Last year, there was some rice relief, thanks to Kebbi State growers. Now, there is hope that things will get better. More rice will be produced, according to the state’s smallholder farmers who are championing the production of the staple.
Last year, through partnership between Kebbi state and Lagos government, prices of rice dropped massively from N25, 000 to N12, 000, fulfilling the desires of many Nigerians to have rice in their homes. The Lake rice was a splendor many Nigerians savaged with pride.
The EU, in collaboration with Oxfam, is implementing a Pro Resilience Action (PROACT) Project to further increase the capacity of farmers in the state to go into rice production. The project is an EU Support to Food Security and Resilience in Northern Nigeria.
Because of the PROACT project, more farmers have embraced rice farming using modern techniques and improved inputs acquired under the project.
Already, farmers in the state have received farm inputs under the project to drive dry season farming. 6,000 bags of fertilizer have been distributed to 1,500 group of farmers in the state.
A member of the village savings and loan scheme (VSLA) in Goriyo-Damana community, Birnin Kebbi, Abubakar Hakimi, told our reporter he had already received 30 bags of fertilizers from Oxfam for dry season farming.
He said he could barely afford two bags of fertilizer until Oxfam begun distributing fertilizers to small holder farmers in the state.
Hakimi, who is into rice production, said he expects to harvest 50 bags of rice as against the 35 he harvested last year.
“We never knew how to plant rice very well and apply fertilizer to give us high yield,” he says through an interpreter with a broad smile on his face.
“The current year is more promising for rice farmers in the village’ –they have not witnessed farming with such huge produce and with less efforts too.
“But their efforts have paid off because-they are learning new and modern farming techniques to cultivate rice and also have access to farm inputs, hitherto not available to them.
“I sold and fed my family well after selling my rice after the dry season farming. I made 30 bags from this same farm and I was surprised. I applied fertilizer and did modern rice farming technique which I never knew in the past,” he said through an interpreter.
However, Oxfam Livelihood and Private Sector Manager, William Mafwalal, said the organization has also distributed 400 surface irrigation water pumps to over 62 farmers groups in Jega and Birnin Kebbi Local Governments in Kebbi, with the aim of increasing dry season farming.
The distribution, he said, was part of the PROACT Project.
The PRO-ACT project is currently being implemented by Development Exchange Centre (DEC) in three local governments in Kebbi State ( Birnin-Kebbi, Jega and Dangu Wasaga) and four in Adamawa State.
The project is expected to support the state governments in their efforts toward improving agricultural productivity, enhancing food security and reducing poverty, especially among small holder farmers in rural communities.
In the first phase of the support project, a total number of 625 farmers have benefited from the dry season farming inputs out of which 350 are women in Adamawa. In Kebbi, of the 1,500 beneficiaries, 590 are women.
He said: “Oxfam believes fertilizers and irrigation water pumps are critical to dry season farming production in the states and most small holder farmers have been having challenges accessing these inputs.”
The EU has committed 10 million euros to the project while Oxfam is committing 1 million euros.
“It is a four-year intervention with lots of components all aimed at fighting hunger and building the resilience of farmers.
“The European Union is a co-funder of the project and they are giving about 10 million euros and Oxfam is also augmenting with 1 million euros,” Mafwalal, added.
According to him, the project is a deliberate attempt to ensure that women are given support to embark on massive rice production in the two states.
“It is a deliberate attempt to ensure that women are more empowered to achieve food security.
“When women who basically 60 per cent of farmers in rural communities are not given special consideration, they will be left behind. So we deliberately put it that 60 per cent of the beneficiaries must be women.
“At the moment, we are almost at 55-57 per cent women participation,” he added.
An Agriculture Extension worker with Kebbi State Ministry of Agriculture, Aisha Gambo, said she teaches the farmers how to apply the fertilizers they receive from Oxfam.
Gambo, who works with Oxfam on part-time basis to facilitate the PRO-ACT project, said farmers in the state have also been taught on the types of seeds and how to use them to expect bumper harvest.
“We are teaching the women how to embrace farm business fully because before now they were only farming without knowing what they were doing.
“We want them to realize that farming is not for them to just feed their family; they have to make money from it too. We gather them for farming business school where we teach them all the steps that can make them successful farmers.
“We taught them how to apply the fertilizer, not the broadcasting methods that they are used to doing. They should use their five fingers to take the fertilizers and drop.
“The types of seeds. Good seeds that will bring good yields. We advise them on how to prepare the seeds, wash them and how to know the different seeds that are viable for farming.
“We taught them to know the seeds that are most viable,” she said.
