‘Why smallholder farmers must be guided’
In this interview, Maryam Abdulmalik, the chief executive officer of the Kano- based Green Growth International Limited, spoke on her quest to boost the productivity of smallholder farmers across the northern states. You have been involved in the agricultural industry for a while. You currently lead an agricultural organisation. Could you explain the organisation’s […]
In this interview, Maryam Abdulmalik, the chief executive officer of the Kano- based Green Growth International Limited, spoke on her quest to boost the productivity of smallholder farmers across the northern states.
You have been involved in the agricultural industry for a while. You currently lead an agricultural organisation. Could you explain the organisation’s agricultural activities?
At Green Growth International Ltd, our primary focus is joining smallholder farmers, strengthening their capacity to build adaptation strategies and mitigation and enhancing their productivity in terms of yield from the farm in such a way that it builds their overall income and improves their standard of living. So climate-smart has ripple effects for the smallholder farmer.
Conventional farming is good, but it uses and emphasises that we apply fertilisers that are made from chemicals; and the world is moving away from that.
We want to push for the use of organic fertilisers and also improve seedlings that give bumper harvest for the smallholder farmer because, for most of them, that is their primary occupation: farming in rural and semi-urban areas.
We can invest in their knowledge and capacity to enhance their ability to produce more. When they produce more, it means they will earn more for themselves and their families, and the quality of life will improve.
At the same time, Green Growth, through these trainings, also links them to markets, off-takers – people who are ready to buy at a good market price. We also help to provide access to microfinance institutions (MFIs) that are closest to them. So you don’t need to leave, say, a local government in Kano to come to town.
We partner with the institutions that are closest to them so that they can access capital for their production. We also look at organising them into groups of cooperatives because it is easier to deal with the farmers that way instead of a one-on-one approach.
Once there is leadership and it is registered by their states – ADPs – it is now easy to link the states into the projects, as well as extension service providers who will also be monitoring what they are doing in the field. It is not just enough to train them, extension service providers have to work hand-in-hand with them to monitor the whole season of the crop: from land preparation to transplanting, applying water, weeding up to harvesting. In that process we are also looking at mitigating post-harvest losses at the point of harvest.
One of the reasons they face such losses is because they don’t have access to the mechanical tools they will use
Which states are you working on and how many farmers do you currently work with?
We have over 10,000 farmers in our database, and they are in Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba and Bauchi states. We have not gone round the country because it involves funding. The work we have done is mostly in six states: three in the North-West, two in the North-Central and Taraba in the North-East.
Does it involve any financial commitment on the part of the farmers?
It does not involve any financial cost on the part of the farmers; instead, what we are looking for is funding from development partners, government agencies, if they can also help with funds. It is costly to train farmers, and once you train them you also want to equip them with organic fertiliser and seedlings so that they can try out what you have taught them. And these things are not cheap.
Our target is men, women and people with disabilities. The company thrives on social inclusion for everybody, so everybody has to be involved. For the women, we have plans to give them what we give their male farmers, that is, the seeds and the manure and add for them green cooking stoves (this one uses less firewood, charcoal or even small sticks).
All our trainings are environmentally conscious and climate-friendly. As we are doing it, we are trying our best to avoid any disruption in the environment. So, even as we push for women to get some of these things, we are hoping that we would get the funding from government quarters to help us drive the plans because it is capital intensive.
Have you made any deliberate attempt to carry state governments along in some of these things?
Yes. My technical team in Kano is putting up these ideas together, so once we get their buy-ins as well, especially if we get this one from the federal government, we will involve the states because the project will cover at least six states. The governors will come in and then the state ADPs and agricultural development agencies will execute hand-in-hand with them. We can’t be there but our trainers will be there doing the training of trainers on the field and in the classroom.
Once we get that sorted we lease the land we can use to demonstrate because there has to be demonstration plots, like pilot plots for them to see that this new way of climate-smart agriculture is better than the conventional way. You can’t say it by mouth, it must be proven for them to really believe.
What are some of the unique challenges you have identified and how are you dealing with them to see that the farmers now have a new culture that is more sustainable and climate-smart?
One of the first challenges we have encountered with smallholder farmers is their perception. It is difficult to ask them to change from the ways they are already familiar with, but with time, once you come and tell them that this system works better, you have to give them a chance to accept what you are bringing to the table. That’s why the demonstration is important. If you come and tell them by mouth or teach them on paper, it won’t fly. For me, even if I am not a smallholder farmer, if you are bringing a new technology for me to adopt, it means I have to be convinced in reality that the system works better. So, once you are able to adopt that for them and they see it, they will willingly go with it. And you know it takes time for them to accept. The second one that affects farmers is lack of access, which can be anything, including land and capacity.
Another important aspect that is not related to access is climate variation. For example, rain can fall this year but not next year. So they might have done everything right but there’s that natural phenomenon that you can’t really tell – that one is in the hands of God.
Do you have any specific advice for the government, donor agencies and the farmers?
For the government, the President Ahmed Bola Tinubu administration is already doing a whole lot in agriculture. Just recently, some agricultural hubs that will help agripreneurs were opened in southern states. The hubs alone are going to create lots of job in that region. And I believe that other agripreneurs would tap into that opportunity. We hope to see a replication in other zones of the country because it is a revolution. Once the government can place this kind of centre strategically, it would decongest one area and provide more opportunities for everybody. So the government is doing much in agriculture but they can do more: provide infrastructure, roads because even after harvesting, you need good roads to move things from the farm to the market.
I don’t want the farmers to give up yet. When you talk to a typical farmer, he says, “We are not getting assistance, the government forgot us.” But it is not like that; it is all about just improving on what you already have, partnering and networking. Some of them don’t ask questions. You may have a funding opportunity close to you but you are not aware because you didn’t ask. That is why I suggest handling farmers in groups; it is easier.