Bumper harvest sees dry season maize farmers smiling to bank

Maize farmers in Benue State are excited over the bumper harvest they are recording in this year’s dry season.

The farmers did not nurse much worry about the challenge of army worm infestations on their farms, which were prevalent with the rain-fed maize production season.

Our correspondent reports that earlier in April, the maize farmers who cultivated their fields by the bank of the River Benue harvested their crops, and some of them realised encouraging turnover.

While most of the dry season farmers cultivated the crop for consumption and income purposes, a few others, like Teryima Farms, cultivated theirs for multiplication to enable rain-fed farmers to get quality seeds.

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Adah Kings, a maize farmer, whose field is located at the bank of the River Benue that stretches along Fidi community, opposite the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) in Makurdi, said the dry season experience excited him.

He said his dry season maize harvest was quite useful for him in terms of income generation and consumption.

Kings, however, added that he would like to multiply seeds for other farmers, like Teryima Farms does, in the next dry season because not many maize farmers in the state have explored that aspect, despite being a money spinner.

“I just relocated to Benue from Niger State, where I used to do farming on a large scale during the season. When I got here (my home state), I discovered that many people were hungry because it was the dry season. They don’t go to farms and had nothing to do as they continued to wait for the rainy season.

“They don’t do dry season farming, plus there is fear of insecurity on their farms, so I cultivated a portion around the airport area by the river. I’m glad to say that the harvest has been impressive.

“While I was going around the banks of the river, I crossed over to the agric university side and saw the impressive maize farm there by Teryima Farms. I loved what they were doing there and would want to do the same on my farm during the next dry season,” Kings said.

He called on the state government to make tractors available to young men like him who are interested in improving agriculture in the state.

Kings added, “There is a need for all-year-round farming in the state with the advantage of the huge water bodies. I can’t understand why, in the face of these natural resources, farmers would still engage in hard labour during the rainy season and then stay at home doing nothing in the dry season.

“I’m excited about dry season farming and would want to transfer my wealth of knowledge to excel in Benue.  I want to do it for income generation and consumption.

“So, I plead with the state government to make available tractors as well agric inputs to get some of us who love farming to transform the agricultural sector of the state.”

For Vitalis Tarnongu, a big-time farmer known for cultivating large expanse of field all seasons in Makurdi, dry-season farming remains the way to go if the government is serious about its green revolution.

Tarnongu, who currently cultivated 1,000 hectares of land on the River Benue bank at the Federal University of Agriculture (FUAM) in Makurdi, now known as Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University Makurdi (JOSTUM), also set aside some land to multiply maize seeds.

“Dry season farming is one of the best so far, but as we speak, I’m the only one doing it here in Benue on a bigger scale. I already have the market waiting for me. It’s bringing in a reasonable profit.

“In this field, I’m multiplying foundation seeds, and I’m doing it in this dry season so that nothing will contaminate it. Farmers can use these seeds, which are at the harvest stage, for planting during this year’s wet season, which starts in May.

“Ideally, the wet season should have started in April, but for the climate change that is now affecting early planting. That’s why predictions indicate that rain will stabilise by this month – May,” he said.

According to him, at least 100 internally displaced people living in camps, especially women, would benefit from the seed harvest as he intended to give each of them one hectare of space on his field to plant their maize for their own benefit.

Tarnongu further explained that the government can help farmers in the state by paying more attention to the agricultural sector for revenue generation in the face of dwindling oil economy.

“We strongly believe in agriculture and advise the present and future governments to pay more attention to it for revenue generation, self-reliance, and economic growth of our state.

“We encourage others to embrace agriculture so that we can retain our status as the food basket of the nation,” he further said.

Another maize farmer, Mrs Ngunan Terna, also expressed satisfaction with her dry season harvest, stressing that she drew inspiration from Teryima Farms from where she got seeds.

Terna said dry season maize farming yielded good income for her, as she expressed optimism about continuing to invest in all-season farming.

“I prefer dry season farming to the rainy season. I planted maize and the outcome in terms of money was quite lucrative. I did rice too and that was also lucrative.

“Right now, I am into land preparation for the rainy season. I will be planting the two-month harvest maize variety. But, I can tell you that the dry season farming has fewer issues, especially as we don’t have to contend with weed control,” she said.

Meanwhile, one of the workers at Teryima Farms, Terna Iorhol, told our correspondent that his duty is to ensure the irrigation of the farm as the manager.

Iorhol waters the plants by the River Benue bank at least three times a day through the long hose attached to the generating pump, which powers the water directly from the river to the expanse of land.

“We need support for our company from both the federal and state governments to tackle the challenges of insecurity. Also, this is a big farm, the government can help with subsidies to erect some buildings in the farms for the workers, and the purchase of chemicals, fertilizer and tractors,” the farm manager added.

Corroborating the farm manager, another worker who oversees security on the farm, Titus Chacul, said the biggest challenge was the threat by herders who release their cattle to graze at night.

He said, “The herders come to attack at night; they bring their cows to eat up crops. I appeal to the federal government to strengthen security in the state. Apart from the security challenge, the snake invasion on the farm is also quite worrisome.”