Farmers in Gishiri Wuya, a village under Warawa Local Government Area of Kano State have adopted a semi-dry season farming method to combat flooding that wash away their farmlands every year.
Although this is a period when crops have started growing, the farmers were seen by our reporter harvesting their farm produce, largely rice and maize.
Gishiri Wuya, is among the villages and towns ravaged by flood in 2022. The flood not only washed away farms in the village, but also forced the people to relocate.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said flood in 2022 washed away 14,496 farmlands across 16 LGAs of Kano State.
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Gishiri Wuya lost 2,248 farmlands covering hundreds of hectares.
However, to side-track the reoccurrence of the flooding disaster, the farmers resorted to investing largely in dry-season farming.
According to many of them, the fear of flood disaster is forcing them into what is more costly but with guarantee of a bumper harvest beyond the traditional rainy period cycle.
Like Gishiri Wuya, several other farming areas in Kano and other states of the North are now adopting the measure, which is said to be serving as the only alternative to the farmers.
In an interaction with Daily Trust, the farmers said they have invested over 70 per cent of their capital in the dry season, leaving less than 30 per cent for the rainy season.
Knowingly or unknowingly, the farmers are adopting a mitigation process against the climate change effects which is said to have affected the rain fall processes, which further strengthened the dangers of flooding every year.
According to them, they have a large farming area but flood has been a threatening factor to their development. They said their hopes are dimmed, and hunger has started forcing them out despite their large fertile land.
Speaking to our reporter, one of the farmers, Shuaibu Sa’idu, said he lost his entire farm last year to the extent that he had to struggle to survive.
He said he lost two acres of rice from which he had expected to harvest 70 to 80 sacks.
According to him, switching to dry-season farming has become necessary as they want to remain in the farming system.
“I harvested one acre last week and I got 49 sacks. And the other one will be harvested in the next few days. I am expecting 50 sacks. But if it is the rainy season I have no guarantee of getting this, and even if I do, it may be affected by flood,” he said.
Sa’idu added that in the last rainy season, he invested over N200,000 in his two-hectare farm but he ended with less than half a sack.
Another farmer who harvests up to 1,500 sacks every year, Alhaji Usman Kabir, said this time around he will not expose his wealth to the flood and decided to plant before the rainy season with the hope that it will reach harvest before the flood arrived.
He said two years ago, he harvested 1,000 sacks and last year, “I was expecting the same amount or even above that. But I ended with less than 10 sacks.
“In this dry season, I am expecting 1,500. But thanks to Almighty Allah now I have over 500 sacks and I am waiting for the remaining farms to reach harvest before the rain intensifies.”
According to Alhaji Kabiru, dry season farming is costly, especially at this time of fuel subsidy removal, as they have to buy fuel for watering the crops, but “It is better we spend our money since we have control over the water.
“We spend a lot more than in the rainy season, but we are getting yields more than the rainy season. During the rainy season, I get 1,000 to 1,200 but in the dry season I get up to 1,500 sacks from the same farms.”
Daily Trust however gathered that the farmers did not abandon the rainy season entirely. They are still hopeful and prayerful of bumper harvest despite predictions by relevant stakeholders on flooding this year.
Ibrahim Adamu said although he harvested his rice two weeks ago, he is already transplanting in his farms that were just harvested, adding that he will harvest in the next 80 to 90 days.
He said while his dry season farming was ongoing, he planted more seeds in the nurseries which are now ready for transplanting, making their farming season a year-round activity.
“Now we are farming all year round because of the flood. We are forced into this because we have been losing our entire capital to flood disasters. That is why we adopted this new system. Is not that we have suspended the dry season, we only reduce our investment by nearly 70 per cent.
“I harvested my rice farm two weeks ago. And here I am at the farm, transplanting more seeds that are meant to be harvested during the rainy season.
“We have no option, farming is all that we know and are doing to survive. No matter the flood, we have to farm. But we are reducing the size to minimize the loss. I farmed over seven hectares for the dry season. But now I reduced it to three and left the rest until after rain.”
For Abdulrahim Ado, a 65-year-old resident of Larabar Gadon Sarki, dry season farming did not only give him a chance to invest in his farm, but also work for large-scale farmers, especially during harvest to make money.
Speaking to Daily Trust while they are working on a farm, Ado said with the farm labour, he is getting money to buy inputs and invest in his one-acre farm which he relied on to feed his family.
“As a smallholder farmer, I cannot rely on my farm only. It will not sustain me and my family. I have to do some side hustle. But with dry season farming, my team and I work for big farmers who pay us and we use the money to take care of our families.
“For my farm produce, I will use it to cater for other issues,” he said.
Like the male farm labourers, women and children are also not left behind, as they were sighted busy with the remains of the farm, scouting for food to eat.
Old women and young girls in these villages are always said to be feeding their families with the pickings from farms because of the intense hardship.
