, packaged in medium sized cartons  and onward sale to whole sale traders  and retailers for final consumption by the buyers.
Each chicken is hung feet up on a moving chain and as the machine gradually moves the chains, the butcher stands with a sharp knife. He neatly slits the throat of the chicken, the first stage.
The dead chicken moves down the chain into a container of hot water. They are each dipped in the hot water .The machine moves on taking the body into the feather remover, a gripping section of the machine that removes the feathers on the chicken, and continues the movement to the next stage of packaging.
The chicken is now in the cold room with temperatures that can be tolerated by humans. They are cut into various parts and packaged in parts. The packs include gizzard packs, heads and feet packs, flesh packs and others.
The poultry and Orchard farms are located close to the abattoir, for ease of movement of birds to the slaughter house.
The farm is owned and managed by Mr Du Toil, who also grows an orchard of bananas, sweet maize, garden eggs, mangoes and other plants.
Each of the over four poultry houses contain 25,000 birds raised solely for the purpose of meat production.

Valentine’s feed mill
Next is the feed mill, strategically located after the abattoir and poultry house. It supplies the poultry farm with chicken feed of varying constitution, for the different sizes of birds at various stages of growth.
Valentine Bierman, the manager of the mill, said vegetable oil is also extracted from the soybean used in making the feed, which is later sold for human consumption, while the chaff is also meant for use within the farm.
He explained that production would increase as the market grows, and more individuals show interest in buying the chicken feed.

Hatty farms, a heaven for cassava
Hatty farms, another point of call, produces countless tonnes of cassava per harvest season. Cluttered with tractors of different makes, a work and repair shop, Hatty farms is acclaimed the largest cassava producing farm by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, says Alhaji Ndako Yahaya, the supervisor of the farm.
A look at the cassava farms show an endless stream of green leaves, planted in a neat profile until it merges with the skyline.
Mr. Hatty Graham emerges from repairing one of the tractors. He nods his head in response to our greetins, and pauses as we approach.
He was smiling as we approached and greeted him to inquire about his farm activity, and source of root seed for planting. “We get our vine from IITA. They use the farm for some of their projects, and sometimes we source elsewhere”, he said.

Hellam farms
Mike Hellam is the owner of Hellam Farms, a fufu processing plant that draws cassava from Hatty farms, and has its own cassava plantation for processing into fufu and other cassava products, such as fine cassava flour.
The farm consists mainly of a fermentation trough and the processing plant. According to Mr. Hellam, the troughs are used for fermenting cassava from the farm, before it is processed in the factory into various cassava product especially fufu flour and Garri.

Impact of Shonga farms on local farmers
To Abdulwahab Mohammed Sanni, the village head  (Alangua) of Kajabosi village of Asa Local Government Area (LGA) of  Kwara State and a member of the the Maize Farmers Association, the white farmers popularly dubbed ‘New Nigeria Farmers’, have  created  a neglect of small holder farmers in the state,  especially maize farming.
He said maize farmers have not gotten much attention and want the government to give them equal opportunity  by releasing loans  to them , to enable them extend their farms and improve production methods.
According to him, this will enable them make maize available to their people in large quantities, create good quality and produce the crop at low cost.
Isaac Oyedayo is a cassava farmer from Isin local government who is the Chairman of the Association of Farmers in Isin local government. He said the impact of Shonga farms on his environment is little and cassava production may suffer due to the diversion of government attention to cassava production in Shonga alone.
But he also expressed hope that the state government’s continuous sensitization of farmers  on new techniques of planting through joint lectures  may assist farmers.
He said they are equally expecting government to help them with funds, because as local farmers, they need money to extend their farms with equipment that will assist make more proceeds.
Other farmers and a few locals in the state, are of the view that the Shonga farms is a personal project of Dr Bukola Saraki, and not a state property. This is in spite of clear evidence of partnership between the state government, the white farmers and the banks.
Some of them said the governor is using state funds to support his personal project.  But Mr Ajisafe, a consultant with the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), said contrary to beliefs in some quarters that the governor owns the farms, it is not true .He said   the view arises from the misconception that, “If the governor is the Chief Executive Officer of the state, he is the number one person, so all what is in the state belongs to him.”
He said the farm has contributed immensely to the growth of farmers in the state “because what they are doing is an eye opener to our local farmers, and a challenge as they are using our local people to do whatever they are doing on the farms. This means that our local farmers can do better if they have the opportunity.
Our local farmers do not take interest in what is happening in Shonga. The white farmers welcome us. They showed interest in becoming part of us. All we need to do is to tap the opportunity that is available there”.
Mr Ajisafe also advised that “If subsidy comes, government should always think of the local farmer.”
Commissioner for Agricultural and Natural Resources in the state through the Commissioner of Agriculture, Engineer Mohammed Gana Yisa,  explained that the Shonga project is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) involving the banks, the state government and the white farmers and it is managed by the Shonga Holdings.
The Commissioner said five banks, Intercontinental, Guaranty Trust, Finbank, Platinum Habib Bank (Bank PHB) and Unity Bank are the participating banks, owning 45 percent shares of the farm. The farmers own 40 percent and the state government takes the remaining 15 percent share.
He said once the banks are able to get back money invested into the partnership, the farmers can largely own their farms.