Why Benue can’t produce sesame for foreign markets

Farmers in Benue State are yet to achieve best standards in the production and processing of sesame (beniseed) for foreign markets despite being ranked among the leading producers of the crop in Nigeria.  Our correspondent reports that in recent years, sesame farmers in the state are going into cultivation of alternative crops for reasons based […]

Farmers in Benue State are yet to achieve best standards in the production and processing of sesame (beniseed) for foreign markets despite being ranked among the leading producers of the crop in Nigeria.

 Our correspondent reports that in recent years, sesame farmers in the state are going into cultivation of alternative crops for reasons based on low yield, just as production has become low in communities affected by insecurity.

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 Although sesame seed is one of the 11 quick-win products selected by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) for intensive development and promotion to significantly boost the non-oil export volume and value, a lot still needs to be done by farmers to enable them boost production, as well as earn bigger income for their produce.

 For instance, Benue farmers are said to mix sand and other impurities into their sesame during production for commercial purposes instead of engaging in best practices that could earn the product a place at the international market, where the commodity is well sought after for value-added processing.

 The project manager of the Benue Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (BNARDA), Mrs Lucy Anongota, has accused farmers in the state of treating harvested sesame in a manner that would scare away foreign buyers, disclosing that they add sand to increase the quantity of their product.

 In an interview with our correspondent during the NEPC capacity building workshop for sesame seed producers, processors and marketers in Makurdi on Wednesday, Anongota said the need to successfully export sesame was why farmers and stakeholders were brought together.

 “It is what we are looking at in this workshop – telling them about good agricultural practises because our beniseeds are full of impurities. They don’t do it well. Some farmers add sand in order to increase the weight of the bag so that they would sell because they mostly do it on kilogramme basis. 

 “And when they (international marketers) see those impurities in our seeds, they throw us off. So we are trying to educate them on how their seeds can be clean. People go for it more than when there are impurities in it,” she said.

 Also, Charles Iordye, who is the chairman of the National Sesame Seed Farmers Association, Benue State chapter, corroborated the sand allegation, saying, “That story is true. That’s why we formed the association to check those activities. Every market, the group under our association carries out checks to detect those chaffs, sand mixed with sesame, in order to penalise offenders so that next time they would not do it. 

 “It is the farmers who directly bring such things to the market. We also have some marketers from far North who, when they come, overlook our activities and go straight to buy from farmers in the villages. Those ones are beyond our control.”

 On his part, the executive director/chief executive officer of the NEPC, Dr Ezra Yakusak, in his keynote address at the workshop, said it became imperative to train and retrain industry operators on global best practices for sesame production and processing in order to achieve the best standards for global markets.

 He stressed that the training was “in view of the great potentials of sesame seed in the international market and Benue State, being one of the leading producers in Nigeria.”

 Represented by the trade advisor/head of the NEPC Makurdi Export Assistance Office, Ben Anani, he further noted that the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would leave no stone unturned in a bid to achieving a vibrant and robust economy through the development of the non-oil sector.

 He added, “The workshop is intended to build their (stakeholders) capacity so that they would desist from sharp practices; and at least they could produce to standard requirements.

 “We don’t have trade data per state to determine the leading exporter of sesame, but we collate the total exports in Nigeria, then we compare our statistics with that of the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics and it will give us an average idea of the exporting.

 “Most of the people in Benue are primary producers. The middlemen and merchants come and buy from them, package it and export, so we don’t really have records to indicate the states with highest percentage. 

 “As at now, we in Benue should be the third highest leading exporters of sesame. Our destination is majorly Netherland and Turkey. Local sources – Benue, Nasarawa and Borno state – are leading in production.” 

 To this end, the chairman of Sesame Farmers Association in the state, Iordye emphasised on the need for government to acquire modern tools for farmers and tackle insecurity so that his members at various displaced persons camps could go back to their farms.

 “The first challenge is security because the activities of herders disturb us a lot and reduce our production. We hardly go to farm. Although cattle don’t eat sesame crop, when they trespass inside the farm, the plant stems are very fragile so they get broken and can’t produce any longer. Some are cut; and mass damage occurs. 

 “In the area of production, we lack machines, so we do manual labour. We also lack commercial background of fertiliser. We need off-takers that can give us some incentives or loans so that we can boost production. Due to inadequate rainfall we find it difficult to irrigate as we don’t have pumps. I can recall that in the days of our forefathers, sesame was farmed twice in a year. In modern times we can still do twice in a year if we are mechanised. 

 “We start in November or January to harvest in April/May, then another planted for May/June and then harvest July/August. It will be a continuous process. But now, we are planting once in a year. There are states planting twice or thrice in a year because they are mechanised. If mechanised, even irrigation won’t be a problem for us to easily plant in December/January because we live around the bank of River Benue. Also, lack of capital, mechanisation, among other things, prevents us from increasing production. We are majorly peasant farmers,” he maintained.

 He blamed the drift by sesame farmers to other crops to high cost of production, noting that chemicals are so expensive that the emergency ones to be used before planting cannot be affordable to some farmers. 

 Iordye said, “Sesame is not easy to weed; sometimes the plants are damaged in the cause of weeding, and production will reduce. We are handicapped in finance to purchase herbicides because of the aflatoxin that normally affects plants during flowering. We lack finance to buy chemicals; hence some people are shifting grounds. 

 “We are calling on state government and the NEPC that usually help us, as well as our off-takers, to come to our aid so that we can go into production fully. We have about 25,000 sesame farmers registered with our association in the state.

 “The export activities of sesame in the state are highly vested in the big marketers. We farmers rely solely on the market; when they buy, we hand up.

 “This workshop will benefit us a lot. We are being enlightened on how to use fertilizer, and what type we can use, as well as the type of soil that fits sesame seed most and the type of organic fertiliser we will use so that it will reach the international market without hitches.”

 Meanwhile, the project manager of the BNARDA, Anongota, expressed confidence that the available extension workers under her watch, alongside young farmers, would continue to help sesame farmers access newer technology. They were also armed with relevant information to better their activities.

 “The problem most farmers are having now is that local government areas producing beniseed are in crisis. The people are no more there. For example, Guma and Gwer West where you would find most of the beniseed farmers are not accessible. 

 “Most of the farmers are leaving the places; that’s why production is becoming low. We appeal to the government to step up efforts so that our farmers will go back to their various homes and practise what they used to know. They know about the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP). 

“In those days, we had signposts everywhere. Even the cassava they are now talking about, before 2019 we were the people pushing it to them. If you could not do one you go to another. But beniseed is very important; we export it easily,” Anongota concluded.