Nigeria has huge potential in agriculture, as it has over 84 million hectares of arable land which is currently underutilised.

The climate friendly environment is an added advantage to Nigeria’s agriculture, because majority of the staple crops could be grown in all parts of the country.

Nigeria agriculture is suffering some setbacks because some of the technologies which was brought in to advance agriculture eventually phased out because farmers were unable to domestic the technologies.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Farmers Group and Cooperative Society (NFGCS) has embarked on a process of using local technologies to improve the agricultural sector.

NFGCS has their farm covering about 3000 hectares, located in Ga’ate, after Keffi, Nasarawa state.

The NFGCS started their farming activities with a loan of N1.5 million loan in 2017 with the cultivation of maize, after that, the farm had been doing an average of N1 billion investment turnover yearly.

The National Coordinator of NFGCS Mr Retson Tedheke said they were able to grow a N1.5 million investment in agriculture to N2 billion in two years following the commitment of cooperative members and support from the Federal Government.

He said in 2017, they secured a N1.5 million grant from Kia Kia Bits Limited which they used in clearing 10 hectares of land they leased from the community around the farm and also took care of their staff welfare.

“The N1.5 million was to start a foundation because as a Cooperative you need to bring Nigerians from all over the world to join and become members of the cooperative, that was the objective for us, so Kia Kia became a foundation upon which the cooperative stood, they gave us N1.5 million which was supposed to take care of about 10 days of clearing of the land.

“A tractor clears a hectare of land per day, so with N1.5 million, our calculation was that we are going to clear at least 10 hectares from the 3 hectares the community gave to us and the 50 hectares we lease immediately.

“So, we paid N1.2 million for bulldozers and we had the rest coming in for staff welfare and the rest. Before the end of May 2017, members of the cooperative had contributed over 10 million, just between April and May from N1.5 million, we generated over N1 million, before August, other members within the cooperative who believed in the dream had brought in over N100 million within a period of 4 months. So, N1.5 million was the originating seed, that was how we started”, he explained.

While narrating how they started, Tedheke said in 2017, they planted only Maize, but they encountered a serious set back after the price of Maize crashed, but they were again supported by Kia Kia Bit Limited.

He, however said currently, they have over 500 animals, 100 ton per day rice mill, construction of facilities to accommodate 10,000 animals and plans with the Nasarawa government to cultivate 1000 hectares of kenaf.

“When we started this place, we planted only Maize and got about 3000 tons, the price of Maize was horrible, Kia Kia again came in, stood as a bridge. Right now, we have a ranch that has over 500 animals, we are building a 10,000 animal ranch (5000 for fattening and 5000 for diary).

“As at today, we have a capacity for a 100 tons per day rice mill, and we are increasing that capacity to over 1000 tons per day between now and the middle of 2020, we are opening up kenaf plantation. Nigeria spend about $600 million importing Kenaf, we are discussing with the Nasarawa State government to plant 1000 hectares of Kenaf.

“We are planning to have a feed mill as we speak, we are bringing in soybean oil mill and ground nut oil mill, all of these machines are already on ground, and we are talking about 3000 hectares open”, he said.

On job creation, Tedheke said “every farming season we have between 250 to 350 persons working here everyday, about 100 of the workers are permanent staff, 200 of them are temporary staff that we switch, when activities is high, we maintain them for a period of time.

“During harvest, we increase the number to between 500 to 700 because we do majority of the harvest manually, we have not been able to procure heavy machines for harvesting.

“The good thing about the core of our work force is that 99 per cent of them are indigenes. The unique thing about the animals that we have is that it is 100 per cent managed by the Fulanis. We have 30 Fulanis working in the farm”.

Furthermore, the NFGCS is currently using hydroponic system to develop crops in 7 to 8 days with the aim of feeding animals,  especially cattle.

The Farm Manager of NFGCS, Peter Ogbeide, said this system became imperative following the continued crisis between farmers and herdsmen.

He said the system which is easy to practice allows the farmer to feed the animals with balanced diet ranging from cereal to legumes.

Ogbeide said with the system, in about 7 to 8 days, grains weighing about 1kg would rise to weigh about 5kg and ready to be used as feed for animals.

“The Hydroponic system is using water to grow your crop without the need for a soil, what we are trying to do is to be able to grow crops which we can be using to feeding our cattle.

“Basically we were looking for a system to grow crops to feed our cattle in every seven days, and one of the best ways that we figured out was the Hydroponic system.

“The idea is that if you have 1kg of grains, what you do is to soak them in water so that the grain can have a lot of water in it that will enable it to start sprouting”, he said.

Explaining how it works, Ogbeide said “When the grain is soaked for 24hrs, you will see a sign that it has started sprouting, then drain out the water, we have a locally fabricated basket which we add some polythene bags which would be perforated so that they can retain water”.

He said a tank of water is attached to the Hydroponic system, then pipes are run like shower over the baskets.

“The Hydroponic system can help you maximize that 1kg of grain into 5kg within a period of 7 to 8 days.

“We have a fulani man who is managing it. We are trying to let him now that you can be able to grow your crop within your environment, no need of taking your cattle around”, he said

“So, what this will do is that it will help solve the farmers/herders crisis. Everybody can have this Hydroponic in his location so that cattle would not be taken to a long distance for food.

“The food contains balance diet, you can give them maize in the morning, give them beans in the afternoon, then give them rice in the evening.

“And because it is Hydroponic, it contains a lot of water, so as they are eating, they are also drinking water and the water itself aids in digestion”, he noted.

Furthermore, Ogbeide said the system would help improve meat production because the cattle are eating balanced diet.

“We believe that with this Hydroponic system, you will get more benefits. We believe if you have a cattle that weighs 250kg, we believe with this solution, if you feed them well with the balanced diet, in 30 months time they would be able to add about 150kg to the weight.

“We realised that if we can have this solution on ground, it will save the herdsmen the time the spend in taking their cattle from one location to another, it will save them those stress, and their cattle will do much better, they will get more productivity from their cattle business.

“We also realised that during dry season, it is always difficult from then to get food for their cattle, even when they are grazing, they have to travel long distance,  so it means if we have a Hydroponic system in place for them, they don’t have to go any place, during the wet and dry season, they have 100 per cent food for their cattle”, he added.

Another technology being deployed by NFGCS is the Ga’atevest which allows farmers to invest in the farm with any amount and become part of the owners of the farm.

The National Coordinator of NFGCS, Mr Tedheke said this move became necessary due to the need to mop up fund to expand the farming in activities in the farm.

Tedheke said the government had not been supportive, hence the need to launch the App and allow farmers to invest with a very little amount of money became necessary.

“We have not recieved any financial support from the government or anybody, we have not received any financial support from any bank in Nigeria, we have written application, we have done paper work, we even borrowed collateral to come and guarantee them but all to no avail.”

“So, the outline for us has been growing the project and growing the process, growing the system using available opportunities, we have made use of crowd funding to make progress.

“Government is not doing enough, infrastructures are missing, access to machinery are not available, the road leading from the express to this farm was constructed by the farm, we are providing electricity and constructing our own dams without government support.

“We have developed a mobile application (Ga’atevest) where we are telling Nigerians that all of them can now become part owners of the farm”.

He said the farm which started with just N1.5 million loan from Kiakia Financial market in 2017, had maintained an average of N1 billion gross turnover every year for the past 3 years.

“We started the farm with N1.5 million loan, but however over the last 3 years, we done on the average of N1 billion every year of gross turnover”, he said.

 

SOURCE: TRIBUNE