Why ginger is in high demand internationally – Entrepreneur
Usman Yakubu Anto, is a civil servant who invests in ginger farming and processing. He spends his leisure time supervising the youth and women under his services. Daily Trust on Sunday engaged him in a discussion at his ginger processing site located in Madalla, Niger State where he explained the fortunes and challenges in the business.
As a civil servant at what point did you pick interest in farming?
I learnt farming entirely from my parents, even though my father was a retired police officer, he was an active farmer while he was in service. I started keying into the family philosophy very early with the raising of birds, that is poultry, back then while in secondary school, and moved on to university. Even though currently I am in the employment of FCDA in Abuja, I am still into the farming business being one of the few things we’re allowed to do as government employees, and that is what brought me to where I am today.
How did you get into ginger farming and what informed your decision?
I always wanted to remain in the farming business, and I decided to do something that would improve my own finances because I want to give my children the best. And I found that ginger farming in particular is a window that could actualize my yearning. The most important thing is, I have a passion for it as it is one thing that gives me a lot of joy, apart from worshiping God which is number one. I sought to know how to improve and sustain the business.
Ginger is one of the crops that are witnessing high demand in the international market presently, been a major component in so many drugs, some beverage, tea, biscuits and even chocolate among other fast foods, as is gives a unique flavour apart from being good to health.
All these and other factors are what motivated me to go into ginger farming and processing. And apart from that, it locally provides a lot of work to our teeming youth and women especially in the rural society. I work with close to a thousand people in my farm a day during preparation period to planting, paying N1,500 to each person in a day.
So you can see the multiplier effect in planting alone, and it takes us about a month to finish; then we move to weeding. The same thing go for harvesting, engaging large labour force. You would find out that even if we are not keeping people under employment throughout the year, we still have to engage them in intervals of a month or two months, as we definitely require their services one way or the other.
My farm is located at Jere in Kagarko Local Government Area of southern Kaduna - that is where ginger is thriving. I happen to be one of the biggest single ginger producers there. When I said single, it does not include those that are in cooperatives.
I cultivate my ginger on 36 hectares of land. We have been harvesting since the beginning of December and as you can see, even yesterday we were harvesting and we hope to continue with that as we do it gradually based on our capacity to process the produce. That comprises of sorting it from sand after harvesting, washing, slicing, drying, as you see this women are doing, before packaging it in bags, to make it ready for export by our dealers.
We clean and process it in a hygienic manner to maintain standard. As of now we are only engaged in one season farming - that is raining season - but hopefully beginning from next year we expect to key into the irrigation method too.
How long does it take to harvest ginger after planting?
Its takes the entire circle of the rainy season - that is six to seven months in this part of the country. Usually we begin planting in April and by October it’s ready for harvesting, depending on when the rain starts. My harvesting is delayed this time because I have to buy a particular machine from China which is used in slicing the produce during processing.
Are you thinking of value addition to the produce before selling to merchants?
As of now, ginger producers in Nigeria are highly constrained, just like other farmers in the agricultural sub-sector. Unlike rice producers who the present government seems to have shown interest on, we are totally not enjoying any government support. And you compare it to farmers in other advanced nations, the difference is everywhere as their farmers get support in subsidized seedlings, chemicals, assured and guaranteed market prices to encourage them to continue in the business. These are the things that we need government to provide us, and machineries that subsidized prices.
What are your greatest challenges in the business?
We want to go into mechanized farming beginning from planting, weeding, harvesting, processing, and packaging. These are the areas that we direly need government assistance. Look at this machine that we use for slicing, I had to pay almost 20 percent of its cost on custom duty, which is not supposed to be.
We also lack the local technology back home in Nigeria to have this kind of machine which is necessary for mechanisation. The same goes for fertilizer and other inputs. When you seek for loan from the banks, it is the same story even if you can access it at all.
But so far so good we are making progress despite all the challenges. But we are still seeking for government assistance especially on these critical issues to boost the agricultural sub-sector.