In 2004, the Kwara State Government invited 13 displaced farmers to come and --continue their trade from where the Robert Mugabe dictatorship stopped them. In five years, the farmers, in partnership with their host government, have revolutionised Kwara’s agricultural sector. SOLA AYO-ADERELE who was in the state to see things first hand, reports.

For a state that ranks third from the bottom of the Federal Allocation budget, and considering the remarkable strides that the Bukola Saraki administration has achieved in about six years in office, it is not an exaggeration to say that Kwara is doing great things for itself.

The journey by road to Kwara and later to some rural areas of the state was an eye-opener. For me, the decision to visit Kwara was borne out of the curiosity to know, first-hand, what has become of the much-trumpeted invitation extended to a handful of Zimbabwean farmers by the state government in February 2004, which has culminated in the agricultural revolution of the State.

As I traversed Oyo and Osun states on the way to Kwara, I marvelled at the level of dilapidation of public infrastructure especially roads in each state. For instance, in Iwo, Osun State, a bridge that links the traveller with Kwara had collapsed a long time ago, yet the state government perhaps isn’t aware! Instead of a bridge, in place for vehicles to pass over a shallow river were logs of timber woods, which are fast sinking.

The first attraction for a first time traveller to Kwara is the absence of social miscreants otherwise known as Area Boys, for which Lagos is notorious. Even the motor parks are devoid of the ubiquitous touts that make life a living hell for park users. The taxi cabs are well-maintained, and the roads are generally good.

Hotel services are superb and the charges are moderate. I stayed in Broadway Hotels off Fate Road in the GRA, while I had a dinner of freshwater fish at the Ocean Restaurant, also in the GRA.

The journey to Shonga, the agric town where the Zimbabwean farmers are doing what many have referred to as ‘miracles’, is as interesting as it is revealing. For one, it reveals the rural life in Kwara, without the usual neglect that sometimes attends rural areas. All the villages that line the road have electricity and access to pipe-borne water. Schools are reasonably maintained also, as most of the physical structures seem to testify.

In Kwara, public-private partnership in business is the in-thing, as the state government tactically withdraws from being the sole operator or financier of projects or industries that are better run by private individuals or firms. Two of such companies are a cashew processing company – Olam Nig. Ltd and a furniture-making factory, Kwara Ethnix Designs. To make the firms competitive and profitable, the state government had invited foreigners to partner with it. Consequently, the companies have been turned around and gainfully employ the locals. Indeed, an authoritative source in the state even disclosed that a major hotel based in Lagos recently employed the furniture company to do a complete refurbishing of all its suites.

The PPP is mostly successful in the Kwara State agric sector, where hundreds of hectares of farmlands are being cultivated for various crops, including maize, soybean, rice, cassava, latropha, ginger, etc., with some of the crops, especially maize and latropha, geared towards the production of biofuel, while interested parties also sponsor cassava cultivation for the production of ethanol in no distant future.

It is amazing how much Kwara has opened wide its doors to investors from all over the country and beyond. Investors in the state’s agricultural sector came from backgrounds as varied as Russia, Israel, Sweden, South Africa, United States of America, etc., apart from the Zimbabwean farmers whose activities had opened the floodgate to other investors.

The 13 farm settlements in Shonga are a testimony to the adage that where there’s a will, there’s a way. They are a proof that if government could provide enabling environment, investors will come at the slightest prodding and jobs will be created and poverty reduced to the minimum level.

The dams for each farm by the state government are a marvel, what with their sheer sizes and functionality. As the Area Officer of the Kwara State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr. Yahya Shonga, demonstrated how the dams are turned off and on for irrigation purposes and other needs, for once, I commend a government for delivering on its electoral promises to the people.

The silo in one of the dairy farms is another modern farming technique to commend. One of the Zimbabwean farmers, Mr. Allen Jack, who raises cattle, had constructed the silo to serve as a food reservoir of his cows. It is approximately 100 feet deep, with corn buried deep in its belly. Workers at the silo explained that when maize is harvested, it is poured into it as a form of storage. The earth condition protects the maize from doing bad as it ferments, and the maize can be there for as long as five or more years until it is needed as cattle feed.

The maize oozed a sweet-sour aroma as it was being unearthed and loaded into a waiting truck, for onward transportation to the farm, where it would be fed to cows, in addition to their regular grass.

The road to Shonga farms is lined with newly installed electric poles, while each farm settlement has a transformer attached to it. Sad to say, however, electricity supply has been as elusive as could be. One of the mechanised farmers lamented that his dairy factory uses 1,000 litres of diesel a day, which is a drain on resources.

I bought a bottle of yoghurt at the farm for N70, making me to wonder how much it will be sold in Lagos by the time it gets transported down there.

Thus, while a state government strives to transform its economy, Federal Government monopolies, in this case, the ubiquitous Power Holding Company of Nigeria Plc, remains a clog in the wheels.

Another federal institution which another farmer, Mr. Jobler, complained about is the Nigerian Ports Authority, where the problem of port congestion had delayed the clearing of his farm equipment for about nine months running. As a result, the abattoir for his poultry that was to have kicked off in February is being put on hold.

And the poultry! It houses approximately 30,000 birds at a stretch, mainly broilers, which mature in just 35 days. The poultry features automated feeding troughs and water ‘pockets’ for individual chicken.

As I ruminated on the possible future implications of leasing huge land mass to non Kwarans and non-Nigerians for farming projects, the state’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Commissioner, Prof. Mohammed Yisa, said the lands had been there for ages with no one cultivating them, and that the state government, not wanting a likely repeat of what the nation is currently experiencing in the Niger Delta, maximally compensated the affected communities without necessarily displacing them. The Zimbabweans (aptly renamed New Nigerian Farmers) were also encouraged to teach their host communities’ farmers the intricacies of modern farming techniques. The harmony between the local farmers and the foreign ones is such that their farmlands exist opposite one another. However, the difference is clear, what with the array of mechanised equipment that are available to the foreigners, the majority of whom have over 20 years’ experience of mechanised farming.

The Punch (pg 46): 02/09/09