‘Millet remains our staple food’
As a major millet farmer, don’t you think millet production is fading away?That is a good observation. But let me assure you that millet will forever remain one of the staple foods in this part of the country, especially in Sokoto State. You know we take fura a lot and the best fura is the […]
As a major millet farmer, don’t you think millet production is fading away?
That is a good observation. But let me assure you that millet will forever remain one of the staple foods in this part of the country, especially in Sokoto State. You know we take fura a lot and the best fura is the one made of millet. There is no household today in Sokoto State that does not have fura in their menu. So long as we take fura, millet will remain a staple food here. Fura is not even the only food we make out of millet. We also make masa (cake), kunu, tuwo and many more things. That is why we produce it a lot in this part of the country.
It seems millet has more than one variety, how do you source for the seeds?
Yes, there is variety of millet seeds like Zango and Sosat that our farmers are used to that we inherited from our forefathers. But we also have improved variety of millet seeds with long and short durations. The millet seeds with short duration are usually planted when there is likely to be shortage of rainfall. Millet farmers are trained on how to differentiate between seeds and crop. The farmers are taught how to plant and produce crop different from planting to multiply seeds. Millet seeds are more expensive than the millet itself. When a bag of millet is N5, 000 in the market, a bag of millet seed cost about N8, 000.
Farmers in Sokoto State are complaining of lack of access to agric loan even as NIRSEL is claiming to have leverage agric loans for farmers running into billions of dollars. As a former commissioner for agriculture in the state, what is the true story?
The fact of the matter is that the federal government is actually trying and as you rightly pointed out, NIRSEL doesn’t give out loans but it leverages for farmers to easily access the loan. But I have not seen or heard that anyone has ever accessed such loan from Sokoto State. I do not know why it is so. I have personally applied for such loans and leveraged by NIRSEL thrice but I did not get it. You will fill forms, fulfill all the requirements but nothing will come out of it. I did that more than three times. We held a meeting of North-west cotton farmers where we applied but could not get the loan. We held a meeting with NIRSEL officials, thinking we would get it but nothing still. I have not seen one single person from Sokoto State that got agric loan leveraged by NIRSEL.
Sokoto State Government claims to have assisted farmers in different ways, has that boosted agriculture?
Yes, the state government has been making a lot of noise that it has bought fertilisers and distributed to farmers in the state. It is true fertiliser was bought and distributed to farmers, but it was a situation where a farmer that requires 10 bags for his farm was only given half-a-bag or they will give one bag to 5 farmers to go and share. Most of the beneficiaries are not farmers. Government should devise a means of making sure that politicians and business people do not hijack the fertiliser meant for smallholder farmers.
AFAN Chairman in the state said the procedure adopted by the state government in sharing fertiliser and other inputs is transparent. Why are you not satisfied?
He only said so because he is in support of the government. Take for example, I was a commissioner for agriculture in this state, but since I left office I could not get any allocation of fertilizer, even when everybody knows I am a farmer. They should not wait till I beg for fertiliser. I expect them to say take, at least, one tonne and pay for it since we know you are a farmer. I am not asking them to give me free. There is politics in the way they are sharing the fertiliser in the state. There are some people that are not farmers but they will give them a trailer load to go and sell and you say there is no politics in that.
What is your advice on how to enhance agriculture in the state?
I have a lot to advice this government on. Government is supposed to be for the people. Politics should not be brought into agricultural matters. If there is anything that is supposed to be for the people, it should be shared, irrespective of one’s political affiliation. A friend told me that in Gombe State, fertiliser is distributed to real farmers. Nobody cares about which political party you belong to, that is how it should be done.
How do you sell your millet after harvest?
I cultivate assorted millet and millet seed. I supply Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, with about 500 bags of seeds. I also produce and sell seeds and crops to suppliers in the open markets.