Senator Abdullahi Adamu is the founder of Shabu Farms, located on over 550 hectares of land in Nasarawa State. He is also the chairman of Senate Committee on Agriculture.
In this interview, he spoke on why the country must find ways of attracting the attention of the youth to agriculture, as well as the crisis rocking the leadership of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN).
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Your farm recently hosted a summit, with many stakeholders in attendance. What was the aim of the summit?
It is a continuing effort at taking a look at the problems we confront in agriculture in Nigeria and to see how various participants in the sector perceive the problems, and proffer necessary solutions.
The summit was organised by the Association of Deans of Agriculture (ADA) in the various universities and higher institutions of agriculture across the country. We made sure that we emphasise participation of the gown and the town, meaning the academics (those involved with the agric academics work in Nigeria) and the beneficiaries of these agricultural theories that are propounded day in day out, as well as the research institutions. By the time you have these two, it is like the end user of the theories we deal with at the academic level and the actual farmers who make use of these theories.
It was very well attended. We had the African Development Bank because of their interest in ‘agripreneur’, particularly the youth. We had the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology. We had state governments. Our state, Nasarawa, was in the front of that. Then we had the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and various universities.
So we had a very big attendance, and each of these stakeholders made their own inputs. We had a dialogue with key issues identified and thrown open for discussion.
At the end of the day, we had what you may call a communiqué, which we chose to call the Shabu Declaration.
We got involved when the leadership of the ADA came on a visit to the farm. I received them personally. From what they saw, they were attracted to suggest if we could volunteer to host their summit. They have conferences every year; and this is the 64th, but the summit is the first type in that platform. So when they proposed, we had no hesitation whatsoever to welcome them. And we are happy that we did.
What is your experience in running commercial farms in Nigeria; maybe it will interest others who are planning same?
It is not easy to run what you call a commercial farm. There are so many problems. The first and greatest problem is to have the land. And you must have modernised equipment for tilling the land, like tractors, planters, boom sprayers for herbicides etc. You still need labour.
It is an enterprise that requires a lot of commitment and passion. One important thing is water. You have no control over the season, and agriculture is time-bound. So you have all these factors to put together and have production. It is not easy. You can only talk of this investment if you have the capacity and time to do it, otherwise you won’t have control over what is happening in the farm and you will become what we call absentee farmer. You also need the services of extension workers. Once you have that, you are good to go.
What about the livestock farm where you produce Nagari yoghurt?
I started that one in 1988. I bought the land in Keffi when it was fairly cheap. I started with maize, cowpea, yam and guinea corn; then I introduced livestock and cattle. Along the line, as my stock, most of it indigenous cattle, was growing, I got advice to start the yoghurt you mentioned. That’s how we started with the dairy plant in Keffi. We started producing yoghurt sometime in 2000. As I got along, the need to expand came. We started with just 1,000 litres, but along the line, I got a facility from First Bank sometime around 2008, of N680 million. Then I did my cattle expansion programme for cattle processing capacity to be a full outfit. Now we produce our own feed.
It has been observed that the major problem discouraging youths from getting into agriculture is the traditional way of farming we still implore; how do you think Nigeria can key into mechanisation?
Nigerian youths of today do not know that there is honour in agriculture. They want to be in the banks and other places they think are more honourable. Now that our eyes are beginning to open to agriculture through the programmes of President Muhammadu Buhari, we need to take deliberate steps to induce it to the youth. To be alive and healthy you must have food before you can pursue any other economic goal.
We must bring the youths along in agriculture. This is so because, at 75, for example, how much more do I have to go? So we need to train the young guys and attract them to what will induce interest in them; otherwise we will have problems.
As the chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, what efforts have you made to address some of these problems?
We have passed many legislations in that regard. The Senate, in collaboration with the House of Representatives, has been working to pass legislations that would help make funds available to small and medium scale farmers. Out of the four laws we made, three have been signed.
As we speak, smallholder farmers are the ones feeding this country, not the large scale ones like me. And we don’t constitute up to 5 per cent of the population of farmers. So we have to bring legislations that would make it possible for them to access funds.
We have also passed laws about agricultural development funds and the national food reserve. We have passed laws on research councils. We need to have institutions that are up and doing and organised in such a manner that they can give the best.
Livestock farming, which you have been largely involved in, seems to have been neglected for long; what do you think should be done to make it attractive?
We have had that problem overtime, but the government of President Buhari has come up with a programme for livestock development in the country. Early this month or very late last month, the first Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) programme was launched in Nasarawa, here in Awe Local Government Area. That is just the beginning. They are four or five states that have identified lands for the programme. We are waiting to get date for commencement.
The government panicked because when the issue of RUGA came on board, there was so much fury and cry against it, particularly from those who are not farmers but the greatest beneficiaries of agriculture. The noise made, particularly in the media, made the government to retreat and remodeled its thinking. It is our hope that that would substantially take care of the problems we have in the development of livestock.
There are so many talks about herders and farmers crises. This problem has been with us for time immemorial, but for whatever reason, we have decided to politicise it, just because Buhari has a pathological link with the Fulani. They are using the opportunity to create a problem by giving the impression that the Fulani are the ones causing trouble. It is unfortunate. But I hope we have seen the worst of it and are able to move on.
The problem will continue to be there until we put our heads together and proffer solutions to these subsectors in agriculture production.
You are one of the founding fathers of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), why are you not intervening in its leadership crisis?
I don’t think it is a crisis. The AFAN is supposed to be dynamic. I have been reading about the problems in the papers. You people are helping to spread the news that there are factions in the association. Those who are behind it are political farmers.
But the minister of agriculture recently inaugurated a factional leadership in Kano.
I don’t know how it happened. I have not witnessed it. I was not part of it, so I cannot comment on that one. But one thing I know is that the AFAN, as I know it and left it, is supposed to be a non-governmental organisation. The ministry is to oversee what is happening from a distance. So it serves the ministry better to distance itself from who is president and who is not. Once they get messed into the system/conflict, they become interested persons and that further compounds the problem.
Nobody has brought the issue to me formally. I led the association for five years, so if I find that there is a role I could play to help them get things back on track and I am invited, I will be willing to help out.