Why we record poor crops yield, by farmers

Closely related to this is the fact that the nation’s aging farmers are lamenting going into the farming business while the young ones are relocating to urban areas in search of jobs.Farmers who spoke to Daily Trust cited lack of access to loans, high breed seed, fertiliser and other inputs, mechanisation, warehousing/silos, ineffective and functional […]

Closely related to this is the fact that the nation’s aging farmers are lamenting going into the farming business while the young ones are relocating to urban areas in search of jobs.
Farmers who spoke to Daily Trust cited lack of access to loans, high breed seed, fertiliser and other inputs, mechanisation, warehousing/silos, ineffective and functional farmers cooperative societies, markets for commodities, functional value chain and grains and vegetables processing industries for their produce as some of the reasons pushing them out of agriculture.
Rice farmers in Nigeria say, for example, that they are producing at a loss because of low yield and lack of international market, adding that majority of them are contemplating embarking on the cultivation of other crops with less production cost and process in order to maximise their profit.
One of the rice farmers at Suru, Kebbi State, Deputy Superintendent of Immigration Bala Musa Koko (rtd), said the federal government is not doing what it ought to do to encourage rice farming and marketing in the country, adding: Federal government’s policy on rice production does not favour smallholder farmers.
“Rice is the major food and cash crop that this country produces. But rather than the federal government listing rice among its transformation crops that will enjoy special funding by government, less important crops like cassava and guinea corn were listed instead. Part of our problems as rice farmers is lack of high breed rice seed and fertiliser for our production.
“It may interest you to note that rice farmers in Nigeria, using the so-called certified seed the federal government is giving to farmers through the GES programme, can only get 2 to 3.2 tonnes of rice from a hectare. But foreign farmers cultivating rice in Nigeria like Olam, the Zimbabwen farmers of Kwara State and that American farmer in Taraba State are getting up to 6.8 tonnes of rice from a hectare.
“Why should there be such wide difference? Definitely we are using the same soil and water. The difference must be from the seeds. While we rely on the poor seed developed by our research institute, the foreign farmers import high breed seeds that have high resolution. Government should adequately fund the research institutes so that they can develop world class high breed seeds for us.”
Alhaji Isa Faru, a rice farmer at Bakalori irrigation area of Zamfara State, said the federal government does not have a policy of empowering rice farmers that is why rice production is not attractive, adding: “the rice mills that the federal government said they are buying should have been installed and handed over to the farmers associations to operate.
“You can see that we do not have tractors here. We are still using improvised trashing machines to trash our rice. Because the trashing machines are sub-standard, they mix up the rice with a lot of sand. There is no functional value chain where the farmer has a ready market for his crop. Yes, we have buyers that come around at will to buy at a price they want. That is not how it should be.
“We expect the federal government to link us up with banks that will give us loans to buy tractors and other inputs. Such banks and the federal government should as well link us with international buyers that will bring high grade seeds of the type of rice they want so that we can produce for them. That way, the farmer will be empowered to also be an employer of labour.”  
Malam Musa Tsafe, a rice merchant at Bakalori irrigation area, said: “We do not also have mill in the area. We mill our rice locally by cooking the rice in pots. Majority of the rice is sold as unpeeled which does not fetch good money. Another problem is the issue of transporting the grains. Most of the farms areas are not motorable. We transport rice from some farms to the nearby villages with camels. That is additional expenditure.”
President of Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU) consisting of 12 countries, Dr Theo de Jager who attributed failure of Nigerian farmers to maximize yield from their farms to inability of the farmers to use modern system of mechanization and inability to access bank loans and hybrid seeds, added, “I all I can produce from my farm is just 10 tonnes per hectare, I will be bankrupt.”
Tomato farmers at the major tomatoes producing area of the country, Kadawa irrigation scheme in Kano State, say that for several years they have been encountering tomato waste during glut because of lack of tomato company to buy their product or tomato preservation equipment to preserve excess tomatoes.
One of the major tomato farmers in the area, Alhaji Ali Kura, said they have made several presentations to the federal government to assist them by finding solutions to tomato waste they encounter every season, but no action has so far been taken.
Kura said: “I was at Senegal recently where I saw how tomato farmers are living big through the effective tomato value chain they have there. Banks and other financial houses will come around and give you loan to plant your tomatoes. After harvest, the farmers will supply their produce to tomato factories that will weigh and later pay them through their bank accounts at the financing banks.
“The same value chain can be introduced in Nigeria. If the tomato factory say they have a particular type of tomatoes they want us to supply them, let them supply us with the seed and we shall cultivate it. The waste is really becoming unbearable and something should be done soon before people start losing interest in farming.”
A tomatoes farmer in Nairobi, Kenya, Mongo Thomos, told this reporter that Nigerian tomato farmers should adopt the use of ‘high breed’ tomato seed, instead of the traditional ‘OP’ seeds, because the produce lasts longer.
“We were planting OP seeds in the past but because it has a lot of seeds and water in it, it doesn’t last for more than two days before it starts getting rotten. A pack of OP has 1,000 seeds while the high breed has only 100 seeds in a pack. But the product of the 100 high breed seeds is always far more than the OP.
“I am currently producing 53 tonnes of tomatoes per hectare which I know is very low. You heard at a paper presented yesterday at the ongoing conference here in Nairobi by Chinese tomato farmers association that they have succeeded in increasing their tomato yield from 30 tonnes per hectare to 187 tonnes per hectare and they are still aiming higher. That is what I am aspiring to achieve.
“We are certainly doing that with the support of the government of Kenya. Most crops in this country have Development Fund that provide farmers with soft loans, link us up with international markets and the source of getting the best seeds in the world. Unless that is done, no farmer will reap the best yield from his farm.”
But chairman of tomato farmers in Kano State, Alhaji Muazu Datti Uba, said about 65 percent of the total tomatoes produced under the Kadawa irrigation project get rotten and waste away without being sold, adding: “We have tried the high breed tomato seed solution but it could not solve our problems.
“When we plant the traditional OP seed that everyone is aware of, we harvest 15 to 25 tonnes from a hectare. A member of the House of Representatives representing our area, Hon. Muktar Chiromawa, brought the high breed seed and distributed to us. We harvested 60 to 70 tonnes from a hectare.
“Though the produce from the OP takes about 2 days before it rots, the produce from the high breed seeds last long, say 3 to 4 four days. But what we noticed is that the high breed could have last longer if not for the way we pack tomatoes in the basket. Packaging is another problem. Rather than use the local baskets, we requested the federal government to assist by providing plastic crates for tomatoes but they are yet to respond.”
Commenting on the problem of subsistent farming in Africa, Mr Millison Narh, Chairman of African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (AFRACA) and Deputy Governor, Bank of Ghana, said Africa is blessed with 700 million hectares of arable land, sufficient water for farming and excellent climate but only 4 percent of the population in Africa has a bank account while only one percent of Africans have loan or credit facility with a formal financial institution.
He wondered how agricultural production will progress in the continent when most people in Africa lack access to financial service just as most commercial banks in Africa lack interest in serving the rural communities due to their low income level or infrastructure.
Currently, 90 percent of the finance that goes into agriculture comes from the farmers themselves.
But Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture Dr Akinwumi Adesina said the federal government has set up the largest ever risk sharing facility to leverage domestic financing to agricultural value chain in Africa called the Nigerian Risk Sharing facility for Agricultural Lending (NARSEL).
He said it is a $350 million risk sharing facility designed to leverage $3.5 billion of lending from commercial banks into agricultural value chain, adding NARSEL was designed to also address structural issues within banks in particular, to ensure that it has internal capacity to properly assess the risk in lending.
He said the share of total bank lending went to 5% by 2013, increased to 7.5% by this year and is expected to hit 10% by 2015, adding: “Our banks are moving massively into agriculture. In fact, in Nigeria today, I do not run after banks, bankers run after us in the agricultural sector. It is important to lower the perceived risks of lending to agriculture by banks.”
National President of the apex farmers association in Nigeria, the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Architect Kabiru Ibrahim, said NIRSAL is not targeting smallholder farmers because smallholder farmers have not benefitted from any loan leveraged by NARSEL.
He lamented that government has neglected commercial farmers who are key to real improvement in agriculture and economic development.
“It is in commercial agriculture that you can create employment and wealth, not for somebody who will farm what they will eat. That should not be government’s target. Like the GES, yes is targeting a smallholder farmer, which is ok, if it is working.
“The Nigerian farmer, just like every Nigerian, is finding a lot of difficulties in raising finance. If you do not have the requisite collaterals and you do not have market, if you borrow money how do you pay back? No matter the amount of money you give to people, if they produce and there is nobody to buy the farm produces because nobody has money, what do we do?