‘Through integrated farming, Nigeria can feed Africa’

By Dele Ogunyemi

As the model integrated farm of the University of Ibadan (UI) is virtually turning into a tourist centre of sorts, the regional coordinator of the project and Head of Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Management of the institution, Professor Emmanuel Kolawole Ajani, has said that it is a matter of few years for Nigeria to become a leading nation in agriculture. He, however, added a caveat. He said Nigeria had the capacity to feed Africa if the right things were done at the right time. It is a rice-fish-poultry-pig farm.

Ajani spoke with our correspondent shortly after a facility tour of the farm, an agricultural initiative being run through a multi-donor agency sponsorship. The initiative has the mandate to change the face of farming for the benefit of not only Nigerians but other Africans. He said there were key agricultural activities Nigeria had a lot of advantages in.

“If the government does the right thing, in just a matter of years, we will be getting off some problems in the area of agricultural production,” he said, adding that it is high time the Nigerian government put in place, enduring policies and incentives that would encourage the youth to go into agriculture.

His further said, “We need to change the orientation of the youth. Currently, they have the orientation that agriculture is a poverty driven venture. We need to make business out of agriculture. And government needs to put a lot of policy and incentive supports in place to encourage the youth to go into farming. Right now, even in the villages, aged people are the only ones in farming. We need to attract youths into agriculture. That is the side of the government.

“Then for Nigerians, we need to change the culture we have for imported products. Right now, as the petrol-dollar that is supporting this high taste is drying up, we need to tap ways of generating money from agriculture. We have to move beyond feeding the populace. We should think of producing and exporting food to other nations of the world.

“Nigerians need to face the reality now that there are lots of potentials in agriculture. Nigerians need to put the potentials in agriculture into action, right now.

“Currently, there are some key agricultural activities that we have a lot of advantages in. “As a result of conscious efforts, in the last three or four years, you can see the quantity of rice that was turned out in Niger, Ebonyi and some other parts of the country. They produced a lot of rice paddies that are awaiting the industry to process.

Even Lagos State has lots of rice processing factories because of just a little push from the government. They did what they were supposed to do and the farmers moved into the field and produced massively.

“So within a year, Nigerians will be feeling the impact because the technologies are available. Come to UI and some other institutions, the technologies to fast-forward agricultural activities are there. We just need the government and others to play their roles effectively. Everybody in the system has their role to play. If the government plays that connecting role by creating the right template for agricultural development, in terms of good policies, creating the right environment, as well as mediating and balancing the act, Nigeria will grow to become a leading nation in agricultural production. We will even feed Africa if the right things are done.”

 While noting that the integrated farm project covers about six countries in West and Central Africa, that is, Cameroun, Benin Republic, Cote D’Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, Professor Ajani listed the sponsoring agencies as the World Bank, European Union, Canadian Agency for International Development, Australian Agency for International Development, as well as the West African Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP).

According to him, the project has linkages, with particular focus on capacity building for the youth in Nigeria. Satisfied with the level of the project, the presence of which is well felt in Oyo State, WAAPP is already collaborating with the coordinator to replicate its outcome in 12 states of Nigeria, namely, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Niger, Kwara, Ondo, Ekiti, Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), among others.

As part of the collaboration with WAAPP, the project has so far helped in training about 120 farmers across the country on integrated fish farming. The project also has a fishery multiplication unit in collaboration with WAAPP, where fingerlings are produced and supplied to interested farmers.

 About 300,000 fingerlings have so far been supplied to interested farmers in the South-West under the initiative through their umbrella body: the Catfish Farmers Association of Nigeria, while extension officers also visit the benefitting farmers on their farms for an on-the-field demonstration and training. As part of efforts to further give the initiative a boost, Professor Ajani revealed that the project had so far developed a business plan for interested farmers - the small-scale farmers, medium-scale farmers and the large-scale farmers. The business plan will enable them to run a profitable project in the area of integrated fish farming. Another good news on the integrated farming project, according to Professor Ajani, is the success story from the northern part of Nigeria.

 He said: “We have a lot of success stories to tell in the North-Central. We are in Kainji, New Bussa in Niger State, and we have a particular farmer in a village. Though a peasant farmer, whenever we are there, we use his farm for demonstration. The project has been on for the past four years. Any time we move into this farm, we see the wonder the farmer has been doing. His activities have transformed the lives of farmers in that village. The major thing in integrated fish farming is that you can have two or three products within the same area.

“In agricultural production you can turn waste to wealth. For instance, we don’t dispose waste from poultry, and we don’t allow it to constitute environmental nuisance. We use such waste to generate maggots. These maggots will serve as food to the fish. We have studied it and I can tell you the amount of maggots you are going to generate from a certain kilogramme of poultry droppings. We use it to feed the fish. Also, we do not dispose of the rice brown after harvesting. It is not a waste. We convert it into a source of feed ingredient in preparation of the poultry or fish feed.

“For the rice we are growing, we don’t need fertilizer. It is organically grown because we plant them right inside the pond. There is water availability. The water we use to rear the fish is the water we are also using to grow the rice. And when we are feeding our pond, the organic waste and the waste generated by the fish are a sort of pollution to us, but the rice grown there will use these as a sort of organic fertilizer for growth. So, we don’t use fertilizer for the rice. The fertilizer occur right inside the pond. You know that one of the major problems of rice cultivation is insect attacks, and you know you cannot use chemical under that situation. Because of the kind of fish we are rearing in our pond, when those insects come in, the fish move round inside the rice plantation, and when they move round, they feed on those insects. In effect, they are controlling the pests on the rice. So, it is a form of organic farming.

“The advantage of the integrated farming is that on a very small space or farm holding, a farmer can regularly harvest fish, rice and produce eggs from poultry products. So, with that, this experiment can be replicated all over the country. You can do it on a small scale, medium-scale or large-scale bases. We have the model. We have the business plan for it. The issue of food insecurity will not occur in Nigeria.”

Advantages of irrigation system in integrated farming Professor Ajani disclosed that the integrated farming project was designed to take irrigation farmers into special consideration, citing Thailand, an Asia country, as a good example of nations where such practice is in vogue. “In Asia, when you go to Thailand, that is what they are doing. That is what they are using to rear their cat, tilapia or pun. They are using the irrigated dam system to run their system. This project is well suited to that kind of condition, and that is the whole idea of the project. The one we have in UI is just a mini-demonstration to show what you can get.

“When you are planting your low-land rice, where you soak rice inside water, you can also be rearing your fish. Also, you can rear the other animal products in a very sustainable manner. This is not the first time we are practicing this. May be it is coming to Nigeria in a very new way,” he said.

While expressing delight over reports from stakeholders from collaborating states in different parts of Nigeria, which, according to him, show that people are really willing to go into integrated farming, Professor Ajani said the sky was the limit for the nation, in terms of food security, if government could effectively play its own role through policy incentives as against paying lip service to agricultural development.

Source: Daily Trust