A journey of about 70 kilometres from Kano city takes a traveller to Anadariya farm in Tiga district of Bebeji local government area of Kano state. Big bird houses and virgin land starts welcoming a visitor to the farm from a distance of about two kilometres before arriving the farm’s main entrance.
The vast land of about 2,000 hectares as well as facilities on ground are certainly enough to send a convincing signal that Anadariya farm is a giant agricultural centre. There are well over 40 birds’ houses with each occupying about two hectares of land spread across the farm.
Sections for staff quarters, offices, dam and even settlements meant for local residents indicate that before the farm closed shop, it was self sufficient. Though some of those facilities are wearing a dilapidated look due to years of lack of attention, their presence sends a message that there was once a giant farm that is yearning for revival; if not for anything, to fight against poverty and empower lots of people seeking for jobs.
Anadariya farm was founded by the late Alhaji Usman Sanusi Dantata during the 1960s. After operating for decades, the farm rose to prominence especially in the area of poultry farming. It became a centre of excellence in poultry that turned out to be a pride for the north and the country at large.
One of the sons of late Dantata, Usman Dantata Jr, saw the need of reviving the farm, saying, “I am presently the President and Chief Executive Officer of the farm. We have started reviving the farm to what it used to be before it closed down due to unforeseen circumstances.
“In 1985, my father had an accident after which he was hospitalised in America and for over 13 years he was not here. Obviously, businesses like this need one to be on ground. Because of that, the business gradually faded. I think we deliberately decided to stop all activities because we felt it was not right to be doing something that we cannot properly monitor. However, the infrastructure are still on ground and we are back to restart the business. For a year now, we are in the process of reviving the farm,” he said.
According to Dantata Jr, since the farm was prominent on poultry farming, poultry would be given more attention in the reviving process, adding, “But we are doing an integrated agric business that would include hatchery, production of feed, broilers, layers, processing and selling.
“Apart from that, we have about 2,000 hectare of land, which we are farming now. We have a farming department, essentially for our chicken feed. But we hope to diverse into food farming, fruit and vegetables,” he said.
It is obvious that successful management of a farm like Anadariya would require experienced and skilled manpower. He said they are not taking that area for granted. Above all, he said, the management under his headship has the passion to ensure that the farm strives.
“To be honest with you I have an investment/banking background. I worked with Marylyn in London and EDF. I was also a trader of commodities before I came back here. More importantly, I went to North Carolina where I got a certificate in feed production and broiler management.
“More than experience, I think what drives agricultural business is the passion. If you have the passion, I think it works better than the knowledge. On top of that, I have surrounded myself with some of the top managers in the field both locally and internationally. We have surrounded ourselves with a very strong team that comprises many doctors that have extensive experience of over 20 years in the field of poultry and agriculture.
“On our part, we are people who can learn quickly and we have market orientation of it. So, all these put together, I think we have established quite a big operational team,” enthusiastic Dantata Jr said.
He believes that the challenges facing the agricultural sector can only be solved if Nigerians work hard to surmount those challenges. He said it is Nigerians that ought to struggle to put the country back on track with initiatives like that of Anadariya farm.
“Generally, we should also help. Here in the north, there is prevalence of poverty and the only way forward is to get businesses like this going. The social effect that this type of business would have on our people is what is driving us. We know that this business would affect the lives of thousands of people. Already, we have a couple of hundreds of workers that we have employed. When we take up fully, we hope to employ about 25,000 people directly, and you know there would be much more indirect effect.
“So, we are hoping that with businesses like this, and with the help of state and federal governments, we would pull out of the tight situation that we are in right now. Here in Kano, I think the state government is helping us a lot. Also at the federal level, I think the agriculture initiative is also there. The minister of agriculture, I think, has the passion,” Dantata Jr said. Daily Trust observed that the renovation works at the Anadariya farm have gone far. Out of the 44 broilers and layers’ houses, work has been completed on 20, and these 20 houses are now operational for broilers only. It was also observed that some houses in the broilers’ section have been filled with chicks. Going round the layers’ section, workers were seen busy fixing the required equipments.
“Insha Allah,” Dantata Jr said, “very soon we would get the farm back to where it was before. Presently, we have about 50,000 broilers, and in the next couple of months we hope to have about 400,000 layers. Gradually, we are progressing. We are now at the set up phase and in the next six month or one year, we would be fully back with millions of birds going in and out of the farm.
“We have started producing broilers; 20,000 to 30,000 per week. For layers, they are more delicate. But our cages are getting ready and in the next two to three weeks, about 100,000 birds would be in and after that I think the sky would be our limit.”
On how to market their products, Dantata Jr said in order to have a feel of the market, he has for long been engaged in poultry business but at a small scale, adding, “We didn’t just start the business. I have been doing the business on a small scale with 50,000 broilers and 50,000 layers in and out. We did that to get the feel of the market and understand the market. We did that for a whole year. I am also happy that the Anadariya farm has kept good contact with its old clients. The people that used to do business with my father are still with us. We are discussing and they are ready to partner with us.
“We are also coming across new customers. We have a team that goes out there to look for new customers. The process should be a growing one and everyday should be a new day in the distribution process. We want to go phase by phase in marketing our products. We are starting with Kano, then neighbouring states, Nigeria and West Africa.
“We hope to reach the stage my father got to where he had a Boeing 747 plane flying chickens to Saudi Arabia twice a week. We feel attaining that feat is not something impossible, but we are taking it step by step. We have started discussing with people in neighbouring countries and we want to see how far we can go. We have spent quite a lot of money on equipment because the business we are into cannot strive without those equipments. We have gone to some leading companies in the world to acquire our equipment,” he said.
However, Dantata Jr said one of the challenges that is facing the farm is the problem of electricity. He said the farm management cannot allow the electricity problem to tie them down. And as such, he said, the farm is doing everything possible to address the problem of electricity and water in the farm.
“In a farm like this, we need electricity for our hatchery section. On the layers side, we have automatic feeder machines that work with electricity, and on the broilers and feed sections, we also need electricity for the machines there.
“We are hoping that light would soon reach our farm as I know the governor (Kano) is working hard on that not only for us but for the neighbouring towns and villages, who would benefit more. For now, we are trying to manage the electricity through converter, generator and solar sources,” he said.
As operation continues to improve, the management of Anadariya aspires to increase its activities in the farming sector in the cultivation of crops, fruits and vegetable like tomatoes, onions, mango, guava, oranges, wheat and even rice, adding, “We are planning a situation where we would have people who would be farming for us and buy back from them as a means of empowerment,” he said.
“We are close to the local people and they are very helpful, and this is why we feel we should give the issue of social responsibility attention. We plan to be giving them broilers and layers to take care of as a means of empowering them to fight against poverty. We feel that these are some of the things that would keep this business going. We pray that Allah would continue to assist us.”
As activities have begun to take proper shape in Anadariya farm, the next six months or one year would be an enthusiastic period for both the farm management and the public. Obviously, the return of a situation where millions of chickens and eggs are exported to foreign countries would provide various forms of opportunities for different set of Nigerians.
