Encounter with Zimbabwean farmers in Shonga

ALTHOUGH I have heard much about Shonga Farms in Kwara State, it is the controversies surrounding it that stick. However, I had an opportunity to visit the farm recently, to see what 21st Century farming looks like. Let me enter a caveat here: this trip has nothing to do with Governor Bukola Saraki’s presidential ambition, although agriculture comes up when development policies are addressed by a presidential candidate.

It came as speculations then in 2004, barely a year after Governor Bokola Saraki was elected, that he was going to accommodate some white farmers displaced by the geriatric Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Two problems immediately emerged. Why accommodate white farmers that have become pariahs in their country? Secondly, what is the political and social implication of taking over rural farmland from peasant farmers and giving it to other farmers, albeit a whiteman?

The insinuation then was that Saraki was taking over the land and merely using the farmers as front. And true to prediction, vehement opposition came from some of the farmers whose ancestors have owned the land for ages. They simply refused to vacate the land designated for the farm. Even when the farm took off, there were reports of sabotage and attack on the farmers by disgruntled omo oniles. This is after they have been resettled and compensated by the government and many of them employed on the farm and earning more than they ever made as subsistent farmers.

And so to Shonga we headed to see things for ourselves, after five years of operating the farm, whether it is all a hoax and political gimmick or as some uncharitably fellows put it: a drainpipe.

The farms are operated by 13 farmers, each given 1000 hectares of land to engage in three farming activities consisting of dairy, poultry and mixed farming. Our first port of call was the dairy farm. The man in charge of the farm, Mr Paul Helton, looked every inch a farmer. Clad in simple short sleeve shirt and beaming with smiles, he welcomed us to the farm.

His dairy farm is sophisticated and could compete with any farm in Europe, he boasted. He has been a farmer all his life and the farm he left behind in Zimbabwe is being managed by his son. His plan is to make the Shonga farm a pilot project to be replicated all over the country. It pained him that Nigerians consumed more than six million litres of milk per day and these are imported into the country at the cost of $1.5 billion per annum.

His dream is coming to fruition as his farm now supplies fresh milk to WAMCO, Nigeria’s largest milk producer that had to source its raw material as powdered milk which is them mixed with water to produce the evaporated milk we buy in tins as Peak. He wished we don’t drink powdered milk again but fresh milk. He lamented that he could only scratch the surface of the demand from WAMCO because dairy farming is capital intensive. He had to import the high milk yielding cows. Even then, they are not used to this environment. They are like what we call agric; they easily miss their way and susceptible to heat and snake bites, unlike the Fulani cows that are smarter and could withstand the harsh weather condition.

One of the ways he has been able to integrate with the local dairy farmers is to ask them to bring their cows for milking everyday and for which they are paid commercial rates. The Fulani cattle rearers have suddenly discovered the untapped economic potentials of their cows. Hitherto, they never thought of the commercial value of their cows’ milk.

His concern at the moment is to help the Fulanis upgrade their cows to high milk yielding ones. Presently, Fulani cows produce about one tenth of the milk produced by the imported ones.

When asked if the imported cows are prodded with growth hormones and antibiotics, he flatly denied. He regarded them as anathema. He stressed that the safety requirement given to them by WAMCO precludes the use of any animal with growth hormones and antibiotic. To my surprise, he claimed that on the contrary, it is the Fulani cows that are failing the toxicology tests.

We later proceeded to the mixed farm where we were received by Mr Graham Hatty. His specialty is cassava. Presently he has a 400 hectare cassava farm waiting for harvesting. He expects 6000 tonnes of cassava from the farm. In his case, he also makes money from the stalks. His stalks are in high demand by the local farmers who are simply dazzled with his exceptionally high yielding crops which again is almost 10 times of what they harvest on the same land size.

But there is no magic here. He plants about 11 varieties of cassava which he gets from IITA in Ibadan. IITA has been in Ibadan for more than 50 years, yet most of our farmers don’t know about their products.

His own problem is money. The loans available from the banks are on short term basis which means the banks call back their money after one year. This is not good for farming which requires at least five years to stabilise. He was asking us about the agric development fund promised by the government. An unpatriotic fella replied that the money had been collected by ‘portfolio farmers’ without farms but who are politicians.

He said there is absolutely no reason why we should import food, given the abundant natural resources and the excellent soil and climatic conditions in the country. He showed us a neem tree which he planted three years ago but which requires 30 years to achieve the same height in Zimbabwe. I asked him whether he was experimenting with genetically modified crops. He denied. He argued that we do not need GM crops in Nigeria since the soil can support high yield if we get other parameters right.

His own dream is to add upland rice cultivation to his portfolio. He believes we have no business importing rice.

We went again to a 400 hectare soybean farm, a 25,000-bird poultry farm and a huge banana plantation. What we saw at Shonga is the separation of the men from the boys when it comes to farming.

In a brief meeting with Governor Saraki, he told us that his motivation for the farm is the belief that we must get agriculture right before we can dream of any development. He was aware of the unpopularity of the project before inviting the farmers. According to him, agriculture is not a vote catching subject. Those who disagreed with him, he enthused, can come up with a model different from his own, but we cannot escape agriculture development as the pathfinder for national development.

When asked, he affirmed he would replicate the Shonga feat in other parts of the country if elected.

I was a little surprised the farmers did not give us any of their products as gifts as Africans would naturally do. After all, they are brutally focussed commercial farmers and not subsistence farmers who are always generous with their farm produce like our commercially unsuccessful fathers.

http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/columnist/sunday/sola-fasure/14361.html

I am also aware that these farmers are doing a great job.

Let's see the Nigerian agriculturists rise to the challenge.