STAR FEAT ‘Local rice’: The b of an economy d
This is the story of women who are actively involved in every section of the ‘local rice’ trade in a quiet corner of Kogi State. At every point, be it sowing, nurturing, harvest and sale, you find these women doing their work and keeping the wheels of the local economy moving. Huge profits mean that they have become’ breadwinners’ in their households, funding the education of their children and keeping the home ‘running’ and putting a meal on the table. But in the course of their work their vision declines, because they beat the rice with sticks, and the flying seedlings enter their eyes and damage the cornea. Some of them can no longer go to their farms because they are as good as blind, and they now depend on friends and family. A few still go to the farms even if the vision is failing. Because they lack many modern farming items they are forced to use hoes, cutlasses or just their hands, which means that they spend many hours on their farms.
Fati’s story One afternoon I was using sticks to hit the rice since we do not have a threshing machine. All of a sudden some of the rice seedlings flew into my eye and since then I have not been seeing well.” Fati Kadiri, 70, gives a background to her experience “I started buying drugs from pharmacies and I stopped threshing rice from that moment.” She cannot remember the year all this took place, but adds “It happened a long time ago.”
Now, she no longer grows rice or does any kind of farming. From her raised voice it is clear that she has good memories of her farming days as a much younger woman cultivating the popular crop in the stone free soils of Onyedega. Both eyes are affected and her vision is very poor “I cannot do anything again, and my relations are assisting me with my meals as well as with a house.” She becomes quiet and looks with interest at the leaves of a nearby tree, which casts a shadow upon all of us. Years of growing ‘local rice’ using tools like hoes, sticks and cutlasses or just their bare hands has left many women with declining vision and other health challenges in the Idah-Ibaji area of Kogi state. Dr. Raymond N. Osafuomwan of the Unique Eye Centre, Abuja thinks that the cornea might have been affected when the seedlings flew into the eye of the women, and he assures that there is a cure for the condition. His words “I think it’s cornea ulcer, cornea laceration or cornea abrasion, and all these could be treated.” He now explains these conditions “Cornea abrasion occurs when tiny foreign bodies enter the eye,and the example of rice is a perfect instance of this. Cornea laceration is a much deeper cut, while cornea ulcer occurs when the abrasion or lesion is not treated.”
Most of the rice is grown in Ibaji which is blessed with rich alluvial soils and a skilled work force, while the rice mills and related structures are located at Idah, which has a large population of men and women talented in the art of milling and transporting the crop to distant locations. The men are involved in aspects of milling as well as in transportation. It is not surprising that many women experiencing visual impairment can be found in Ibaji .The women rice farmers possess an inner strength which pushes them to forge ahead with their work despite the health issues, for it is from it that they feed and educate their children ,and many of the women play the role of breadwinners in their respective households. One woman refers to a son who recently graduated from the University of Lagos. She can’t remember the course he studied, but her vivid description of his tools seems to suggest that he has a degree in Architecture. During the harvest women beat the rice with sticks, an ancient method they must conform with since they lack a threshing machine. While doing this some seedlings fly into their eyes, and that is when they begin to have problems with their vision, and sometimes both eyes are affected. But visual impairment means that they lose the capacity to work their farms and so they stop going to tend the crop, can hardly do any other job and become poorer and more reliant on friends and family. A better well equipped local health facility would turn around the fortunes of the women as well as the lives of people in the area generally. Some of them go up to health facilities in neighbouring Idah, but not many can afford to make the trip or to pay for drugs or go for follow ups, they confess to Daily Trust. They have become stoic and silent and the family suffers.
Big rice industry
These are women who work the rice farms, and actively steer the industry in this part of the state. They cultivate the earth, sow and nurture the rice crop, and convey the rice in pick up vehicles all the way to Shekene, Idah for milling. After the rice has been milled, some women take the husk a few hundred metres away where the rice is sifted a second time. The women are now covered in fine dust which emerges from the process of sifting, and they joke and laugh and giggle while the dust falls upon them giving the women a light brown complexion. There is no waste in nature, for this rice that is produced is either eaten by the women or sold to others.”
Habibat Mohammed declares “They sift the chaff for grains of rice to feed their families.” She shows that the burnt chaff is also used on farms to serve as manure, explaining that poultry farms also make use of it. On the women who sift the husk in order to get remnants of the rice, Dr. Osafuomwan adds that “there are some health implications of their work. That is a carcinogenic problem. They are going to inhale those things and there are no standard inhaling items among them there. The fact that your eyes, and nose are open, I would like to think that the life span will be significantly impaired. You don’t get to see as you should see, when your eyes are constantly exposed to dust.” The cultivation of ‘local rice’ is a huge industry dominated and governed by women, and the value chain which is extensive brings life, warmth and an economy to the IdahIbaji axis. ‘Local rice’ as it is popularly known, is easily cooked and it is said to be very nutritious. It is very delicious and free stones, say many who a r e not only involved in the trade but of