Katsina civil servant retires into dates, flower production, makes fortunes

Horticulture, a branch of agriculture that deals with the cultivation, production and marketing of fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants, plays a vital role in a nation’s economy and has numerous benefits for the country and its people, especially in areas of food security, income generation, employment and foreign exchange (forex) earnings.

Musa Dankano Farms Limited, situated in Malumfashi LGA, Katsina State, is fully engaged in the production of horticultural crops and other aspects of agriculture on its over 300 hectares.

The farm was established in 1986 by Alhaji Shehu Musa, a retired director from the federal civil service and the traditional title holder of Dan Iyan Galadiman Katsina. It was incorporated in 1992 under the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990.

Daily Trust on Sunday visited the farm and unravels its success story, as well as challenges.

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Orchard

According to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Africa accounts for about 10 per cent of the world’s fruit production, with Nigeria being a leading producer.

Fruit farming in Nigeria and Africa is a rapidly growing industry, with vast potential for economic growth and development. Fruits are vital sources of vitamins, minerals and fibre essential for the human body.

The diverse climate, vegetation and soils in Africa, and Nigeria in particular, provide a unique opportunity for the cultivation of varieties of fruits.

The orchard section of Musa Dankano Farms is on 20 hectares, where hybrid varieties of seedlings are carefully selected, planted/propagated, with some of the trees bearing fruits for the past 10 years and still have about 20 more years of fruit bearing.

According to Alhaji Shehu Musa, the CEO of the farm, there are mango, cashew, banana, guava, pomegranate and varieties of citrus fruits, among other crops, that produce more than 100 tonnes annually.

Shehu said, “We cultivate vegetables using organic fertilisers from animal dung through innovative practices and utilisation of cutting-edge technology without compromising the natural components, health standard and nutritional value of the fruits.

“We also produce and sell varieties of exotic vegetables such as cucumber, onions, cabbage, tomato and broccoli to restaurants, eateries, individual consumers and middlemen.”

The horticulture section of the farm has a nursery where varieties of exotic flowers and grasses are grown for landscaping purposes.

Shehu said, “We offer landscaping consultancy services through the horticultural unit of our farm. We recorded huge successes in the completion of major landscaping projects in Abuja such as the old and new central banks, presidential wing of the international airport, NNPC Towers, Supreme Court, Federal Ministry of Works, and that of commerce. We worked with giant multinational companies like Julius Berger, Bouygues and G. Cappa and we recorded high commendations on most of our projects; one of which is my conferment with the National Order of Merit Award of the Federal Republic of Germany.”

Dates

Nigeria, because of its favourable climatic conditions in the North, has potential to produce and export dates to other countries; with an estimated production capacity of over 250,000 metric tonnes of dates annually according to STD Media (2023). If properly harnessed, dates farming in Nigeria can account for 70 per cent of the total dates production in West Africa.

Musa Dankano Farms is fast venturing into date production.

According to Alhaji Shehu, date production started with a trial of the ordinary variety in 1986 before he discovered the hybrid variety that is yielding fruits in a short period compared to the ordinary one.

He said, “Because I long have passion for trees generally, around 1986 when I started building my house, I planted four ordinary date plants, two of which were later discovered to be fruitless, and eliminated, one was removed by the engineer building the house and only one survived which started yielding fruits over 30 years after it was planted.”

This, according to him, propelled his interest in date production, especially as he beat up the popular adage: “He that plants a date tree may not live long enough to eat its fruits.”

He further said, “Around 2000, I was in Jigawa, passing by in Dutse when I saw a signboard that read: “Nigerian Institute of Farm Tree Research (Date Palm)”, and I went in where I met one female professor heading the place. I intended to buy the date seedlings of different hybrid varieties, but she said Borno, Yobe and Jigawa states had already paid for them all. She gifted me seven hybrid date seedlings, which I planted in my house.”

He noted that it took the hybrid variety 18 years before it started yielding fruits, explaining that the crop spends two years in the nursery stage before being transplanted.

Cereals

Because Malumfashi is blessed with fertile soil suitable for maize, sorghum and soybean, as well as rice production, Musa Dankano Farms has for over 30 years been cultivating different cereal crops.

Despite challenges of high prices of fertilisers, farm chemicals and other inputs, Daily Trust on Sunday learned that Musa Dankano Farms in the 2022 farming season applied mixed cropping and produced 50 tonnes of maize at two tonnes per hectare. They also harvested 40 tonnes of soybean, 70 tonnes of rice and 130 tonnes of sorghum.

She said there were plans to expand the production, especially to contain the demand of the proposed poultry and feed mills which were about to take off on the farm.

Preservation of ecosystem

According to FAO, between 2000 and 2005 Nigeria had the highest rate of deforestation in the world, at 55.7 per cent.

Deforestation increases the circulation of carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas emission that depletes the ozone layer that protects humans from sunrays.

Daily Trust on Sunday reports that the quest for firewood has over the years been the primary reason for deforestation in Northern Nigeria, a development that threatens indigenous tropical trees, with many of them gone into extinction.

Because of the crucial role indigenous trees play in maintaining the ecological balance and supporting other plants and animal species in the ecosystem, Alhaji Shehu decided to sustain over 10 species of such tropical trees on his farm.

He said, “When trees are cleared, the natural environment that supports them is destroyed, making it difficult to survive and reproduce. In order to alter the ugly trend I decided to preserve and sustain the over 10 species of tropical trees scattered all over the farm. Some of them like shea tree, tamarind and palm trees are economical, and many of them are medicinal.”

He added that many indigenous trees in Nigeria had medicinal properties and provided valuable resources for local communities, noting that through their decision to preserve such trees they were impacting on traditional knowledge and livelihood of indigenous people who relied on those trees for medicine, income and food.

He added that, “People from Malumfashi and its environs are coming in search of medicinal leaves, fruits and barks of such indigenous trees.”

He further said such trees were adapted to the local climatic conditions and played a vital role in regulating temperature, moisture and rainfall patterns.

This reporter discovered many tree species that are no longer found in the wild on the Musa Dankano Farms. Such trees include palm, black plum, ebony, hog plum (spondias mombim), chew stick African birch ((Anogeissus leiocarpa) and jujube red date.

Others are baobab, shea, locust bean tree, tamarind and desert dates.

As a farmer and entrepreneur, Alhaji Shehu called on youths to cue in the agricultural sector for job creation and food security.

He said, “Food is a necessity. The growing population means more food demand the world over. Youths, therefore, advised to update themselves with the current realities and technical know-how to invest in various agricultural value chains. You don’t need to own farmland or till soil before you venture into agriculture. There are many aspects of it.”