The agricultural sector is currently receiving a boost from all levels of government, particularly with the Federal Government seeking to make farming attractive to the youth with its Agric Business initiative.
Even though we have exposed the opportunity of obtaining a hectare of farmland from the Federal Government’s River Basin Authorities for only N2,500 for the purpose of farming about two years ago, we have observed that a lot of Nigerians still don’t know about it let alone access it.
However, we are glad to know that many of those who got the information from SuccessDigest and went for the land have a good story to tell today.
In this edition, we will be revisiting the opportunity to see the latest developments about the land and how to get one for yourself; including how anyone can make profit farming on such lands even without previous experience, and every other thing you need to know.
Recently, we interviewed one of the country’s foremost Agropreneurs with a considerable investment in farming on the river basin across the country, AfricanFarmer Mogaji, and he didn’t fail to reveal all what you need to know about the opportunity and farming on the land.
What is this opportunity about and what are the new developments that have come up?
The opportunity is that with N2,500 you can get a hectare of land for farming for a year. All that is needed to do if you are interested is to visit any of the river basins in Nigeria, for the purpose of this interview, let us use Ogun State River Basin as a case study because that is the closest to people living in Lagos State.
Why Ogun State and not Lagos State, you may want to ask? As at the time of this interview, Lagos State has sold out her lands; also please know that if by the time you first read this story in SuccessDigest 2years ago and you didn’t take action in Lagos state, you have missed out of the Lagos state project.
Lagos State Govt. has taken about 100 hectares from the river basin for her state farming project. They wouldn’t have taken such a large portion of the land if more Nigerians have taken steps to buy into the N2, 500 to lease 2 ½ acres of farmland for a year from any of the river basins in Nigeria.
So Ogun State will be the next that will come to mind, especially for those living around Lagos and Ogun State.
Note that you don’t have to be a native of that community before you are attended to, but you must be a Nigerian with proofs. So all you need to do is walk into the ministry of agriculture in your preferred state, ask for the river basin headquarters offices, in this case, in Abeokuta, Ogun state, or if you know someone who is able to take you to their project site, tell them you want the N2, 500 land.
With N2, 500, you get 2 ½ acres of farmland to farm for a year. That is about 15 plots of land, which is same as a standard football field where international football matches are played. It can also be measured as one hectare of land.
Once you get to the site, ask for the project manager, tell him that you need land for farming and you will get it. There is this idea about Nigerians that the Govt. is not working, however, from my experience I have come to understand that in life it is what you look for that you will find. If you believe it is not working, you will not get it, but if you believe it is working, then you will get it.
It is as simple as that. You just get there first, if there no land available, they will tell you and advice you on where else you can get land.
There are massive lands in Ogun State. In fact, there are three locations that lands are ready and waiting for people to come and take, both without and with irrigation. When you get to the head office of the river basin, they will be able to give you details. The Project Manager who knows the sites location and availability will be able to give you details and advice, then you can make payment for your preferred land right there.
Once payment is made, they will allocate your portion to you, if it is bushy, you will have to cut the bushes or clear the grasses.
Some people who got to read about the opportunity the last time it was published in SuccessDigest got the land for N2, 500 but were unable to get a tractor to clear the bush for them before planting. Some actually left their lands without farming on it for the whole year. But because they have paid for it, the river basin authority could not take it from them to give to those who were ready to farm.
So the Federal Govt. has now made it compulsory that once you have paid the N2, 500 and the land needs clearing you will have to pay for the tractor that will do the clearing for you. Also, now they have the mandate to give the land to other persons who are ready to farm on it, because the reason for the land in the first instance is that govt. wants more people to go into farming to increase fresh crop production and reduce unemployment.
If you have paid for a tractor to clear the land, you will not likely abandon it. The price of hiring a tractor varies from location to location, but I can assure you, it is affordable because the tractor will work on the land twice before the years runs out. It costs between N7,000 to N15,000 to hire a govt. tractor.
If you can get a tractor outside cheaper to come and work on the land, you are welcomed, but I can tell you the govt. has made it easier and competitive enough that you wouldn’t have to border to bring your tractor. Even if their tractors break down, they will quickly fix it because they need that money also.
I also like to quickly say that lands with irrigation are more expensive than lands without irrigation because they will have to buy diesel to power the generator that will pump the water.
What you need to know before planting
Once the land has been paid for and a tractor has worked on it, it is now ready to be planted on. It is therefore very important to ask for the history of the land as it regards what the previous farmer planted in the last 2years, so that if you know the crops that have been planted over time, you may want to change to another crop because of diseases that might have built-up on the land over the years, but if you have access to a good coach or you know what to do to avoid negative effects of using same land for same crops for several years, like changing seeds, you can go ahead to plant the same crops.
You may have to get information about the history of the soil to determine the kind of seed you will plant, and the understanding of the type of seed to plant is very important.
I wanted to buy tomato seeds sometimes ago to plant. I told them I wanted to plant in the dry season with irrigation, but because they didn’t have the seed I asked for and they wanted to sell what they had, they assured me that the seed is “doing very well”. I bought the seeds and I went to plant in late dry season, and when it started yielding, it was in early rainy season.
The tomatoes seed was actually big and very attractive, but it didn’t want too much of water. So, by the time I started harvesting, it was cracking and dripping water and I could not sell my tomatoes. It was planted on 20 acres of land.
The land can be cheap but if you don’t have the right and on-time information, especially with seeds and chemicals used on the land.
You need to know the type of chemicals they have been using on the farm and the insecticides.
If the insects or parasites are already building resistance to that particular insecticide, you may have to change it. If everybody is using a particular chemical, they will advise you to do same, but if you have information, you may decide to change so that you can get a better result. What I’m saying in essence is that the land maybe cheap, but it may not be cheap to get outstanding result on that farm land.
Don’t be among those that will read this article and rush in to later rush out. You need to get adequate information about what you want to farm that will help you get the maximum return for your investments that you desire.
You must also know that the way farming is done in the USA is different from the way it is done here in Nigeria. Even the way water melon is planted and harvested in the northern part of Nigerian is quite different from the way it is done in the southern part of Nigeria. Therefore, don’t treat cases that come up in the south the same way you would treat those in the North. If you do, there may be greater challenge.
Most of the land in the South-West can grow onion, cabbage, lettuce, etc., but the time at which you get the land ready for farming is also very important to factor in mind when planting these crops.
If you want to plant water melon and you are only able to get your land ready around august, if you plant that water melon in august, when it will be yielding and ready for harvest in October others will be planting. Except you have a ready market, you might fall into trouble of having so much products but not enough people to buy.
So you need information on how to go about a fruitful and productive farming business.
How secure are your crops on the land?
So far, none of my referrals or clients, that is more than 50 people, in the last 2years have reported any case of theft on these govt. lands, especially in the South-West. I know people who are presently farming as far as Shaki in Oyo state, very close to Kwara State, and some in Ekiti, but have not complained about their crops being stolen or destroyed.
Now, the way it works is that you can have 1, 000 farmers working on those lands. It could be 250, 000 acres all together, and there is this possibility that there would be at least 5-10 farmers working on those lands per day.
Come to think of it, stealing these products is not easy, you will need to come with a truck, hire harvesters, and you will need people that will carry the load for you because you need some level of expertise to harvest these crops. And because this is a community, people must talk to people to get to know each other.
Stealing may not be very easy unless it is organized by other farmers themselves, because there is a govt. security at the gate that leads to the river basins itself.
Those security guys must check you to ascertain that you belong to that community of farmers before you can have access. It is not something that will happen in 1hour. The structure of the farm makes it difficult for people to steal, people may pick one or two, at worst case 5 seeds in bags or okada, but it will be insignificant, and may not amount to being counted as lose in the farm.
The only loss that may arise may be some seeds that didn’t germinate well, or that get trampled on during planting, or those that get eaten up by pests. This loss may amount only to 5-10% in some cases in a farming year.
Then again, govt. is not even ready to ask you to leave, because they have a mandate to provide food and jobs for the people. The only reason you could be asked to leave the farm land is if you are not farming the way you are supposed to, or your farming is not fruitful or productive.
Can distance affect my coming and going to the farm regularly, knowing that I stay in Lagos and I am privilege to rent a land in Ogun or Osun state, are there shelters in these river basins where one can stay?
Now, if you are planting crop which is what I advocate people to start with and most of these crops you attend to them at least every 7days, some fortnightly, so you might not have to sleep over there.
However, if you need to sleep over, some of the river basins already have accommodation, either occupied or waiting to be renovated. Also, in all those locations there are places to rent, say, one room or two rooms. However, for something you want to do in 3months and move away, you may not need to rent a place.
Some farmers already living there may be willing to accommodate you for a night and you go the next day, if you have developed a good rapport with them. The assistance you will need is already there: the planters, the sprayers, the harvesters, and the farm supervisors. These are people from neighboring villages who have come to live there to survive. All that is needed of you is administrative work which may not warrant you even passing a night.
On the day you will plant or do a major work, all you have to do is plan to leave very early and come back in the evening. Unless you are doing a very massive project and you wish to see everything to the latter, you may not have to pass the night there.
If you are farming 16 plots, planting may not take more than 3hours with the right amount of man power. Talking about massive land, now nobody will allow you take more than one hectare, except you have demonstrated to them that you can manage huge plot of land from the way you have managed the smaller ones that have been given to you over the years.
Who can apply for these lands?
Anybody! Many of those who read the previous publication about this opportunity from SuccessDigest have gone there to access the land and they are now farming there. Sometimes when I get to these sites, the project managers will be telling me that people came for land; that they read about it from a publication. At a speaking engagement sometime ago, as I talked about the N2,500 per hectare farm land from the govt., a woman stood up to testify that she read it in SuccessDigest and went there and she has farmed water melon that sold well.
So, if you are really interested, you can dash in there this month of January. Because of the shift in the oil sector, individuals, the corporate sector, and governments are now turning to agriculture, which might make the lands to become scarce..
Insuring your farmland
Anybody going into agriculture now in any land must consider insuring the farm, it is called agricultural insurance, where you pay 2.5% of your production cost to agriculture Insurance Corporation and if anything happens, they will pay you for any damage. The standard rate is about 90% but at worst case you will get 70% when there so much claims, they will have to adjust.
It then means that you cannot lose completely. The only way you will not get anything from the insurance company is if you filled the form with wrong information. Say for instance, if by the time you applied you gave the information that XYZ was in your farm or that you had XYZ acres of land. If after the loss they investigated to ascertain the damage and found out that the report you gave is false, then, you have lost everything because by law they are no longer obligated to pay you.
The law says within 48hours of the incident you must contact them; so that they can have enough time to come and carry out their investigation before things get out of hand. To the best of my knowledge there has been no genuine claim that has not been resolved that I know of.
The insurance company is ever ready to pay. Because the Federal Govt. is contributing to the insurance scheme, the state govt. and the local govt. are also contributing to the insurance to ensure that damages are paid regularly and on time.
If you must get the best out of your land this year, this is the best time to insure that land because climate change and natural disaster can happen.
How often can I use this land?
It is at the prerogative of the project manager or the extension officer to decide how the lands are been used and rotated annually, because sometimes they do crop rotation, they decide how and where you should use per time, except you have earlier informed them based on the project you are working, which they are aware will require you to retain that particular land for another year. Otherwise, you will have to convince them with proves and facts why you need that same land again, if not you may not get the same land, but another one.
What strategy can one use to increase productivity in the farmland?
The productivity of the land can be improved with organic crop boosters, no matter how bad the soil is.
I advice that you get these organic crop boosters, there is this popular one most farmers use, called super grow, but over the years I have discovered that it is a case of a one eyed man leading a blind man. You know what can possibly happen to both of them.
People get half baked information and begin to use it to train others. Because the dosage for this crop boosters are not properly observed, when mixed with other chemicals as it ought to be, the crops are affected leaving the soil untouched. I know quite a few that when properly used will increase productivity from 40-70%.
Also, like I always say, the quality of your seed will determine the reward of your labour, and from my finding I have discovered that we have seeds that have no expiring date in the market. The ones that have expiring date may be near expiration date, and the marketer will re-bag, thinking that the customer/farmer will plant almost immediately.
And because nobody told the farmer he has to plant within month of buying the seed, he may still use the seed long after it has expired without knowing.
Some years ago I threw away seeds worth N135, 000 because I was not properly informed about the seed I just bought. So the source of your seeds is very crucial, I have also discover that if for any reason you buy a bad seed and you try to return it, by right they are supposed to give you another seed, but it doesn’t happen that way, at that point you are on your own. It is therefore important that a good relationship is observed between the farmer and seed sellers.
Again to increase productivity, plant the seeds twice. Don’t plant all your seeds at once.
Culled FROM SuccessDigestExtra.
