An excited rice farmer in Argungu, Kebbi state says during a recent visit to the state, that he has finally bought “a vehicle” as fortune is smiling on him. It turns out that vehicle is a Kasea motorcycle, but far from being funny, the excitement on his face tells a completely different story. For another farmer in his late fifties, he finally moved out from the family house having completed a bungalow for himself and his family.
These seemingly small wins, are to thousands of smallholder farmers across Nigeria, the ‘big stuff’, a validation of their hard work and gradual entry into a league of successful farmers. It is a story of uplifting from poverty; in many cases, radical economic improvement they never would have imagined. For bigger farmers, the lifestyle changes are even more significant.
Joseph Ununu, was chairman, Abakaliki Rice Mill Owners Industrial Association when this reporter last visited the state in 2016. This year, he was elected as a member of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly.
Even though he now holds an elective position, “that does not stop me from doing agriculture,” he said, “because as far as rice cultivation has promoted me, I am going more digital in it.”
Ununu inherited rice farming from his parents, and cultivates 29.8 hectares of land, which he plans to optimise through the use of technology. The political office is not all that changed between the last visit to Abakaliki and the recent one by this reporter.
Few metres away from the Abakaliki rice mill cluster along Ogoja road, Ununu’s new house adorns the beginning of a street, with its bright colourfully tiled walls.
“This little compound was achieved through rice cultivation,” Ununu said, trying to be modest. Without being a government worker or holding any (political) position, “I thank God today through agriculture, he pushed me and carried me to another level,” he added.
“Rice farming has been more profitable than the ten years I sold electronics in the market,” said Abubakar Hamza, a 42-year-old new rice farmer who has only done two rice harvests (both wet and dry season) in about a year of joining agriculture. During the last year dry season, he cultivated one hectare and harvested 95 bags of paddy rice. This year, he has doubled it to two hectares. He plans to stay in rice production for the near future, saying he does not intend to return to his electronics business, his responses, given in Hausa language.
“Previously, many of our farmers could not afford to buy cars or get money to marry since they had meagre to no income,” said Yusuf Gabe Argungu, leader of rice farmers in Argungu LGA, Kebbi state, while commenting on ways increase in farm output has affected individual lives of farmers. Now, “those who had uncompleted houses have gone to complete it, many now have wives, buy cars, solve all our problems of school fees for our children, pay NEPA bill, and even water bill.
“If you see our farmers now, they are rich, because we consider rice as a business,” he said.
Yakubu Suleiman, popularly known as ‘Jariri’, in the Far Fajya area of Argungu, Kebbi state has been a rice farmer for 25 years. A father of nine children; six males and three females, he previously cultivated half a hectare, which has now increased to 1.5 hectare following the launch of the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“Personally, I have achieved a lot,” said Suleiman, who added one wife after the boom in his farm productivity. “Before, I could not come up with money to even pay my children’s school fees. We were only farming just to feed ourselves.”
“I am now building a house, and bought a new vehicle. That long Kasea,” Suleiman said, describing his “new vehicle”, which as it turns out, was a motorcycle. However, the excitement on his face as he described his achievement was priceless. He brings his six male children to the farm during transplanting, getting them to work alongside his labourers, as his own way of ensuring they develop a firm interest in agriculture.
For Mohammed Sahabi Augie, chairman, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Kebbi State Chapter, “in different communities, some families living in mud houses are now able to use cement and good roof. Some are buying domestic animals such as cattle to keep for their economic gains, and some are buying cars.
“Just as you know, here in the North, when your life improves you add a wife, so some are marrying more wives. We also have more of our youths going to school, less insecurity because many of them are now going to the farm to produce rice,” he added.
According to him, those who are able to produce 50 bags of rice, become semi millionaires. “We have many youths below 30 years of age producing 100 bags of rice and more, and with such volume, are easily millionaires,” Augie said.
CALEB OJEWALE
