Women who produce most of the food in a community in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been taught how to overcome their most pressing challenges.
Chances are that you have not heard much about Kwali beyond the fact that a popular hall in a prestigious hotel in the nation’s capital borrowed its name from the community. But then, there are many things you don’t know about this rural setting in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). One of those things is that it is women who till the soil and grow most of the food the residents eat. Well, youths and few men also join in, but it is the women who mostly do the job.
That is fine by Kwali. What is not fine, though, is that the growers are in agony, lacking almost everything they need to produce the food, and facing all kinds of danger to boot. For instance, they lack access to funding. Their seedlings are of poor quality, and there is no market nearby to sell what they harvest. There are other challenges, but it appears rampaging herdsmen and their cattle are their worst nightmares.
They grow yams, sesame seeds, beans, cassava, sorghum and rice.
“We have a lot of problems as farmers here in Kwali. Most of the time, we don’t get loans to buy seeds but we have been hearing that government supports farmers with small loans,” said Amina Bashir, a sorghum farmer.
A representative of Kwali farmers group, Ibrahim Zubairu described herdsmen crisis as a major problem. He said the herders often destroy their farmland not in the day but at night when they are away from the farm, only to visit the farm next morning and see everything destroyed.
“We hardly have rest of mind over our farmland. There is always fear of our crops being destroyed,” he said.
Help has come their way.
Two organisations, Youth Arise To Create Harmony Initiative International (YATCH-IN) and the African Centre for Food, Agriculture and Sustainable Development (Afri-CASD) organised a workshop to sensitise and train rural farmers and youths in the local government. Farmers from over 10 villages converged on the Kwali Community Hall for the workshop. They were enlightened on safety measures, need to embrace improved seeds, how to access credit facilities, strategies to adding value to agric produce through branding, marketing and standardisation as well as new farming techniques.
The Estu Kwali, Alhaji Shaban Audu III, urged beneficiaries of the training to make the best use of what they learnt. He decried poor market access in the community while appealing to the government to wade in to the issue and help ameliorate some of the challenges.
He said, “We are particularly very sad at the rate at which our communities are deteriorating as far as economic sufficiency is concerned, our agric produce is no longer receiving good market price because of the effect of the general situation in the country. However, other alternative choices are there and one of those choices is for individual to be very proactive.
“The other side of the story is that the government must be very serious, you cannot compare governance in Africa to the western world because our histories are not the same and sometimes that is why we have political problems and so when you have disturbances in the political system the communities themselves are in trouble because there is no good leadership”.
A keynote speaker at the event, Dr. Shuaibu Adamu, who is a regular friend of the local farmers, further enlightened them on the need to update their capacity on better farming practices. He described the workshop as one of the opportunities. According to him, the word agriculture is broad and thus should be addressed based on peculiar needs of the farmers. He talked about seedlings, stressing that it remains the foundation to better farm yields. He said that good quality seeds will always produce better harvest, unlike poor seeds.
Members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) present at the function lauded the initiative. They were excited to have the knowledge of government’s commitment to supporting youth interested in agriculture. The speaker informed the prospective farmers and other participants of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He told the corps members and other youths at the event that disbursement in FCT will commence next year. He said farming has gone beyond the conventional method, adding that it does not necessarily involve the use of cutlasses and hoes.
Adamu, who is the General Manager, FCT Community and Social Development Programme (CSDP), explained that youths could explore other potentials in the sector beyond crops such as seed marketing and production, exports, processing with supports from the Bank of Industrby y and others.
The founder and President, YATCH-IN, Hajia Khairat Animashaun, while affirming the need for the training, described the agri-business workshop as apt considering the needs and alarming population of the Nigerian youths and their restiveness, which ought to be channeled towards productive ventures such as agri-business.
“You know that we have a lot of youths that have so much need and so we decided to do something around this that will help them. There is a lot of mayhem and crisis all over the world so let’s come together in harmony because if there is no harmony we cannot produce and survive as human, so we came together with our objectives which include farming, skill acquisition, political inclusion and so on, all these are for the youth, especially those in the grassroots that do not have the opportunity to these information that we are giving them today. We are also encouraging them to be better members of our communities and we are opening a free cooperative society account for them such that they can be fully involved in this, we don’t believe in exploiting these farmers.
“We want to ensure that we educate, train and equip them and we are doing this in partnership with Afri-CASD because when the youth is empowered the reliance on government will reduce. We promise not to relent in our efforts and not disappoint them.”
In his remarks, Afri-CASD Director of Project and Research, Mr. Kazeem Biriowo, while calling on more youth involvement in agriculture emphasised on opportunities in the sector which youth could explore. He said as the nation’s population continues to increase, so is the demand for food consumption.
He noted that taking advantage of the Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP) of the government with necessary technology and innovations by the youth, sustainable solutions could be created to address numerous challenges confronting the sector and its entire value-chain.
Biriowo, called for prompt release of loans and other financial supports meant to assist farmers. He listed development banks such as Bank of Agriculture, Bank of Industry, NIRSAL and the Central Bank of Nigeria as key actors in this regard.
“There is need for timely release of these funds because if these funds are not released as at the time the farmers needed it to start a new farming season, they can actually use it for what is not intended for. So it is important for the finance institutions especially the micro finance banks which are the custodian to ensure prompt release of the funds.
“Aside, they should reduce the stringent measures to accessing the loan. It is also important for every Nigerian youth to carve a niche for himself in a specific area of agriculture to focus on while taking advantage of the rising population. Let us take the bull by the horn and before you know it you see yourself going places.”
