‘We now produce rice thrice a year at Bakalori’
How is farming activity going on here?It has been very successful. We are enjoying tremendous support from the Project Manager, Alhaji Lawal Maidoki, who ensures that we always get enough water for our farms and is also always around to give us with technical advice. He assisted us to form all these farmers’ associations. He […]
How is farming activity going on here?
It has been very successful. We are enjoying tremendous support from the Project Manager, Alhaji Lawal Maidoki, who ensures that we always get enough water for our farms and is also always around to give us with technical advice. He assisted us to form all these farmers’ associations. He taught us different planting methods that we are using today and have been harvesting the desired results. Just this year, he introduced us to triple cropping where we harvest thrice a year.
There is no time for laziness now. He introduced us to triple cropping and we are ready to continue with it because it has increased our production and has kept us busy all year round. I am into multiple crop production. I pay more attention to rice and millet farming.
What can you tell us about wheat production in Bakalori?
We were into wheat production in the past. Long after we abandoned wheat farming, the authorities of the River Basin advised us to resume wheat production because the present administration is encouraging that. We were told that government will buy it if we harvest; that was last year. Most of us abandoned the crops we were producing and went into wheat production. We all diverted our little resources into wheat farming and luckily enough, we had a bumper harvest. However, we waited with our wheat for months but nobody came to buy. We went and gathered about 600 bags at the project office because we have nowhere to keep the grains in our houses. We are smallholder farmers. We must sell our crops before we could feed. Even the labourers that worked in our farms did so on credit and were asking for their money. Farmers started going to collect one or two bags from their consignment which they sold until the number reduced to about 200 bags. When at last officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture came several months after harvest to buy the wheat they asked us to produce for them, they got only about 250 bags left. They still asked us to produce for them this year, we complied. They still refused to come and buy. We still have wheat in stock waiting for them to come and buy. The wheat has started to go bad with whitish powder coming out of it. Who is losing? Of course, the farmers; you can see what we are passing through.
Hope that incident will not bring setback to wheat production here?
That is left for the individual farmers to decide. If government is really serious in encouraging wheat farming, there are so many things it will do to show seriousness before farmers could listen to them. First, government will have to provide wheat farmers with seeds and fertilizer and ensure that they come and buy immediately after harvest.
No farmer will agree to keep his wheat endlessly. When the agric minister visited us here in Bakalori he promised sending people to come and buy our wheat. He promised us tractors, fertilizer and other inputs. Our wheat is wasting away, nobody came to buy. We have not seen tractors or any input. I cannot say he has fulfilled his promises because I did not see anything. I cannot also say he has failed because I do not know what happened.
What is happening on rice production?
There was a man from the south-eastern part of the country that came here; he was the one that lied to us. He came and told us that he was sent by the federal government to tell us to produce more rice. We told him, do not allow this one to be another deceit. He said chairman, if what I told you is not true, when I return, catch me. Produce as much as you can, we are bringing bulk buyers that will buy from you at good price. Till date, we have not seen him and we have not seen any bulk buyer of our rice. He also assured that government will bring seeds and fertilizer for us. We have not seen anything till date.
He came through the project office, so they should know him. If government officials keep coming here to lie to us and make us to produce crops and refuse to come and buy as they promised only for us to record waste and sell below production cost, tell me how we shall believe them again. Is that how to enhance farming?
Apart from the two or three bags of fertile and seeds being distributed through GES, is there any support that rice farmers of Bakalori get from the federal government?
Even the two bags of fertilizer and the seeds you are talking about, I have not got it. I was told to buy recharge card and register for GES for myself and my family but nothing came to me till date. But there was large consignment of fertilizer brought by the federal government and distributed to farmers, I really got that one and almost every farmer got it. The state government used to give us fertilizer but we did not see anything this year. The state government used to sell its fertilizer at N1,000 per bag to us.
Do you know if Bakalori farmers have been able to access bank loans?
Yes, there is a bank in TalataMafara that gave some farmers loan recently. I got it also, but our secretary is the one that has all the details about the loan.
Chairman, did you get up to N10 million?
Wonderful, do I look like someone who has ever seen N2 million? Where will I keep N10 million and what will I do with it. It was N150,000 I collected.
What can that money do for you?
If you want to be successful, avoid money that does not belong to you and do not carry load that is beyond your power.
Before the promises made to you by the minister, how have you been selling your produce?
Let me tell you another round of deceit and lies again! We held different meetings with about five different companies each promising to come and buy large quantity of rice from us after harvest, but we did not see anyone after the harvest. They will go to the project office and tell us to invite about 500 farmers for them. They will tell the farmers to go and tell others to increase rice production that they are coming to buy all, but you will not see any of them. You will be wondering, why did they come to lie in the first place? The farmers are now fed up with those lies. When you invite them to such meeting, they will not attend again.
It is like government and the companies take delight in pushing us to invest a lot in production then leave us with our produce to sell below production cost. We do not have anywhere to keep our grains. If by mistake rain beats your grain that is all. Almost all the farmers rush to market with our grains to sell about the same time. We do not have silos anywhere around here to keep our grains. Moreover, no small holder farmer can keep his grain for even one month after harvest without selling. What will he eat and where will he see money to pay the labourers that helped him in harvesting, trashing and so on. In most cases we collect fertilizer and other inputs on credit from market.
Nigeria is still importing rice; do you think rice farmers can produce enough to feed this country?
It is a very easy task to accomplish. Let government provide us with enough fertilizer, seeds, insecticides, tractors and bank loans to pay for all those things. Let there be an office – be it government, company or bank – where we shall carry our goods to and sell instantly, within a year, government will be begging other countries to come and buy rice and wheat from us. One trailer contains 100 bags. Every Tuesday, which is our market day here in Mafara, at least 10 trailer loads of rice depart to other parts of the country. The land is there and we have enough water. Let them provide those things I listed.