Posted on: Sun, 10 Feb 2008
Graham and Judy Hatty
In 2004 a group of Zimbabwean farmers where invited by the Kwara State government to relocate to the region and start with commercial agriculture. Jaco Maritz spoke to Graham and Judy Hatty about farming in Nigeria.
How did you get involved with the Kwara Project?
Graham: The Kwara State government approached the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union in 2004. As we had lost our farms due to Zimbabwe’s land reform process, the Nigerian government were offering us a wonderful opportunity to do what we love. They said they wanted commercial farmers because there are very few in Nigeria. So a group of us, representing different facets of agriculture, went up to Nigeria to have a look and see if there is any potential up there for us. In order to show us that they were serious, the Kwara State government paid for the whole trip. We went around the country and met the president, the vice president, bank managers and entrepreneurs. They really made sure that we knew what was behind what they wanted us to do.
Nigeria wants to cut back on the importation of dairy products, chicken and rice - and initially those were the areas they wanted us to concentrate on. They’ve seen from elsewhere that commercial agriculture creates a middle class of people. Nigeria has got very wealthy and very poor people, but an extremely small middle class. They also wanted a spin of from us onto the small scale farmers so that they can improve as farmers and deliver better produce.
What assistance did you receive from the state government?
Graham: The Kwara State government said they wanted us to develop a commercial farm in five years. We suggested that each farm should be 1000 ha, realising that you can never use the whole 1000 ha because you’ve got rocks and roads and things like that. Initially we said we each wanted US$1.25-million to get going as long as they provide electricity and irrigation. They provided the land and the finance but currently we still don't have stable electricity nor irrigation. We also received a lower interest rate and we only have to start paying back our loans after five years, when we will be more established.
What agricultural activities is your group involved with?
Graham: We’ve got three farmers that are what we call a dairy syndicate. Two are crop farmers who are doing soya beans, maize and rice. Another group is doing chickens, while my group is cultivating cassava.
Judy: The cassava plant is a thick bush that grows up to three or four metres. The cassava is the roots of the plant. It grows near the surface, and they grow up to a metre long or more. Cassava is a carbohydrate and looks like a big sweet potato. It’s got a rather bland taste and is eaten with relish, meat, chicken, etc. There are, however, varieties that are sweeter.
When we first started planting cassava we took a chance and put in about 300 ha and have the most magnificent crop. In spite of receiving no rain for six months and being in a temperature of around 40 degrees, it just carried on growing. It’s almost indestructible. Cassava needs a little bit of weeding, and a little bit of fertiliser, and that’s it. It grows with very little rain, but obviously with irrigation it would do fantastically. We already have 120 ha in the ground for next year.
We are working very closely with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture research station and they are doing many trials on our farms. The potential for cassava is enormous and very exiting.
What opportunities are there in the processing of cassava?
Graham: Cassava contains starch from which about 400 products can be made. Then there is glucose syrup from which one can produce about 60 products. One can also make flour from it. The guy from the starch factory we are dealing with says the orders he gets are four times more than what he can produce. Someone involved with glucose syrup production told us that even if they process 2 000 tonnes of tuber a day, they will still battle to meet the domestic market.
There is a factory in Lagos that wants cassava chips but it is too far away. You need the factory close by. The glucose syrup guy said that he will set-up a factory in our area if we can guarantee that we will grow enough cassava. And we can. There is a lot of local small scale farmers around us. I’ve got thirty hectares of new cassava varieties which are currently being tested. Once we know which are the optimum ones for our area – they will be given to the local guys, so that everyone will be growing the right variety.
Whoever is interested in investing in our area must come and see us. We will show them the right people to deal with so that their project has government backing.
Judy: We have discovered that most of the bread in Nigeria has got cassava flour in it. They need about a 1 000 tonnes of cassava flour a day and you need 4 000 tonnes of cassava a day to produce that. No matter how much we plant, it seems as if there will always be a demand for cassava. We have had a lot of interest from people wanting to set-up processing factories, but nothing has happened yet.
There is someone with a starch mill about 600 km from us and we are trying to persuade him to rather bring his mill to us. We are trying to convince them that when we say we are going to get a certain amount, we do. There is so much potential.
Is there an overseas market for cassava?
Judy: Yes. People in Europe have approached us looking to buy cassava chips to use for the production of ethanol. But transport is a problem in Nigeria. We need reliable transporters. We’ve got this crop, we’ve got a buyer who is willing to give us a good price, but we can’t transport it at the moment. Luckily cassava can stand in the ground for up to two or three years and doesn’t have to be reaped at a certain time.
What needs to be done to get commercial farming going in Nigeria?
Judy: Nigeria needs outsiders to come and kick-start the whole business of commercial farming. They invited us because there is a lot of talk about commercial farming, but they know we can actually do it. At the moment there is ignorance towards commercial farming. Nigerians are bright, and they learn very quickly and they are enthusiastic, but it is just ignorance and lack of experience. This is all new territory for them.
Where do you get your labour from?
Graham: There are quite a few villages in the area where we were given our farms. At first the government offered to move the villages but we wanted them to stay because those were the people we would draw our workers from. We said that if we get electricity, they must also get electricity. And if we get irrigation, then they must get irrigation. We didn’t want to be special. And it has worked well.
I’ve got two villages next to my farm, so I take half my labour from one village, half from the other. Because my farm is a thousand hectares, the one group works on the one side of the farm while the other group works on the other side. This way everyone works relatively close to home. At one stage earlier this year I had 320 workers to get a certain job done, and last year I had 450 workers for a month, so there is enough labour.
Out local staff are learning to work although they sometimes battle. They work throughout the morning until about 14:00 when it starts to get very hot. They then go home, relax, and when it gets cooler towards the evening they get on with whatever work needs to be done in their communities.
What is the security situation like where you live?
Graham: We feel safe. You’ve got petty theft like anywhere else. People will steal your fertiliser, your seed, your diesel, your chemicals, and all that sort of stuff. It is just the odd individual who tries his luck.
Judy: The police and the governor are on our side. I feel a lot safer in the bush in Nigeria than I do in Zimbabwe or South Africa. I just know that it is safer. But having said that, as a woman I can’t get in a car and drive around in the towns. They are likely to ram your car and get some insurance money. So I don’t drive, my husband does. And if we go to Lagos we get a driver. But I feel very safe, the Nigerians are not aggressive. They are very friendly and there is no race issues. They think whites are wealthy and they want our money but there is no animosity towards us. They haven’t got a history of apartheid and all that stuff. That’s wonderful, its very freeing.
Although most of them are very poor, Nigerians are also not starving like the people in Zimbabwe. Things go easily there. They seem to look after one another. They are very, very friendly and helpful and welcoming wherever we go. And even when one has arguments at roadblocks, one doesn’t feel as if your life is in danger. It is quite a fun place really.
How do you cope with the poor electricity supply in Nigeria?
Graham: When we do get what they call a dedicated line – we shouldn’t get the power cuts that everyone else gets. We told them that there is no point in giving us electricity if we can’t get a constant supply for your dairies, milking machines, irrigation or things like that. They told us we will have a stable electricity supply within this coming year and that it has been paid for to be done, so we will see.
Judy: At the moment we totally rely on generators. We run everything with a generator. They are expensive but fuel and gas are reasonably cheap in Nigeria. And the generator gives us a constant supply. There isn’t a constant supply of electricity anywhere in Nigeria. It goes on and off all throughout the day and most businesses have back-up generators. But we can run our farms on generators.
How do you feel about the political situation in the country?
Judy: All the Nigerians we’ve spoken to, across the board, said that they are tired of the chaos they experienced over the past decades. They’ve had their second democratic elections. In our area it went very peaceful although one never knows if it’s free and fair. But they are fed-up, they’ve been at the bottom and the federal government is really trying hard to clean up its act. They want to stop corruption, have democracy and attract investors.
Nigeria could feed the whole of Africa. And I’m not saying that loosely, they absolutely could. They could be the California of Africa because it’s a huge country and it has lots of people. And the climate – I mean things grow. We planted a Baobab tree that was 30 cm high in June, and it is now 3 metres and we are not even at Christmas. It’s unbelievable.
