Following closure of Nigeria’s borders by the Federal Government, JESUSEGUN ALAGBE writes about the activities of rice farmers at Ofada, a sleepy community in Ogun State, famous for Ofada rice

This is definitely a good time for Mr Adio Afolabi, a rice farmer who resides in Asaya Baala, Ofada, a town known for Ofada rice cultivation in Ogun State. He said every year, he usually planted Ofada rice on 4 acres of farmland, harvesting several tonnes at the end of the planting season. However, he had never sold as much quantity of rice as he had in 2019 so far.

Disclosing the reason for the increased sales, he said it was due to the border closure by the Federal Government. “Sales have been on the upward side since the borders were closed. The situation this time round is different from last year’s,” said Afolabi, who has been into rice farming for 19 years.

POLITICS OF BORDER CLOSURE
One of the commodities most smuggled into Nigeria is rice, which is a staple in many homes in the country. According to data from the Customs, between August and October 30, 2019, the agency seized items worth over N2.3tn, including 32,814 bags of rice in 50kg packages. Between January and November 2018, spokesperson for the Customs, Mr Joseph Attah, said the service seized 238,094 50kg bags of smuggled rice across the country. The goods were reportedly worth over N4bn.

Between 2015 and 2017, the Customs also said it seized 497,279 bags of rice, with a duty paid value of N3.8bn. Despite these efforts at curbing rice smuggling, experts said the figures only represented a fraction of smuggled rice into the country within the periods under review. According to statistics, the high rate of rice smuggling into the country is directly related to the rate of consumption of the commodity, with World Bank data stating that Nigerians consume about 7 million tonnes of rice every year.

Hence, in August 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered closure of Nigeria’s border with Benin Republic, to check the smuggling of goods, especially rice. The exercise, code-named, ‘Ex-Swift Response,’ is being jointly conducted by the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Police and the military. The joint action is coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

The border was initially planned to reopen in October 2019, but the President extended it to January 31, 2020 and also extended the action to other neighbouring countries such as Niger. Apart from rice smuggling, the closure is also aimed at preventing weapons and drugs from entering the country, the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, said recently at the International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings in Washington DC, the United States.

In a statement, the President’s spokesperson, Mr Femi Adesina, said government was particularly worried about rice smuggling as it threatens agricultural policies on food sufficiency. With closure of the borders, the government said it had been able to curb rice smuggling at the borders to some extent while simultaneously boosting the sale of local rice.

RENEWED ENERGY FOR OFADA RICE FARMERS
Chairman of the Rice Farmers Association at Asaya Baala, Ofada, Mr Michael Thomson, says he started rice farming in 1985; he stated that after the border closure, rice farmers in the area had been witnessing increased sales and laughing all the way to the bank. A one-time official of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria from 1999 to 2012, Thomson said he was however sad because he could not cultivate enough rice this year to sell due to ill health.

He said, “Rice farmers are making money right now. It’s unfortunate I couldn’t plant much rice this year because of sickness – unlike last year when I planted rice on 15 hectares of land. My friends who planted this year are smiling, they are living well, I can tell you that. They are prosperous this year. They are making good money. I harvested 150 tonnes of rice last year but the price was low compared to this year.

“If I had a storage facility and kept the rice I harvested in 2018 till this year, I would be happy right now. The market price of Ofada rice has increased. For instance, a 5kg bag which cost around N4,000 last year is now up to N8,000. The border closure is a blessing to us.”

On her part, Mrs Aina Bariki, said she had also been making better sales as an Ofada rice grower since August 2019 and hoped the situation would continue. “I have my own rice farm and my husband has his. We plant rice every year, but this period is one of the best we had ever witnessed. Some of us have sold all our stocks and anticipating to plant again when the planting season comes around February next year,” she said.

Another rice farmer, simply identified as Mrs Adebugbe, said Ofada rice had been selling like ‘hot cake’ since the borders were closed. “It isn’t that we never used to make sales before. As a matter of fact, many people like Ofada rice, but the situation is different this time round. There are increased sales at higher prices and most of us are out of stock,” she said.

HISTORY OF OFADA RICE
Grown exclusively in Ofada town, the rice is usually a blend of Oryza glaberrima (African rice) as well as the more common Oryza sativa (Asian rice). If yet unmilled, Ofada rice may be brown, red or white.

Because African rice is more difficult to mill and polish, some or all of the rice bran is still left on the grain, strengthening the flavour and making it more nutritious. Whereas brown Ofada rice is often aromatic, white Ofada rice is typically non-aromatic. Red Ofada rice is rare.

Ofada rice is traditionally served in an uma leaf (Thaumatococcus daniellii), with a spicy sauce containing pepper, onion, locust beans, palm oil and pieces of meat. Although there are no official records, the story behind the hugely popular Ofada rice in Ofada town has been spread from generation to generation by word of mouth.

According to an 85-year-old rice farmer in the area, Mr Saka Adenekan, who said he learnt the farming from his father, the cultivation of the rice in the town started when foreign Christian missionaries arrived in Nigeria in the 1840s. When the missionaries arrived Ofada town, they were said to have brought some rice along with them. On seeing the grains, residents of Ofada were said to have marvelled at what the missionaries brought.

Adenekan said, “Our people asked the missionaries if they could plant some of the rice grains and their request was granted. Fortunately, most land areas in Ofada are swampy and this is the kind of land suitable for rice planting. When they planted the rice grains, they sprouted and months later, they harvested the rice in larger quantities. Not quite long after, almost every household in the town had a rice farm. They did not know the name to give the rice, so they started calling it Ofada rice and this is what everybody calls it till today.”

The octogenarian added that the story had been passed down from generation to generation in the community. “It was what my father, from who I learnt Ofada rice farming, also told me,” he said.

GENERATIONS OF RICE FARMERS
Findings by Saturday PUNCH showed that men and women, old and young all grow rice in Ofada town and its environs such as Asaya Baala, Asaya Lopoji, Asaya Elegun, Asaya Olosan and Asaya Lajoku. In a typical family in those areas, the husband has his own rice farm, the wife has hers, while grown-up children also have theirs.

Interestingly, Thomson, said he learnt the vocation from Adenekan, who happened to be his father. Thomson added that his children had also learnt the farming from him. “It is what we are known for and we won’t stop cultivating rice farms. Every household has a rice farm,” he said.

Similarly, Afolabi said he was trained in Ofada rice farming by his father, who also learnt the vocation from his father. He said, “I can’t impose any vocation on my children but I would love them to follow in my footsteps, though I pray they do it in a mechanised manner.”

Musibau Kamilu also said, “I started Ofada rice farming 30 years ago. It’s a vocation we learnt from our forefathers.”

OFADA RICE CULTIVATION
Thomson explained to our correspondent that like any other rice, the cultivation of Ofada rice started by first choosing the right land, which must be swampy. Thereafter, the land is prepared for rice production; the grains are then planted; fertiliser is applied appropriately; weed and pests controlled; and at maturity, the rice is harvested.

Thomson said there were mainly two methods of planting rice, namely “the broadcasting and the row seeding method. The first method is more tedious. You must leave every other thing you are doing when you plant rice grains or else birds could pick them up. If this happens, you have to start again. The planting period requires 100% concentration.

“After planting, rice grains usually sprout within 4 months, then we would leave it for another month to mature on the buds. After that, it is then due for harvest. After harvesting, we mill it and then it is ready to be packaged and sold for consumption.”

Funnily enough, Thomson said even though many people described the rice cultivated at Ofada as Ofada rice, there was nothing like that. “Technically, there is nothing like Ofada rice. Rice is simply rice but has various species. Why people call it Ofada rice is because it is grown in Ofada town. People tend to associate rice with the location where it is grown, just as we have ‘Kebbi rice,’ ‘Mokwa rice,’ ‘Uyo rice,’ ‘Abakaliki rice,’ ’Thailand rice’ and so on.

“There was a time the government gave us rice species from Thailand. When we planted the grains here, our land was suitable for it, so when it grew, people still called it Ofada rice. The rice grain is long and very white but it is very rare.”

CHALLENGES FACING FARMERS
While Ofada rice is typically tasty, challenges involved in cultivating it are enormous. From lack of mechanised facilities to infrastructural problems, farmers said the rice cultivation was definitely not for the lazy or weak. According to the farmers, birds are one of the main challenges facing them. To support this claim, experts have said birds alone could account for between 10 - 15% loss of rice yield.

85-year-old farmer Adenekan, said, “Birds have always disturbed us since I started farming many decades ago. My generation is passing away gradually but I plead with the government to support the young generation of rice farmers by providing facilities to safeguard their farms from birds and pests.”

Also, Kamilu said stress usually started for rice farmers anytime after planting the grains and birds started visiting the farms. “We virtually do 24/7 monitoring when rice grains start sprouting. Birds always disturb us. After planting, we typically stay on the farm between 5 am and 8 pm every day to scare birds away. Even after leaving the farm, we would still leave some of the birds behind. We can’t chase them completely away and we just have to accept our fate.

“The job of chasing the birds away is tedious. A farmer can plant rice on many hectares of farmland but when it comes to chasing the birds away, it becomes a job for many people. Everyone in the house, our wives and children follow us to the farms to scare the birds away.”

Saturday PUNCH observed that some of the farmers had local guns usually used by hunters to scare away birds on their farms. Besides, Sulaimon said he usually stayed on the farm with his family during planting and harvesting periods when birds and pests flocked the farm in large numbers. “Once we start planting, we don’t leave the farms, we sleep there. The job is not an easy one,” he added.

Another main challenge facing the farmers is poor infrastructure, including road networks, and lack of mechanised farming tools. “We don’t have good roads. If our main roads could be bad, imagine how the roads leading to the farms look like,” Thomson said.

Thomson said the last time roads linking farms in the community were graded was during the (ex-Ogun State Governor Olusegun) Osoba administration (1999-2003). The situation has led to the farmers incurring a lot of expenses to bring harvested produce from the farms to the market.

Thomson noted that lack of government support was another major challenge facing them, stating that if the state government could provide certain amenities such as roads and tractors, as well as irrigation, milling and birds control facilities, the production of rice would increase greatly in the area.

He said, “We don’t have the kind of support that states like Kano, Cross River and Kebbi are giving their local rice farmers. Imagine a state where Ofada rice is grown, what stops the state government from giving massive support to us? If I could plant 15 hectares of rice manually, imagine what I could do with mechanised farming. Our state government is not taking farming seriously. If there was support for us, we would do more exploits. If we grow more, the price of rice will come down and more people would have access to food; there would be food security.”

Although the Federal Government has established some agricultural policies such as the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme, Thomson and other farmers said they had yet to benefit from them. Afolabi said, “What saddens us is that every year, we hear that the federal or state government is releasing so-so funds for farmers, including rice growers, but we only hear of them on the radio.

“Maybe it’s the farmers in air conditioned-fitted offices and not those on farms that the government gives these funds. If not, we have been growing Ofada rice for years, yet nothing has been done to improve on the way we do things. Government should meet with us directly and not go through ministry, state or local government officials next time they are releasing funds. Let them always devise means of physically meeting with farmers on their farms.”

Another farmer, Taiwo, said all they needed was encouragement to improve on their farming. “We believe so much in rice farming, we see it as an inheritance from our forefathers. We would boost production if we had better resources,” he said.

EXPERTS ON BIRD CONTROL, OTHERS
An agronomist based in Ibadan, Oyo State, Dr Pelumi Adeoye, said there were equipment such as guard nets to protect rice farms from birds. He said the nets were specialised nets and could be purchased and installed by experts on rice farms.

He said, “The nets are shaped like parachutes and some spray some type of gas to scare away birds. The length and breadth of each farm dictate the measurement of the net to buy. The nets are pegged at the corners to cover the farm after they have been shot up like parachutes. The nets could be very helpful to the farmers.”

Also, an agricultural economist, Mrs Bola Komolafe, who owns a rice farm in Kebbi State, recommended the use of cassette tape, scarecrows and castanets methods for birds control. She, however, said more needed to be done by the government to support rice farmers in Ofada.

Komolafe added, “If we want to achieve food security such as the government is preaching, then support is needed for all types of farmers, including rice farmers. Rice is a staple food and more should be done to encourage current and potential rice growers.”

An economic analyst, Mr Tunji Andrews, said the government must show more support for rice farmers to grow the commodity, as it is a staple food in the country. Citing statistics by the African Development Bank that about $35bn is spent on food imports annually across the continent, Andrews said the federal and state governments must show committed efforts to boost food security.

“Although the current administration is trying to increase food production, there is still a lot more work to be done,” he added.

WHY SOME OFADA RICE CONTAINS STONES
Some consumers complain about the Ofada rice containing stones despite being nutritious. Thomson said Ofada rice was not allowed to be thoroughly processed as done in some other countries where the country imports rice. He also said some Ofada rice contained pebbles because some farmers were not careful enough to carefully sieve the harvested rice.

He said, “When you process rice too much, you don’t have any nutrients left in it, what is left is starch. When we harvest rice, it is taken straight to the mill to remove the chaff. The milling machine is not set to process it too much, which is why it is usually not as white as imported rice.

“On the reports that stones are usually found in Ofada rice, it is true but it depends on the farmer’s neatness and diligence. Some farmers can make their rice 85% free of impurities while some can only achieve 50%. And sometimes, it is because some farmers quickly want to take the rice to the market, so they hurriedly remove the impurities. If we had the equipment, we could achieve 100% removal of pebbles from stones like imported rice.”

Despite the situation, some Nigerians said their love for Ofada rice would not dwindle. A food vendor at Ojodu, Lagos, Mrs Kemi Bayonle, said her customers usually demanded Ofada rice. “It has a high demand because the rice is delicious. It sells faster than the typical rice these days,” she said.

‘WE'LL SUPPORT THE FARMERS'
Information Officer for the Ogun State Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Ayo Disu, said the state government would reach out to Ofada rice farmers to provide necessary support for improved farming. He said agriculture, particularly rice farming, was one of the government’s priorities, hence the establishment of the anchor borrowers’ scheme in the state to support farmers.

Apart from the scheme, he said there was the Value Chain Development Programme being supported by the World Bank for farmers in the state. “In fact, we recently did a workshop for rice farmers in particular because rice has priority in the state anchor borrowers scheme. There is also the Value Chain Development Programme of the World Bank being run in the state and they have been supporting rice farmers.

“The state has not abandoned Ofada rice farmers. The government is working assiduously to reduce the stress encountered by farmers,” he said.

Disu said when the state anchor borrowers scheme was inaugurated by the state governor Dapo Abiodun in September, the governor mentioned that his major concern was rehabilitating all rural roads leading to farm settlements. “I can assure you the government has already started working on those roads. The Ofada rice farmers would also experience the same gesture to ease their stress,” he said.

Disu added that the Ministry of Agriculture would reach out to the rice farmers to inform them of how they could benefit from the various initiatives in rice farming in the state.

SOURCE (abridged): https://punchng.com/border-closure-ofada-rice-farmers-make-profit-amid-challenges/

Slow and steady we will get there