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| Rice Farmers in Plateau |
FADAMA III: CHANGING
THE STORY OF PLATEAU FARMERS
Agriculture
is said to be the engine that stimulates economic process when it comes to nation development. It is said to be
nature’s food circle and also the re-channeling of energy for human and animal
consumption. In other words, agriculture involves redirecting the natural flow
of the organic phenomenon. It is probably for these reasons that the Federal
government signed a loan agreement with the World Bank and developed the Fadama
III project which is said to have impacted meaningfully in the lives of farmers
in Plateau state.
By Joseph A. Adudu
According
to observers, the gospel of economic salvation cannot be preached without
reference to agricultural development. Agriculture remains the major and most
crucial path to financial progress and prosperity because it is the mainstay of
mankind. Thus, wise countries all over the world make it a priority by
developing and exploiting this sector for the maintenance of their abundant
populations through the earning of revenue for development purposes.
It
is obvious that the importance of agriculture cannot be over-emphasized
particularly in Nigeria, especially with the financial condition the country
has faced and is still facing. We were warned against this by the academic Pat
Utomi in 2003. Now we cannot escape by simply relying on oil and gas. Pundits
observed that we cannot pretend and neglect the importance of agriculture in
the economic progress of our nation.
World
Bank (2003) data shows that more than 70 per cent of Nigerians live below the
poverty level (which is less than a dollar) per day. This implies that there
has been an astronomical decline in the levels of financial condition of
Nigerians from independence till date. This has happened despite the fact that
Nigeria is endowed with a large array of agricultural potentials, from types of
crops to varieties of animals and plants and natural resources.
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| Chief Gideon Dadam. Plateau state Coordinator FadamaIII |
Over
the years, Nigeria has suffered shortages in staples such as corn, millet,
cassava, etc. prompting large parts of the country heading back to those days
of famine. It is probably in realization of this danger that the Fadama III
project was introduced. Fadama III, according to the Plateau State Project
Coordinator, Chief Gabriel Dandam, is a project designed to address the issue
of food security.
According
to him, the World Bank, in conjunction with the Federal, State and Local
Governments, resolved to design an intervention project that will address the
issue of food security. Consequently, the Federal Government signed a loan
agreement with the World Bank to address this issue with farmers across the
country.
The
main objective of Fadama III project is to increase the income of the very poor
farmers using land and water resources on a sustainable basis and also to link
the farmers to service providers and financial institutions and make it
possible for the farmers to stand on their own.
Dandam
stated: “These funds that the federal government received were shared to the
whole country using the state offices as means of implementation. Communities
are mobilized into groups and find themselves in what we call Fadama Community
Associations. Ten people will form a cooperative and choose an enterprise of
their choice. Using that enterprise, they will now meet these people who have
fallen into a group, identify a name for themselves, and open a bank account.
We will then reach out to these 10 people and discuss; know their strengths and
weaknesses, know what they intend to do as a group and then come up with a
business plan.
“A
business plan is a document that captures every detail of the group i.e. their
number, what enterprise they want to go into and based on that, we will come in
to fund the activities. By the grace of God, this program which was designed
ended in 2013 but the bank saw the need to continue. The bank then resolved to
pick some performing states to continue with it which we call additional
financing. By December 2013 we were able to reach out to over 50,000 farmers on
the Plateau. These farmers include the youth, the women and the widows.
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| Gov Lalong of Plateau state demonstrating the application of fertilizer in Nyak, Ajikamai in Shendam LGA |
The
Coordinator said that on the full financing, the farmers who are into crop
farming will be given 50 percent of the total cost of the project adding that
Infrastructure and assets are what will assist the farmers which by then will
be at 70-30 i.e. we provide 70 percent while the farmer brings 30 percent.
He
continued, “For infrastructure such as roads, the farmer will provide 10
percent for that purpose while the assets acquired which include water pumps,
sprayers and wheelbarrows are 70-30..”
Speaking
on the achievements of the project, Dandam said: “When we came in, we had what
we call base land survey. That base land survey gave us what the farmers laid
at that time which was just 1.7 percent per hectare of rice and 1.3 percent for
maize. When we intervened with our timely input within the capacity of the
farmer, we also linked them with service providers and they were giving them
input at the right time.
“After
the midterm review, we conducted another survey and that gave us 4.5 tons per
hectare of rice and 3.5 per hectare of maize. That development gave us a lot of
encouragement. For those who are into fattening, that too is encouraged.
Fattening is when farmers buy very good breed of cattle, breed them and sell
them out. That is a very good source of money.
“Rich
farmers were taught the culture and were able to fatten their cattle and sell
them within 3 months unlike before that used to be 6 months period. Adding to
that, our farmers who were into poultry production were able to start getting
their stable birds maybe for purchase within 16 to 18 weeks. Within that period
also, those farmers were able to pull their resources in a micro-finance bank
and because these farmers were not funded they were expected to save what we
call savings of interest which have already been acquired from the funding
given to them. These farmers were able to save 60 million in their various
accounts across the states.”
The
project coordinator added: “We met with them; we had a discussion and the
farmers were encouraged to open what we call trust fund for savings that they
have in the bank. We were able to pool this money which is 20 million
conditional requirement of Central Bank to have one micro-finance bank.
“On
the Plateau, CAC gave us a name which we adopted as Fadama Farmers Microfinance
Bank and by the grace of God that bank took off last year, December 2017,
approved by the Central Bank and is now functional, located at Beach road. That
is the first farmers’ bank in Nigeria, second to Kenya in Africa. Already it is
a bank that is ringing bells; it has made a name in the country. The World Bank
is proud of Plateau State, proud of Nigeria. The Plateau State Government is
very supportive in giving that bank value. It is a bank that is owned mostly by
farmers. The farmers own 70 percent while 30 percent is owned by the public. I
chair the board of directors of the bank comprising of farmers and one private
person.
Dandam
said they have the mandate to support farmers on rice and tomato and that they
have been able to produce rice on the Plateau both during the dry and rainy
seasons.
“We know that farmers were not used to growing
rice on the Plateau during the dry season, but when we came in we identified
some potential areas. We also have planted tomato. It is grown all through the
year i.e. in both the dry and rainy seasons. The yield has increased. When we
came on board it was only 10 tons per hectare being produced, but when we
supported farmers with high yielding varieties with correct input at the right
time, today farmers on the Plateau by our records are harvesting 25 tons per
hectare and for the rice we have also been able to move to 6 tons per hectare
because of the capacity of the farmers.
“We
have also gone beyond that. We discovered that tomato can do better under zinc
house. You would recall that people used to import tomato from Israel. We have
also gone beyond open field production of tomato because we discovered that
when you plant tomato in the open field, (if you look at the investment based
on the economic analysis, it is not worth it), there are a lot of hazards
involved such as the issue of water shortage, the issue of diseases and pests
and other things that come into play.
“We
saw a technology that ASTC introduced on the Plateau which is a greenhouse
production of vegetables and we were able to embrace that concept. We taught
our farmers; they were exposed to a lot of these things and eventually they
were able to adopt them and today we have over 10 different locations where our
farmers have adopted greenhouse technology. We have an aim to extend to 30 more
greenhouses on the Plateau. This is a program, like I said earlier, 10 people
will form a cooperative, identify a location and we now provide the structure.
It’s just only one-tenth of a hectare; we will provide for them a borehole, an
overhead tank and then we build the structure for them and give them the
shipment to plant and then provide them with a staff who will now oversee what
they are doing. One stand of the tomato will keep growing up to the point of the
structure and then start coming down again.
“One
stand of it can give you more than 10kg per stand and we normally have 1,000
stands within that structure. From our records, a farmer within that small area
can make over 45 million naira within the cropping season and it can last for
about 6 months before the farmer will change to another crop.
According
to Dandam, farmers have what they called ‘up-starters’.
‘We look for up-starters because the issue of
production is both processing and marketing and so these up-starters will have
a link to the farmers. Those farmers that have been given this support will
work on it very fast. We didn’t want to stop there. I mentioned the issue of
processing. The farmers have also acquired 2 processing plants that can now
process tomato paste and sell. The farmers wanted to start at a small level
first. People believe that it is only when you bring it in a factory like that
of Dangote, etc. but that is not the case.
“You
must start from somewhere. Let the people in the communities see what can be
done with their small resources. Those people who have money can invest in
those areas and make it work because Plateau has the potential to provide
tomato all year round for any industrialist who wants to establish a possible plant
on the Plateau to do just that.
Speaking
on other achievements, Dandam said: “There is this programme which is also very
vital. It is a program that we call graduate unemployed youth. This is a
program that we want to use to address unemployment in Nigeria and each state
has advertised online and young people who are graduates and degree holders who
have nothing doing can apply online. They are screened at the national office;
their names are collected and sent to us.
“They
are screened by some experts, selected and sent. They are also trained in 3
institutions which are College of Agriculture, Garkawa, ST Pankshin and College
of Forestry here in Jos. We were able to arrive at 298 unemployed youths who
have been screened. They have opened bank accounts and are waiting for release
of funds which we are hoping to get in few weeks from now.
“The
money will be released and it will go to different enterprises of their
choices. So it’s a very big achievement that the state governor Simon Bako
Lalong has fought for. So, very soon, the implementation of the program will
commence and young unemployed graduates will be given between N1 – N1.5 million
to implement an enterprise of their choice. Our young people will become
millionaires overnight because of agriculture. So that’s why we feel that
agriculture should be the mainstay of any nation that is promising.”
On
challenges, the Fadama III project coordinator said: “The major challenge is
the number of farmers who are coming seeking for support. The number is
enormous and we have an envelope that cannot go round to these farmers. Another
issue is that most farmers don’t have enough resources to pay their
contribution, so most of them have been struggling. We are talking about the very
poor farmers.
“We
also have the issue of learned people hijacking the project. You will find
people who are really rich, comfortable and because they have what it takes to
pay for the contribution, will form a
group and hijack these things from the farmers. This is a very big constraint.
Dandam
further called on people of Plateau who have the resources to invest in
processing plants saying that for now, there are only 2 processors of rice in
the state with one in Shendam while the other in Langtang.
“My main concern now is how plateau people
will see the need to invest on the plateau so that our local farmers and young
people will benefit from such investment. We have to take care of our rice
farmers”. He said.
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