Inside Jigawa rice farms
and is a new project in the area. He said the government is preparing for the wet season as soon as harvest for the dry season is done with.
In Kaugama Local Government Area, a 500-hectare of rice production field, specifically for 1000 youths, is in full swing. With two youths per hectare, it is designed to take the youths off the streets to production area where they can make money for themselves and their families.
The government provided the mechanisation, seeds, fertiliser, herbicides and tube wells, as well as pumping machines. The youths are to manage the field, payback the costs of the inputs and anything else goes into their pockets.
Daily Trust, on visit to the field saw the youths, despite fasting, busy transplanting rice, while others prepared the nursery beds.
Alhaji Lawan Baba Dauda, Zonal Director, Zone 3, Hadejia-comprising eight local government areas, in a chat with Daily Trust in one of the farms for the youths, said the state government had provided everything the youths needed for the farms.
“This place was initially barren. We ploughed and harrowed the place for the youths. After the harrowing, we gave a hectare to two youths. We also gave each youth N1000 for fuel,” he said.
According to him, the expected yield per hectare in the Hadejia area was seven to eight tonnes.
Mallam Mohammadu Kaura 29, is engaged in rice production in the area. He said the youth rice production programme had changed them significantly, adding that it had taken them away from many social vices that affected many youths in those areas.
“This project has reduced idleness in us. We no longer travel long distances to the south where we are being looked down upon. The governor has simply solved these problems and we are very grateful. You don’t need to have money to start a rice farm,” he stated.
Daily Trust visited the HadejiaJama’are irrigation project where hundreds of farmers were counting days to harvest their rice, excitement is building among the farmers as huge harvest is expected from the ‘seed of gold’.
Although the irrigation project belongs to the Federal Government, the Jigawa State Government provides support to the farmers by supplying the inputs needed; including mechanisation.
Dahiru Isyaku, a rice and wheat farmer sums up the feeling of farmers in the areas thus: “We are happy because the state government has provided all the necessary support we need. We are just waiting for the harvest so that we can pay for the inputs.”
Governor Mohammed Badaru Abubakar said the clustered techniques and the provision of inputs to the farmers had pushed production level from 1.6 million metric tonnes to 2.1 million metric tonnes on the average of 5 tonnes in the dry season and 4 tonnes in the rain-fed season even though many farmers grow more than the average because of the provision of inputs.