Ofada rice farmers get bumper harvest

Daily Trust findings revealed that the rice bumper harvest at Ise was as a result of interventions by Lagos State Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP), a World Bank assisted project in five states guaranteed by the federal government, with counterpart funding provided by each of the participating state governments, including Lagos.In an interview with the […]

Daily Trust findings revealed that the rice bumper harvest at Ise was as a result of interventions by Lagos State Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP), a World Bank assisted project in five states guaranteed by the federal government, with counterpart funding provided by each of the participating state governments, including Lagos.
In an interview with the Lagos CADP coordinator, Mr. Kehinde Ogunyinka,  he maintained that the bumper rice harvest at Ise village is as a result of the World Bank assisted project, which was extended to farmers in Ise with new technologies and inputs.
According to him, the inputs include chain-saw, in-land clearing and outboard engines to power their boats and enable the farmers get to the islands where majority of them have their rice farms. He added that CADP provided the farmers with improved seeds, fertilisers and agro-chemicals which aided improved yields.
“As a result of CADP intervention, some of the farmers who previously planted one or two hectares averagely, now plant three to four hectares or more”, he said.
Speaking further, Ogunyinka stated, “Other intervention was made to improve socio-economic life of the rice farmers by the government. A road was constructed that leads to the community when it was discovered that lack of road was a major hindrance to patronage of the rice being produced in the village and its surroundings.
“The 3.5 km road put in place for them has brought increase in patronage as buyers can now easily access the community. With the construction of the road, a good number of farmers who abandoned farming and moved to the metropolis have returned to farming. All these have boosted the farmer’s morale and it is better for the state.”
Afolabi Bamidele Victor, the CADP Agric Productivity and Advisory Services Officer, corroborated Ogunyinka’s claim that Ise is a major rice producing area in Lagos state, but experienced some challenges that affected production of rice in the past but with intervention by CADP, majority of the challenges are over.
The president of Rice Farmers in the community, Mr. Tunde Kareem, while speaking with our reporter, expressed happiness with the level rice production has attained within a short time after intervention by CADP. He explained that the intervention has enabled him increase his own cultivation to five hectares from his previous two hectares.
Kareem said one major challenge of lack of accessible road, which hindered sales of their produce in the past has been taken care of by the government, saying, “before now, rice farmers in Ise had to transport their produce to Aiyetoro market in Epe for sale. This usually affects pricing of our produce and our rice is often under-priced and we have to sell it at give away prices because we don’t have choice.”
Giving an insight into the programme, Kareem said that the farmers in the area started preparation of the land in April, harvested within three to four months to coincide with August break in rainfall pattern. “Women and the youths do the harvesting for rice farmers here and they will take whatever they harvest to the farmer’s store in the village. The final produce is divided into four parts and the labourers will take one part as payment for their labour while the farmers take the remaining three parts. After this, the rice will be dried and threshed before selling,” he emphasized.
The farmers’ leader also said the training given to the farmers by CADP on accounting has helped them greatly in ensuring proper account of their activities. He explained that before now, none of the rice farmers bothered about accounting but with the training by CADP, they now know how to determine their profitability.
According to him, the rice farmers sell a 50kg of milled Ofada rice for N14,000. “We used to be forced to sell it for N10, 000 in the past due to numerous challenges before us. Even at that, we learnt that the 50kg is sold for N18, 000 by marketers. Before the intervention by CADP, some of us get paid for rice by marketers and the payment is what the farmer will use for the farming operations. In return, the farmer is forced to hand over the rice to the marketer at very low price but now, we are doing better in terms of production and sales because of the intervention and more people are going into farming,” he said.