THE REVOLUTION IN KADUNA

 The state government is investing huge resources in agriculture, writes Peter Yusuf

In his Independence Day speech on October 1, 2024, President Bola Tinubu highlighted the country’s challenges and discussed sustainable solutions. He listed how the federal government was tackling insecurity, attracting foreign direct investment, and implementing a workable system of administration in governance. Though he shared his concern for food costs and spoke about measures to boost food production, he didn’t dwell on specifics but commended some governors along that line.

“I commend the governors, particularly in Kebbi, Niger, Jigawa, Kwara, Nasarawa and other southwest governors that have embraced our agricultural production programme,” President Tinubu said.

“I urge other states to join the federal government in investing in mechanised farming. We’re playing our part by supplying fertilisers and making tractors and other equipment available. Last week, the Federal Executive Council approved to establish a local assembly plant for 2, 000 John Deere tractors, combined harvesters, disc riders, motor ploughs and other farm equipment. The plant has a completion time of six months.”

A motivating delivery. However, I daresay the president’s speechwriters missed Kaduna State’s interventions in agriculture. Food is very important to human life and efforts targeted at increasing food production should be praised. Anyway, while they omitted to mention the state’s exploits, there is an agricultural revolution ongoing in Kaduna.

Speaking in August during an interview on TVC News Breakfast with Sam Omatseye, the Kaduna State governor, Senator Uba Sani, highlighted how, in the past 16 months, he has been intentional about the state’s agriculture sector. According to Sani, agriculture contributes 42.8% of the state gross domestic product (GDP), a reason the governor said he is focused on farmers, especially smallholder farmers. However, in an era where some governors embark on fancy projects like airports, flyovers and roundabouts, Sani would rather develop the rural areas. Hear him in an interview held in August on TVC News Breakfast: “The reason I cannot build a flyover in Kaduna is that the same money can be used to construct about 20 rural roads that would be used to evacuate goods to markets,” he said.

“That is why we embarked on 69 roads in the rural areas. Most of them are even finished. That could be the amount of money we’ll use to build two flyovers but we cannot do that. I’ll rather take that money to 23 local governments, particularly the 18 local governments that are in the rural areas to go and construct roads for them, remodel and reconstruct our general hospitals.”

In its 2024 budget, his administration allocated N22.54 billion to agriculture, a significant increase from previous years. Also, it has continued to partner with federal security to ensure farmers feel safe to go to their farms. And as a way to encourage the small-holder farmers, the governor revealed how he visited the different senatorial zones, distributing seedling and agro-chemicals to them. This move has witnessed more farmers going to till their lands in anticipation of further assistance promised by the state government. The state leads the production of ginger and maize by contributing 76.4% and 7.9% respectively to the national yield and it is second in the production of soybeans contributing 9.4% to the national yield. The state also produces bountiful yields of crops like pepper, tomatoes, onions and millet.

In the interview, Sani also spoke on the state’s efforts at expanding the agricultural value-chain.

“Only two months ago, we entered into partnership with a company, Star-Agri of India,” he said. “They have taken over most of our warehouses and silos because we believe we need to partner with them because that way would help us to create jobs.” The deal with StarAgri West Africa Limited is for it to transform state-owned warehouses and silos to modern facilities and deploy an electronic warehousing system. Aside from the aesthetics, the move would also support smallholder farmers to minimise post harvest losses. Star Agri would commit $120m over five years in an initiative that would support over one million farmers and also generate over 2500 direct and indirect jobs.

The governor also revealed how he inked a deal on behalf of the state with Hubei Province of China to create an industrial park in Kaduna.

“If you recall, last month, I went to China and signed an agreement with Hubei Province,” said Sani.

“Hubei Province has a population of over 70 million. They are extremely efficient in the area of agriculture, transportation, and infrastructure. We signed a partnership with the government there because the deputy governor came to Kaduna and we signed an agreement and I followed them up. And that is an investment of over $200m. As we’re speaking now, we’re building a Hubei Industrial Park in Kaduna and they are now going to work with all the different investors in Nigeria that are from China and some that are coming from China to now partner with them in Hubei Industrial Park in Kaduna. That would be the first.”

 The state government initiated a $50 million soya bean oil refining plant owned by Sunagrow International Oil Ltd. The plant which is located in Kutungare, Igabi Local Government Area, has an expected production capacity of 500,000 litres per day. In May, 2024, 40, 000 farmers got free farm inputs, farm implements and agro-processing equipment from the Kaduna government. The scheme which was to commemorate the one year in office of the Sani-administration was tagged in Hausa as ‘A Koma Gona’ which means ‘Get Back to Farm’. Perhaps it is this commitment to agriculture that made AfreximBank partner with the state to build the Africa Quality Centre in Kaduna.

“So, that Africa Quality Centre is where most of our farmers would now go for inspection for exportation,” Sani said. “Kaduna would be the only state in Northern Nigeria where even people outside Northern Nigeria and even some countries would come for their exports.”

Aside from providing farmers with inputs and implements, Kaduna State government has also invested in the Galma Irrigation Scheme in Zaria, the Mashigin Kaya irrigation system at Giwa LGA and the Hunkunyi Dam at Kudan LGA. This is in addition to the fact that the state directly farms 15,000 hectares in Gaja-gaja village, Kubau LGA.

Ahead of this dry season farming, Kaduna State government distributed seedlings, fertilisers and farm implements to about 120, 000 small-holder farmers. According to Sani, the distribution of the farm palliatives was organised “by the farmers’ association in Kaduna together with elders, community leaders, and non-governmental organisations. They sat together and identified these small-holder farmers. Government was never involved. No politics. When we were planning, someone called me and said, ‘the committee you put, I realised they are putting people that are in ANPP, PDP, Labour.’ I said, wait a minute, it’s not partisan. Farmers are farmers. I don’t care what parties they come from. We are doing that for our farmers from Kaduna.”

So, when aid to earn is freely given, why won’t Kaduna farmers be happy to go and work the farms?

· Yusuf writes from Kaduna