By the time he started out as a farmer he was sufficiently interested and learned
about the art of farming that it would be wrong to say he went in out of sheer
necessity or because he had no options. Yes, he took up a job on a farm when it
was becoming difficult to get employment, shortly after he concluded his national
service. But by the time he became a farmer himself he had no doubt that he was
on his sure ground.
In the over three decades that he has been in the business of agriculture he has
had good stories to tell, of success and impartation of knowledge. He has also
successfully adapted to situations when occasions called for it. Within that space
of time, he has also learnt many things about the challenges of the farmers and
how much impact the government policies may have had on them.
In this interview, Olanrewaju Fatai Ibrahim, a 1986-graduate of Philosophy from
the prestigious University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, bares
his mind on many things about farming, government policies, officials
implementing the policies, and what shapes the results come out of the often-
advertised government interventions. His interview will be published in a series.
The first being his experience of the much talked about Anchor Borrowers
Programme, ABP. In this excerpt Olanrewaju speaks about the myriad of
challenges that a farmer is confronted with in Nigeria, including the economic
sanctions during the regime of the late dictator, General Sani Abacha. He said the
sanctions tied the hands of Nigerian farmers who were far ahead of the their
peers in the West African sub-region, and gave farmers in other countries to take
over the market in Europe and the Middle East!
How did you get into farming?
After my service year I couldn’t get a job as starter. I had to take up a job with
MUNACHO FARMS based in Oke owo in Lagos state. The basic things they were
doing were fish farming and Pine-apple plantation formation. That was the time
when the earthen pond was in vogue. They had close to 4.4 acres of fishponds.
The farm was about 15 hectares. So, when some of the ponds were knocked
down, we took to pineapple planting, very much in large quantity. Then we had
staff of National Institute of Horticultural Research, NIHORT, (Ibadan) consulting
for us. From there I took an interest in farming. My stint with the farm then was
just 2 years and two months. Thereafter I started my consultancy business in
agriculture. I basically majored initially on pineapple formation. During this
period, I can say with all pride that I was fortunate to be producing about 50% of
pineapple fruits consumed in Lagos state during the off season.
You alone?
Yes, so that was after I started my Consultancy business. I started establishing for
bigger farms at Ado-odo, Atan and Igbesa axis, Abaranje, Okerube and Ibafo (all in
Ogun State) and these farms were basically pineapple plantation farms and with
the aids of growth regulator, a chemical we use in induction of pineapple fruiting.
That assisted us to be able to programme our fruiting towards the time that
pineapple will be off season. So far so good I can still remember vividly I planted
well over 1.8 million pineapple suckers as of then. But during that period, we still
had people that were ready to work on the farm. Pineapple used to be a very
technical crop because of its difficult method of weeding. We are using chemicals
even though not sufficient to take care of the weeds. So, we have to have the use
of manual. Then we got people who were dedicated to farming because the
rewards were very okay then for the workers of the farm. In fact some of the
workers who worked with me then as staff were earning far above what a
graduate could earn then in a month. But later in the years, when the exportation
of pineapple became so difficult, that was during (late General Sani) Abacha years
(the business ran into problem). Those who patronised us were taking our fruits
to countries like Saudi Arabia, Italy some were even processing here converting
them to juice that were exported. Some are using pineapple fruits for wine. I
remember a company around Onilekere, close to The Punch office. You have wine
such as shifting wine, and market movers like Chivita making use of the pineapple
fruits. There are company in Ota making fruits to produce marmalade jam and
another company in Ibadan. During Abacha years when Nigeria became a pariah
nation some of the people /companies exporting pineapple could no longer take
them out of the country and coupled with the fact that the introduction of
motorcycles into transportation business just started and most of the farm
workers then took to buying motorcycles and doing okada business, which
reduced the manpower then.
During Abacha years when Nigeria became a pariah nation some of the
people /companies exporting pineapple could no longer take them out of
the country
You mean during Abacha era; you experienced a downward trend?
We did then because there were stringent measures against Nigeria nation. I said
initially that some of our fruits were being taken to Europe even to the middle
east like Saudi Arabia.
Sorry, I will want you to explain in detail how your business was affected by
Abacha government?
What am trying to say is that when Nigeria became a pariah nation, most
countries were not ready to do business with Nigeria and because of this we no
longer get those fruits exported out of Nigeria then. We all knew that during the
time of Abacha, there was a downward trend in business because of the sanctions
imposed on the country by foreign nations. Companies that were in the business
of extracting raw pineapple juice and exporting them to Germany could not get
there products out any longer.
You started farming shortly after you left the university, what has been the
experience so far?
Well, the experience wasn’t too bad when we first started because you can see
reward for your sweat and for the work you were doing then in terms of the
profits that were coming from the sales of pineapple fruits. And the interest
people were showing in pineapple business because it is a perennial crop and
given the geometrical rate at which suckers multiplies, it means that if a
pineapple plantation is well managed you can always get money from different
sources apart from the fruits that can give you money. Pineapple suckers too that are offshoot of the mother suckers that we planted can easily be harvested and
sold to would-be pineapple farmer. While these were happening, as I said earlier,
we started having a downturn and more importantly, as of the time pineapple
business was thriving in 1991/92/93 up to sometimes in 1996, most African
countries were just starting pineapple business. Like Ghana, Cote devoir and
Republic of Benin. These countries made it a state policy to have fruits like
pineapple which they exported to the European countries. They took advantage
of the sanctions against Nigeria and now took over the business of pineapple
then. In fact, until the pineapple in Ghana started coming into Nigeria, Nigeria
pineapple happen to be the best because of its juicy nature. We have sweet Kew
and queen pineapple varieties.
(Ghana, Ivory coast and Republic of Benin) took advantage of the sanctions
against Nigeria and now took over the business of pineapple then.
Even from a far distance when you are
approaching a pineapple plantation you would have been perceiving the aroma of
the queen’s pineapple that will make it attractive for you to wanting to take
pineapple. As of then there was Aghenebode pineapple by AG Leventis, another
in Port Harcourt, Uwaguluchi that was basically exporting most of its fruits. As
soon as the effect of that sanctions started impacting on Nigeria, the business
started going down and more so other African countries have started the business
of pineapple plantation formation in full scale. Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory coast and
Republic of Benin made agricultural business a state policy to export their
pineapple produce. For instance, Ghana policy during the time of Jerry Rawlings
was that 75% of her produce should be exported because they have an airfield
where they wet lease cargo plane that airlift their agricultural produce from the
farm immediately, they are harvested, put them in cartoons and export them to
Europe. So, when we couldn’t get people to support us, it started becoming less
profitable. Pineapple is a crop that does not like too much heat to do very well. At
that time, you can have a pineapple size as big as 6kg, 7 kg per one and the rain
too was very consistent. We weren’t experiencing what we called nonfactor,
global warming. Rain was at its time and sunshine at its time too. Basically, the
rain if it’s in excess most times, affects the size of the fruits.
Affect it negatively or positively?
Definitely, negative.
It makes it smaller, right?
Smaller.
Which eventually affects the weight?
Yes, the weight. Pineapple likes water-sun-spread evenly.
Talking about climate when did you start experiencing the climate change as in
affecting the farm produce especially the type you are dealing with and what
has been the efforts put in place to mitigate against it to ensure that there is
stability in the farm produce?
Thank you very much. Nigeria is basically rain fed agriculture because all over the
places here we have the plantation we don’t have irrigation that would have
assisted during the dry season to water the farm. In this situation you are helpless
because the farm you are talking about are basically on dry lands whereby, we
don’t have rivers closer to the place and there is no amount of borehole you can
have that will take care of the plantation where you have about 500,000 or
200,000 pineapple suckers. So that would not have made any economic sense
because powering the bore hole would have been too much for the farmer to
absorb.
For you to have such, it will not be one or two bore holes to cover the
size of the land we are talking about, so it means you buy diesel because most of
the places where the farms are located are rural settings where they don’t have
constant electricity, they don’t even have electricity around the place. So later
when we could no longer cope, Cotonou pineapple took over and sometimes we
go as far as Togo to go and bring pineapple to sell when we don’t have to sell
during the off season. The thing later became so serious when there was no
control over the remnants of pineapple that were coming from Cotonou. It
affected the price of the pineapple we have here. Over here most of our land is
forest area, which you have to clear to have pineapple farms and it impact so
seriously on the cost of maintenance because you have to weed and weed over
after using herbicide called deron. Over there in Cotonou, they have dry lands
where they plant their pineapples with less weeds and their government are
seriously supporting them. But here there is no support from anybody, even to
get fertilizer then, used to be very, very tough. That was what was happening
then.
Over there … their government are seriously supporting them. But here
there is no support from anybody, even to get fertilizer then used to be
very, very tough.
As time went on, we have to diversify into other areas of agriculture like oil
palm plantation, maize, cassava and what have you. In all honesty if not for
passion, for one to say you want to rely on farming is too difficult and too risky.
In all honesty if not for passion, for one to say you want to rely on farming
is too difficult and too risky.
Why?
Because since we do rain fed agriculture, short duration courses are susceptible
to weather control. If you have too much water, they won’t do very well. If you
have inadequate water, the plant won’t do well. So, we took to planting
watermelon, cucumber, maize, cassava and we found out that all these things are
at the mercy of the weather. During the time of maize if the flower starts coming
out and the rain seizes, you found out that you can’t bring anything out of it. Even
in cassava, when the rain starts disturbing and you are supposed to weed, by the
time you come back to weed after the rain must have subsided nothing much will
come out of it. And basically, cassava was not even selling too well then because
people can get rice from Cotonou to eat. All these things really affected the
farmers, but as farmers that we are we always look unto God. Let’s continue
trying that God will reward us. The worst thing affecting us is that the government
is not doing anything to assist the farmers beside the fact that the land they gave
us. But in the area of land, they made it possible for us to have land to farm.
Other things that have to go along with it like land preparation, you are at the
mercy of tractor owners who can always disappoint you. You give them money
they may not turn up to plough your land at the right time. Those are some of the
issues we are facing.
Are those issues persisting?
They persist now. When you take a census of tractors that we have in Nigeria, you
even google it, all over Nigeria I don’t think we have one million tractors.
As at today?
As at today even they are not up to 300,000 functional tractors.
Assuming we have about 1000 tractors, how efficient are they; are they working
and who are the owners of these tractors, individuals, or the government?
Most of the tractors presently in Nigeria are old/worn-out tractors which are
being managed by the respective owners. Getting the tractors spare parts like
tyres which is very critical to tractors because without good tyres the tractors
cannot do well on the farm.
(The few) tractors presently in Nigeria are old/worn-out tractors which are
being managed by the respective owners.
But good ones are very difficult to come by. You have
the owners improvising the ones they have. Since most of the farms are being
ploughed you have stumps probably uproot some trees, shrubs and stumps
affecting the tyres of the tractor’s equipment like the ploughs and all the rest of
it. That was the case then.