‘Tractors allocated to Bauchi state by FG for hire have been shared by government officials’

What are you cultivating?I am into cassava, assorted vegetables, rice, maize and millet, during wet and dry season production. I am also a registered agro dealer that distributes fertiliser and seeds to farmers under the GES regime. During dry season I distribute groundnut seeds, fertiliser and insecticides. During wet season I distribute to all crop […]

What are you cultivating?
I am into cassava, assorted vegetables, rice, maize and millet, during wet and dry season production. I am also a registered agro dealer that distributes fertiliser and seeds to farmers under the GES regime. During dry season I distribute groundnut seeds, fertiliser and insecticides. During wet season I distribute to all crop farmers under the GES.
I can see that there is large scale irrigation farming going on here, what is motivating the people?
Frankly speaking, there is nowhere in Bauchi State where irrigation farming is done as much as in Jama’are. Almost every household is involved in irrigation. Our irrigation production is increasing every year because we do not have problem selling our farm produce.
What did the farmers in Jama’are have under the Fadama project?
Under Fadama 1 project, we got water pumping machines and tube well dug for us on loan and we have repaid the loan. During Fadama 2, the farmer will be asked to pay for 50 percent of his agricultural requirement while the project provides the remaining 50 percent. For example, they can dig a wash hand borehole for you and provide you with water pumping machine and the farmer will pay only 50 percent of the total cost. Fadama 2 was giving out money to the farmers associations to go and buy the water pumps to come and distribute to farmers in the area. That also assisted us.
Are there factories that buy your farm produce or you are only selling to local traders?
I am not aware of any company coming here to buy any farm produce from our farmers. The bulk buyers of our grains are traders coming from the southern part of this country. The problem is that they are buying the produce at give-away prices because we have no better alternative. There are no industries around here that can buy and use our produce as raw materials. In the absence of such industries, the government could help link us up with bulk buyers. Lack of bulk buyers of farm produce is slowing down our ability to cultivate massively. We cannot devote our energy and resources to produce crops and vegetables that we cannot sell. No farmer wants see his farm produce wasted.
In most East and Southern African countries, farmers associations like the one you are heading have link to foreign buyers of their produce. Some have industries that process their produce, why is your group not thinking that way?
We have started something like that here in Bauchi State. Our Fadama farmers association has devised a means of value addition to our crops. Though on a small scale, we are currently processing, packaging and marketing all the crops we are producing in the country through our assorted cottage industries located all over the state. When rice farmers produce rice, for example, it will be processed and packaged in the processing factory in Dass and be taken to the Fadama produce market at BSADP along Yelwa Road in Bauchi where it is marketed. The same way wheat, cassava, maize, accha, beni-seeds, soybeans, potatoes, fish, honey, moringa and every farm produce that we are producing is being processed, packaged and sold there. We have our cattle insemination unit at a village near Alkaleri. We have several fish ponds at Gubi Dam that is supplying fish to our ‘point and kill’ stands. We have poultry farms and an advanced chicken slaughter at Muda Lawan Market in Bauchi.
Despite all what you said about the produce market, why is the market not known?
You are right. We shall get across to the state and local government councils to assist us in the area of publicity as that will even attract more customers for us.
As an agro-dealer in the state, how do you source for the fertiliser and seeds that you give to farmers under the GES programme?
As an IFDC trained agro-dealer, I source for my inputs through the approved source. Even before I was appointed agro-dealer, as a businessman, I was buying and selling fertiliser, seeds and veterinary drugs and even feeds. If you see any agro-dealer giving farmers’ sub-standard fertiliser and seeds, it is the fault of the dealer. Every dealer is trained to know and differentiate between good and bad seeds and fertiliser. If a supplir brings seeds that you are not sure of the quality, notify the appropriate authority. Don’t  collect substandard input and supply to farmers.
When I visited Hadejia in Jigawa and Gadau here in Bauchi where farmers were redeeming their fertiliser and seed allocation, so many middlemen were seen hawking bulk consignments. Why is it so?
I cannot speak for other agro-dealers because there are bad ones. There is a ‘help line officer’ at every redemption centre. He will verify the farmer 100 metres away. After verification, the farmer will walk up to the dealer, pay his money, and collect his receipt and supply and go. Nobody will supply a dealer 1,000 bags of fertiliser unless there are 500 farmers to redeem their allocation there. That is one NPK and a bag of Urea for wet season farming. For irrigation farming, rice farmers get two bags of NPK and a bag of Urea. There are seeds that go with chemical. If your seed allocation is the type with chemical, we give you with chemical. If yours has no chemical, that is all. If you see middlemen around, it means they are selling the inputs through the back door. Every dealer is allocated civil defense personnel to help maintain security. In Bauchi State you have Spider Webs in addition. At Dogon Jeji redemption centre where I am the agro-dealer, we do not have such incidences. In my centre, once your name is on the list and your traditional ruler can testify that you are the person on my list but you could not get alert, I will attend to you.
Government is desirous of making agriculture a business. Do you think we are on the right path?
Yes, I think we are on the right path in Bauchi State, through the value chain that I explained to you earlier. But that does not mean we do not have our problems. Though we have never had any locust or birds’ invasion on our farms, government has not also carried out any aerial spray here. We have birds that attack our farms here but they are not much. You can count them in every farm. That is why you see people using the tape in radio cassettes to tie across the farm to scare them away.
Is the Hadejia/Jama’are River providing you with enough water for irrigation?
We do not benefit from anything. Jama’are is not benefiting from anything from Hadejia/Jama’are River Basin Development Authority. In those days, they were rearing cattle here but suddenly they auctioned the cows and SETRACO is now occupying the place. The only luck we have here is that the water is not too far into the ground. You just dig a little and you get water. Any farmer in this area that wants a tractor to tilt his farm must go to Jigawa State and arrange to hire a tractor to come here, tilt the farm and go back. Neither Hadejia/Jama’are River Basin Development Authority nor Bauchi State Government decides to allocate even one tractor to Jama’are even though this is the hub of irrigation farming in the state.
The federal government has introduced tractor hiring programme and allocated tractors to states including Bauchi…..
(Cuts in) I do not want to call names, but I know that the ones allocated to the state were distributed among top officials of the state government. Not a single one is allocated to Jama’are. We applied as individual farmers and as a group but we could not get any.