SIAKA MOMOH
Urban farming, otherwise known as urban gardening or horticulture, is not new to us. Our problem is that when we start off a project, we do not follow through. SIAKA MOMOH goes down memory lane to chronicle Nigeria’s strides in this noble terrain these past years.
Yes, not a new endeavor. Our problem is that we lack the spirit of continuity. Successive leaders at all levels of governance, love abandoning existing projects and starting their own. Urban farming has had its own share of this malaise.
Oluremi Tinubu’ s Project
Thumbs up for the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu for flagging off the Renewed Hope Initiative Agricultural Support Programme (Backyard Gardening) for the South West Zone of Nigeria.
According to the First Lady, the Launch is in fulfillment of her promise to continue to promote women, particularly farmers across the Nation. The programme was held simultaneously in three other zones, namely: North Central – Plateau State; North East – Borno State; North West- Kebbi State. It had twenty women farmers empowered with N500, 000.00 each in addition to being trained on produce preservation, cultivation and others.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu announced the readiness of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture to partner with the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) in promoting women’s involvement in Agriculture.
Olusegun Obasanjo’s OFN
It would be recalled that between 1976 and 1980, the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo introduced what it called Operation Feed the Nation (OFN). It was a scheme meant to fight poverty and hunger. It sort to increase local food production and by so doing reduce imports. Nigerians were encouraged to cultivate empty plots of land, to farm on undeveloped building plots.
Status of this city farming now
Joshua Samaila was one of several vegetable farmers who owned farms along Lagos-Badagry Motorway – the area stretching through Fin Niger, Abule-Ado, and Oluti . He has been involved in farming since 1995. Back home in Niger State, where he hails from, he farmed groundnut, maize, cassava and cowpea. In his farm here in Lagos, he grew spring onions, lettuce, garbage and local vegetables.
Joshua had just one staff that was not available on the day he was interviewed. So he had so much to do that day. He shuttled between a shallow pull of water located within the farm and rows of appealing vegetable beds, fetching water with two buckets and spraying its content on the vegetables. Joshua’s group of vegetable farmers called Dantata Farms (nine of them that belong to the group – the total number of vegetable farmers is 50) belong to Festac Cooperative Agricultural Multipurpose Society (FESTAC CAMS) made up of 14 groups. Others in the group are piggery, poultry, and snail farmers. Joshua is the secretary of the vegetable farmers group.
Group Meetings
The group meets fortnightly off season, which is during the raining season but once a month when in season, that is dry season. The group is not exploring the advantages of size to empower members businesses. For instance, it is expected that as a group, FESTAC CAMS should not have problem accessing loans from banks since it can explore the advantage of peer group influence to access funding as a group. It can also do cooperative exporting because as a group, it can put together the large volume request of oversea buyers. But this is not the case because; according to Joshua, “members do not cooperate”. He cited the example of only nine members out of 50 agreeing to belong to FESTAC CAMS.
And this no doubt is why the income of these farmers is low. Joshua Samaila earned N30, 000 a month “when there is market”.
“Most of the time, when we cannot sell, we throw away lots of vegetable,” he said.
Haruna Musa who hails from Jigawa State has been in farming for 30 years. His farm was adjacent to Joshua’s and he grew bitter leaf, lettuce and garbage. Like Joshua, his monthly revenue was N20, 000. Said he: “We spend a lot of money on pesticides, manure and at the end of the day we sell little and throw away so much”.
Kande Penuel, a lady vegetable farmer and wife of navy personnel has done farming for 20 years. Kande, from Gombe State, grew up in a family farm and so agriculture has become a passion for her. And interestingly, she studied Agriculture at the School of Agriculture, Bauchi State. For her too, demand can be lull sometimes, and this happens “we throw away the stock that we cannot sell.
In her farm, she had 100 beds of vegetable. It takes ten days for the vegetable on beds to mature and the harvest from a bed is N300. This means she made N30, 000 in 10 days and N90, 000 in a month, “if all goes well”. Perhaps one can estimate an income of between N60, 000 and N70, 000 a month for Penuel. She can make more money if she has more vegetable beds. Sales are made through contractors who come to buy for corporate bodies like hotels and noodles manufacturers like De-United.
Today, these farms are no more. Reconstruction of the Lagos/Badagry Motor-way has sent them packing. Too bad. This is why they are here being reported in past tense.
Horticulture
Horticulture is defined as the art of gardening or plant growing; in contrast to agronomy – the cultivation of field crops such as cereals and animal fodder, forestry – cultivation of trees and products related to them, or agriculture – the practice of farming. Urban horticulture can also be seen as intensive production of a range of vegetables; aromatic, medicinal, flowering and ornamental plants grown mainly in the city or at its close periphery where there is competition among land uses. The origin of horticulture lies in the transition of human communities from nomadic hunter-gatherers to sedentary or semi-sedentary horticultural communities, cultivating a variety of crops on a small scale around dwellings.
