Most herds of cows belong to politicians, Fulanis are only labouring for them — National President, FFACET

…Says Animal repellant, additional security agencies, solution to herdsmen/farmers’ clashes

Ambassador Joseph Tanimu Yakubu is the National President of Favoured Farmers Community Empowerment Trust (FFACET). In this interview with Matthew Denis, he speaks on remedy to herdsmen/farmers clashes and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s ‘farmers’ loans, among other sundry issues in the Agricultural Sector. According to him, loan defaulters have made the processes for CBN’s funding for farmers tough to access. Excerpts:

Can you tell us about the activities of Favoured Farmers Community Empowerment Trust?

We are a registered Non Governmental Organisation (NGO). We’re engaged in farming and by numerical strength, we have over 15million farmers as actual members across the country. We have  branches in various States and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja. We group our members into cluster units for easy information, training and monitoring. In this season we have cleared our lands, and are going into dry season farming of about two different crops (rice and maize) in nine States with at least 2,000 hectares each. So, we have already trained our farmers for the new technology involved in farming from peasant cultivation to mechanised system of farming and we were opportuned to have about 800 members trained by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in various States like Cross River, Delta, Kebbi, Kaduna, Niger and Benue. We trained about 100 farmers in each of the aformentioned States and each cluster head will go and train 20 farmers per each cluster unit. So, we have about 16000 farmers that benefited from this training. It’s our expectation that each person will do one hectare in their respective States. So, we have been there.

We’re not political farmers but real farmers on the field and have been registered since 2008. Since then, we have been doing our business in Agriculture. We farmers are impressed by President Buhari’s administration for embracing farming sector as the way out. Even during the lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers were exempted considering our important roles in supplying food produce to the markets. So many empowerment programmes have been initiated by the Federal government in the agric sector. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have been carrying out the Anchored Borrowers’ Scheme, among other programmes which farmers have been benefitting.

What is your level of access as beneficiaries of CBN’s Farmers’ Loans considering the fact that some farmers are alleging that the collaterals to access these loans are too demanding? 

Obviously, the criteria for accessing these loans during the pilot stage wasn’t difficult, but some of the beneficiaries of the loans defaulted in the repayment stage which resulted to this approach of collateral. Yes, the collateral demands have brought problems to farmers seeking the loan. For FFACET, we approach the loan in clusters, so we try to get securities, collateral, which is getting properties to place for such loan. We have some of our members who are members of the Board of Trustees who give us property as collateral for the loan. But individually, it becomes so difficult, especially for the peasant farmers to access it. Moreso, if someone’s collateral is there and such person is not a farmer, he can decide to override the system to get the loan but because of the platform for like plants anchor or large scale farmers, we group them into commercial farmers to benefit the loan. However, in view of the whole CBN’s farmers’ loans, where we have obstacle is the participating Institutions like the commercial banks. Apart from the conditions or guidelines given by the CBN to access the loans, these commercial banks added some criteria for accessing the loans in the process to also protect their interest, thereby making things more difficult for farmers. And when you are talking of food security, definitely the money for farming season must be released within that period, being that Agriculture is time-bound. When you release the money late, it will affect the production in that year. For instance, for the time you need to apply fertiliser, if you didn’t do it, you will only waste the inputs. So, we are calling on the CBN to actually supervise to ensure that the loans’ package and approval is given on time for disbursement to farmers during the appropriate season. This is because sometimes even when CBN approves the loans, the commercial banks will keep it without disbursement to farmers, thereby affecting the system.

The issue of Farmers/Herdsmen’ clashes has continued to pose serious threats to Agriculture. What’s your take and likely solution government should adopt?

This is a major issue we have been advocating in our organisation. Firstly, we as an organisation see the herdsmen as farmers too. So, what we do is to provide a solution to prevent the cattle crossing into crop farms to avoid clashes between themselves. So, as a result of that, we introduced inorganic system called Animal Repellant. For this animal repellant, we give it to the farmers and when they spread it round their farms, it doesn’t kill the cows neither does it affects the crops. This repellant, we call it in Hausa ‘Maigadin Gona.’ It will secure the cows and they will never enter such farm to eat the plants, causing destruction to the farmer. We have given these repellant to farmers and even herdsmen who also spread it to have their cattle staying at one portion without intruding into the crop portion. Both farmers and herdsmen are members of these Organisation as well: Considering the fact that the same  cowdung  is being used as fertilizer by farmers.  This method reduces the herdsmen/farmers clashes. I think Government should embrace this repellant for farmers.  Secondly, we bring security personnel who will guide the farms against attacks, since we are into clusters. But this is what we have been doing in our own capacity. So, we are calling the Federal government to empower the Security personnels like police to cover productive Agricultural areas to guide the farmers against attacks. They should have effective communication gadgets and good vehicles to move into farm premises. The Government should also ensure passage and signing of the bills of some private Security groups, like the Peace Corp and Vigilante into law since the Police and the Army are not enough to secure the entire population of Nigeria. This will enable the farmers to carry-out their activities without any fear of attacks.

The Federal Government has planned to  introduce Ranching Programme across various States to end farmers/herdmen’ clashes, though some Governors kicked against it. What is your view on this?

Definitely, if you want to use former military President of Nigeria, General Abdulsalam Abubakar’s farms for example, he has herds of cattle and they are put in one place. In fact, most of the cow milk that is being consumed today in Abuja and other neighbouring States are from his farm in Niger state. Most of the Fulani women carrying the cow milk, purchase it from Gen. Abdulsalam’s farm and those milk are very rich because the cows have no stress, though the financial implication of putting such herds of cattle in one place is very huge. In view of the cattle ranch the Federal Government is planning to put in various States, they might have actually calculated the financial implications before coming out with such decision. However, some states have their geopolitical cultural setting, that’s why it’s difficult to implement such programme uniformly. But one of the things for the programme to be very effective, the Federal Government should create awareness so that people will air their opinions pertaining to it. People have different perspectives: To some, the Federal Government wants to take their lands for the herdmen; but the real sense of it is economic viability in Agriculture and to end herdsmen/farmers’ clashes. If there is serious awareness calling on the traditional rulers and grassrooters together, they will definitely agree with the policy. With the way the ranching programme is being presented, many farmers don’t understand it. In my own opinion, the government should conduct a comprehensive sensitisation over the programme. Most of these cows belong to Politicians and the Fulanis are only labouring for them, and some of them are not well paid. So, all these factors contribute towards seeing cattle rearing as problem in the society.

Poor Infrastructures, especially roads network into the rural areas where the farms are located constitute major challenge to farmers. What’s your appeal to the government?

Honestly, I’m appealing to all tiers of governments to do the needful by fixing these roads, because bad roads is one of the reasons that the cost of  commodities in the market is high. When a farmer suffers to bring his harvest into the market with the charges of higher transport fare, the farmer will calculate all these charges and add to the commodities. Also, the middlemen will add their own before it gets to the final consumer – the price of such produce will be at a very high rate. So, to control this price, government needs to come in especially where there are huge farm settlements by fixing the roads to access easy transport. Feeder roads should be provided through a synergy, both Federal and State Governments narrowing down to the local government areas. There are few States some individuals related to lawmakers have taken it upon themselves to construct these feeder roads in their districts, thereby attracting buyers of these commodities from various States.

What are your inspirations to potential customers?

We are unique as Favoured Farmers because we don’t change the prices of commodities to customers at anytime. And even if we want to do, we draw their attention and tell them the reasons specifically when manufacturers of herbicides and insecticides increase the price of their inputs: So, the Economics of Production (EOP) of one hectare has risen from a particular amount to higher cost. We are rightly proposing a place of about six hectares of FFACET Agrocluster International Market, in Abuja, whereby all our farmers in every State will bring their commodities there. We are also looking at a very good standard because from  production and transportation, we know what it cost them. So, we want to have a standard unique price which we have proposed, needing Government assistant and trailer parking space, so that our customers can also buy these commodities from direct farmers with affordable price and quality. We also have our farmers as organic and inorganic to separate their commodities in the market. We (producers) have been having meetings with our marketers and consumers to guide one another’s interest.