The lost glory of ginger in Southern Kaduna

They are angry not because of their inability to farm the spicy rhizome plant for export, but on account of the collapse of ginger processing companies,  which now  makes its farming unattractive. Ginger was a major export up till the onset of the petroleum boom in the mid 1960s. Nigeria was said to be producing […]

They are angry not because of their inability to farm the spicy rhizome plant for export, but on account of the collapse of ginger processing companies,  which now  makes its farming unattractive.
Ginger was a major export up till the onset of the petroleum boom in the mid 1960s. Nigeria was said to be producing the most needed and most attractive ginger, as a result of the product coming out from the Southern Part of Kaduna State.
Since the closure of the Kachia ginger company, an industry the Kaduna State government said it would resuscitate, and the partial production of Belphins Nigeria limited, a company owned by Gen. Yunana  Nom (rtd), ginger farming and exportation have declined in Kaduna.
A ginger company located in Aduwan, Madakiya-Kafanchan road, Belphins was said to have boosted ginger farming, since farmers get their product sold in an easy market. But today, ginger farming has become a lost glory.    
The owner of Belphins Nigeria limited, Yunana Nom, when contacted to comment on the issue, attributed the low production of ginger in Southern Kaduna to market fluctuations .
He said, “When there is  a flood, it affects ginger farming, but also make the price  of ginger attractive in some places. Once the prices are attractive, farmers will produce plenty the next season ,and at the end of the cultivation, the price crashes  again.”
Nom said the economic atmosphere in the country also makes ginger not to have a steady market , adding that his company is producing despite the challenges.
Investigations in Kachia, Zangon Kataf, Jama’a, Jaba,  Kagarko, Sanga and Kaura Local governments ,where  ginger was produced  in large quantities, shows that the production has declined drastically.
Checks in some ginger market in communities like; Zonkwa, Madakiya, Kafanchan, Abet-Gidan-Maga, Kagoro, Kachia and Kwoi, reveals that only few local business men and women,  now have stores for the product because of devaluation in prices.

Local farmers in communities where ginger was harvested  in large quantities in the past, are now begging  the Government, especially Kaduna State government, to embark on an agricultural revolution to boost the economy of the country ,instead of depending on crude oil.
Timothy Auta, a local Ginger buyer, said ginger farming, when encouraged would be capable of providing self employment to many youths,  as it was from 1960s to 1990s. Auta wondered why the Kaduna State Government neglected the Kachia ginger Company and the Ikara Tomatoes processing mill. He said the closure of such industries posed a huge security risk, since more youths are out of work.
Auta said with steady power supply and favourable policies, the ginger processing factory established by retired General Yunana Nom ,can give people of the area hope to farm the crop  in larger quantities .
Alhaji Sadiq Shefiu Tahir, Chief executive of S.S.T. Commodity Broadcast, a ginger dealer in Kafanchan, said the experience of ginger farmers is sad, but called  on Government to come to their aid ,so that they will fully move into ginger commercial farming, processing and packaging ,to meet the standard of the international market.  
“If Government can revolutionize the farming of cash crops, especially ginger through direct loan assistance, production of large quantities  of organic fertilizer, training on farming techniques and procurement of processing, drying and packaging machines, the country will be a better place,” said Mr. Baji Guga National president, Ginger farmers association of Nigeria in Kafanchan.
Philip Gwada and Major Kore Kezi, Chairman of ginger farmers Association, Jaba and Jema’a Local Government Chapters, in separate interviews, said Nigeria will,  in no distant  future, recover from its economic malaise, if cash crops like ginger are given due consideration by relevant government.

Lamenting the exploitation of ginger farmers by activities of middlemen, and subtle moves by some organizations to displace genuine ginger farmers, the association leaders wondered why the Kaduna State Government has  refused to make concerted efforts to boost ginger farming to stabilize the economy.
“There is a great demand for ginger, and southern Kaduna produces the best ginger in the world. The challenge we have today is insecurity,  and the closure of some ginger companies in our area. Other challenges facing ginger production in the country also include poor researches, lack of organic fertilizer, loan facilities, modern farming implements, direct link with  international buyers and exploitation of farmers by middle-men, who are reaping big at the expense of the local farmers,” Secretary, ginger farmers association in Jaba local government of Kaduna state, James  Kogi said.
He disclosed that ginger farmers in Southern Kaduna require processing, drying and packaging machines to meet the international standard. “What causes decline in ginger farming and exportation is the crises that rocked parts of Northern Nigeria. Countries that demand for ginger in higher quantities no longer come, but if peace returns, more buyers would return to Nigeria for the commodity, because they need it badly,” Kogi said.
 A farmer, Jonathan Kwasu, said ginger has functioned like petroleum since the 1980s-1990s, when a bag was sold at N17,000 as against N3,000 today.
Jonathan Kwasu who is also the village head of Boro in Zangon Kataf local government of Kaduna state,  said insecurity and the  closure of the ginger company in Kachia, is what is affecting farmers.
“We also have to buy fertilizer at a very expensive price. Even when the Kachia ginger factory closed, there were people coming from Maiduguri, Adamawa, Niger Republic, Benin, Togo, and even from  far away India and Asia. But the problem of security suddenly turned things upside down. They no longer come to buy our ginger crop. Our ginger was adjudged the best in the world, but no one comes  here again to buy. We are just farming the crop,  because we are used to farming it,” he said.

During Governor Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi’s first tenure as governor of Kaduna state, Yakubu Umaru Barde, the then state Commissioner for Commerce, Industries and Tourism, told journalists on a national media tour to the company, that the state government has entered into a contract agreement with technical partners in Europe, who have a ready market for ginger.
Barde said at that time that other facilities provided by the state government for the smooth operation of the company, included the purchase of trucks and vehicles at N3.4 million, and the bulk purchase of spare parts which would last for two years, at N6 million.
 It was gathered that as at 2000, the factory produces 80 tonnes of oleoresin, four tonnes of oil and 100 tonnes of powder, annually. Fourteen years after, some industrialists kept asking why the company which was positioned to become a major foreign exchange earner for Kaduna State and Nigeria, could not survive. Some blame successive governments for the collapse of the Kachia ginger company that rendered  over 30,000 people jobless.
Speaking in Kafanchan at a programme organized by the National Youth Wing of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) the Kaduna State Governor’s Chief of Staff, Yahaya Aminu,  said they would resuscitate the Kachia Ginger Processing Company to return about 30,000 people back to work. Five months after his assertion, the company still remains  closed.