It was dry season at the New Nigerian Newspapers. Workers were angry over non -payment of salaries. They ran out of patience and drew ‘daggers’. The consequence was that the News Machine that has been rolling for 47 years, since the Newspaper was established on January 1, 1966, was halted by workers who declared Industrial dispute leading to an indefinite strike action, backed by the Nigerian Union of Journalists ( NUJ).
But away from doldrums at the New Nigerian, away from routine reporting of events at the Senate and away from the Concrete City, that has become of the once vast, arable land of Abuja,to Gaube Farm-Lay-Out in the Kuje Area Council,which proudly declares itself as the Food-basket of the Federal Capital Territory(FCT).
This is evident everywhere among the sleepy farming communities in the Area Council, where farming remain the traditional occupation of the people. Here, farmland is a force of attraction and people do not worry , so much, about unemployment or joblessness.
They are not rich, lacking in basic social amenities and suffer a lot of deprivation, despite being among the host communities of the FCT, yet they look contented, as they take life easy, giving their best on their farms, as far as their physical strength and little resources could take them to earn livelihood. In these communities, even students, work hard on their farms to generate their school fees while school teachers and local government workers do not ignore farm work.
At the coming of the rains to signify take off of the year farming season, the passion and enthusiasm to return to farm was high among these people.
You will find them, men and women, young and old, even children, armed with their traditional tools of hoes, cutlasses and spraying cans, hurry to their farm locations each day, especially, at the week- ends. Some on their motorcycles, bicycles and many trek long distances. The rich farmers who have access to or have acquired farmland in these communities, queue for tractors that kept roving from one big farm location to the other.
Among them, in the flurry of activities to commence this year farming season, was this reporter, seeking to tell the story of the farmer by experiencing it.
The reporter had on Friday, April 19, 2013, joined the multitude to ventilate his idle energy in an adventure on the farm. The location was FL325, Gaube Farm-Layout in the Kuje Local Government Council. You are welcomed to the world of farmers in Kuje.
The farm jungle
In this farming jungle, cattle, monkeys and crops struggle for survival, with the crops at the mercy of both the cattle and monkeys, even as , the farmers and cattle rearers co-exist in mutual suspicion and the monkeys, hunted down for cash. Here, the reporter arrived, blind and naive without tools, hoping to mingle along.
First, he went to the Agricultural Development Project(ADP)at Gwagwalada, then to the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture(IITA), Kubwa, Abuja, seeking to remove the wool on his eyes and break his naivety.
The results of the consultations were that the reporter was registered as Farmer 023, under the Farmers Registration Scheme of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development at Gwagwalada, and was able to determine what crop to plant, where to get the appropriate seeds, how to get started among others .
Friday, May 3, this year, a tractor roared into action, ploughing a two hectare of land where the reporter hoped to share in the experiences of farmers, to tell their stories better.This was followed by harrowing and planting of maize seeds on Saturday, May, 11 . Thus began the farming race in the adventure.
Events started building up very fast. Pre- emergence herbicides must be applied three days after planting. IITA that prepared the high yield maize variety for the reporter recommended the application of a combination of Bi- Trazin and Agroxone. Monday, May13, some local farmers around abandoned their farms to watch the application of the herbicide. The attraction appeared unusual to the reporter but none was ready to talk about what was amazing or spectacular about the farming activity going on.
This was, however, not important to the reporter, for previous events during the planting revealed that the farmers, though local and largely illiterates, demonstrated that they have the capacity to recognise good and high quality seeds, familiar with the process of herbicide application, possess the tools like skill and spraying can, even as the labour force doing the job were drawn from among them.
Without any previous orientation on what to do, they were skillful, indicating that these are professional farmers with no education on their trade, but regardless of their crude and archaic farming implements and their inability to access improved seeds or purchase herbicide and fertiliser to boost the quality of what they do on their farms, they can do better if empowered, and demonstrated that they are willing to be mobilised.
The inner feelings of the local farmers, it was later learnt, was that the reporter may get his fingers burnt. Their reason was that they have seen people come around to attempt what the reporter was trying to do but failed. One of them, James Danjuma, recalled the experience of a farm adventurer who dabbled into maize growing in the area, but failed abysmally and lost his investment because the crops did not do well. He never returned to the farm again since the fatal experience, saying there were other people who tried cropping maize in the area but failed and shifted to other crops , including Orchards and Poultry farming.
These, plus their own personal experiences left the farmers with a general impression that farming Maize in the area was like courting disaster.
They have learnt by experiences that the environment was hostile to maize farming, attributed to the heavy presence of notorious weeds which prevents the crop from growing, flowering or fruiting, hence, discouraging them from planting Maize crop, in which reports say, Nigeria has a record of 5.6 million metric tones deficit, following decline in production.
Striga – the notorious weed
The problem of maize farming in this area has to do with some stubborn weeds which the farmers can properly identify but unable to combat. A notorious one, popular among them is striga, a parasitic weed that limits the yield of some crops, also called ‘wuta-wuta’ ( fire-fire) in Hausa language by the locals.
At the Kuje area where this notorious weed has established a strong presence, it is said to be very dangerous to maize, yam, guinea corn and groundnut crops. The Farmers believe that the weed kills the crops , even before they flower and those that survive to flower may not bear much fruits.
A reseacher at IITA, Kubwa, Abuja, Daniel Adekunle, told the reporter that the striga parasitic weed, is not indigenous to NIgeria but dispersed by cattle which feed on it and spread it through deification. He explained that the weed helps to keep the bowel of the cattle healthy but harmful to crops.
Reports say the striga weed impoverished cowpea farmers in Central and Northern regions of Burkina Faso, until IITA , supported by funds from Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, developed early maturing and high yielding varieties that are resistant to striga. Cowpea is said to be an important crop in Burkina Faso, as it provides food and cash for the Farmers and fodder for livestock.
In the same way, striga weed has impoverished maize farmers in parts of Nigeria and at Kuje, Danjuma, said the only crop they know that can combat the notorious weed in the area is cassava. He recalled that a few years ago, during the federal government campaign for cassava growing under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, an adventurer who wanted fast fortune from the campaign came to the area to grow large cassava Farm. He said the effort was successful as the cassava crops did well, having over come the danger of striga weed.
Combating the notorious weed
However, unlike the local farmers who relied on their traditional know ledge to calculate what crop to grow or which to avoid given the peculiar nature of the environment, the reporter went beyond that, as preliminary enquiries at the IITA revealed that the Kuje area, was indeed, notorious for striga weed that are unfriendly to maize cropping. The seeds prepared for the reporter was, therefore, specifically to combat the hostile elements thrown- up by research findings to enable the crop survive the hash environment and resist striga.
By Thursday, May 16, the earth had breath life into the seeds, as germination was massive with nursery maize crops spring across the entire landscape, looking promising .Saturday, June 1. 2013, 21 days after planting, it was time to apply Fertiliser. IITA recommended NPK 15-15-15 to add more nutrients to the crops . Thereafter, a formation of what looked like, green maize forest, began to emerge.
James, who kept his eyes on the farm, acting as the Farm Manager, reported on Tuesday, June 11. 2013, that the initial skepticism among the local farmers about the maize crops was changing to optimism, that the farm has been attracting visiting eyes of people who just stopped by to look and wondered what made the difference between this maize farm and others around and what has been done differently.
Suddenly, the story changed, as the crops came under striga and termite attack . The result was that, Tuesday, July 2, strains were observed on the crops. Portions, appeared Sun burnt, bearing yellowish or brownish colored leaves, in contrast to deep green leaves of those free from striga. Some of those under attack were being stunted, unable to attain same level of growth as the healthy ones. Some that were free from striga, but could not escape attacks from termites, fell off under the weight of their fruits while a few failed to flower or fruit appropriately.
An immediate response was required to combat the attack. Gbenga Iyaode, a professional agriculturist and staff member of the Kogi State Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Lokoja, who volunteered his technical services to support the adventure of the reporter, recommended an immediate weeding and second round of fertiliser application. These were concluded on Friday, July ,this year , and placed under observation for another three weeks.
The result was a great improvement in the performance of the crops with a handful of them , unable to survive the hostile weeds. Most others that survived, carried the image of wonder crops with some stems bearing, as many as, three or four fruits each. Even , some of the stunted stems still bore fruits and each fruit, rich in seed content. This was in contrast to the situation on other farms where stems at best bore two fruits and several were muffled into fruitless ness by the antagonistic elements against maize cropping in the area.
Other challenges
Apart from the battle to keep the crops alive and healthy, the menace of herds of cattle presents another challenge. They were everywhere, roving around the rich grazing environment menacingly, in their tens and hundreds of herds, from different directions. This put farmers constantly on alert to check these cattle from straying into their farms to eat up the crops. Apart from cattle threats, there were also threats from monkeys that could invade farms and viciously eat up crops.
Then came the phenomenon of farm thieves , on Wednesday, August 7. They entered a portion of the reporter’s farm and stole away some cobs of maize waiting to dry. Dajuma explained that the phenomenon was common because between the period of planting and harvest is that of hunger for farmers.
He said during this period maturing crops on the farm were in danger; farm thieves could go on rampage at night, armed with bags to harvest away crops from other peoples’ farm. He told the reporter in pidgin English that ‘sometimes I no dey commot from this farm till around 8 O’clock in the evening, even sometimes wen I see say people still dey walker about for night, be cos some village dey that side, ( pointing in a direction), I go still stay till around 9 O’clock for night before I go house,’ adding that ‘ if dem see say nobody dey guard the farm dem go just thieve the things as dem like.’
Another local farmer at Pasali 2, a village sharing neighbourhood with the farm, told the reporter that one way the locals combat farm thief is to evoke the spirit of the native gods of their ancestors against them. continue to be on rampage.
