Association of Women Farmers of Nigeria (ASWON) Kogi State chapter has commenced massive production of soya beans in the state on a-20 hectares of land allocated to it by the state government on a joint venture agricultural project.
The chairperson of the association, Esther Audu, said while conducting our reporter round the farm that the state government provided the group with seeds and fertilizer though not adequate.
She said though her members had to buy part of the fertilizer used in the farm from the open market and contributed money to weed the farm, produce after harvest will be shared between the state government and the association on 60– 40 ratio.
“Government will take 60 percent while the women farmers will take 40 percent since government provided the inputs and did the clearing of the farmland, ploughing and harrowing. But the sharing ratio would keep increasing in our favour in subsequent planting seasons till the farmers stabilize and continue on their own,” she said.
Audu said the 20 hectares soya beans farm located at Osara in Adavi local government area of the state is divided into four phases; the first phase named after the Ohinoyi comprise of 7 hectares, the second phase named after the Osara DPO comprises of 5.5 hectares, the third phase named after the Osara women farmers comprises of 4 hectares while the fourth phase named Osara community comprises of 3 hectares.
She said the 200-member association is divided into 20 cells with 10 members in each cell taking care of one hectare, saying they commenced farming activity at the farm in August.
She said they initially wanted to plant soya beans and rice but because they could not get seeds on time, they decided to cultivate only soya bean since the season for planting rice was over then, adding, “We have been maintaining the farm on our own after we got the inputs from the government. Each member has to contribute N1,000 each for weeding and other farm maintenance. We spent N10,000 to weed each hectare.”
“It is like the rain is gradually going hence we are afraid we might not meet up with the harvest time because if the rain stops and dry season sets in, it would affect the crop and the yield as there is no irrigation system here to serve as an alternative to water the crops,” she said.
Explaining further, Esther Audu said that they got two bags of fertilizers from the government through GES but the problem was that not all farmers under the programme got the fertilizer, the two bags of fertilizer given to them were grossly inadequate because they needed six bags per hectare for it to be effectively covered. So they had to buy from the open market in order to cover the entire farm and hope for better produce.
“We hope to get at least 30 bags from the farm. We are also hoping that during harvest, the government would provide harvesting machine for us but if it is not forthcoming, we will harvest manually, using direct labour because we are all ready to make gain from agriculture this time.”
“Though the government is trying for us, we appeal to them to make seeds and other inputs available to farmers on time because if the inputs get to the farmers late, there is nothing we can do in that circumstance. Many years ago, farmers did not have the benefit of inputs but now that they have, government should improve on its provision. Government should also assist us with money too,” she said.
