•Mutfwang’s agricultural revolution lauded
From Jude Dangwam, Jos
Farmers across Plateau State have welcomed with joy the offtaking moves of agricultural products by the state government through its State Commodity and Marketing Company expected to end the exploitation of smallholder farmers in the state by middlemen who over the years have been on rampage across the nooks and crannies of the state.
The rampaging private investors who cashed in on the gap between government and the people moved into the hinterlands with scales and unregulated bags weighing and buying farm produce at a price determined by the scales.
This practice in the last four years has become a serious nightmare to many farmers who considered the development as unhealthy for their food security and the culture of planning their life with the little they made from the farm after a stressful farming season.
The deputy chairman of All Farmers’ Association, Plateau State chapter, Mr. Anthony Jeremiah Gwesele, raised the alarm of an ongoing massive exploitation of farmers across the hinterlands in the state, particularly in the southern zone of Plateau State, where agents of scale-operating companies on a daily basis are hunting farmers to their respective farms to mop up rice for onward movement to their final destinations.
“This initiative by the state government is the best thing that has ever happened to farmers and the entire people of Plateau State. Why I say so is because before now sensitization used to be at the state capital and not down streaming to the local government areas.
“How I wish you can see what is happening in the area I’m harvesting my rice currently. There are agents coming from the middle-men scattered all across the nookes and crannies of this Langtang North local government area with their scales, buying and transporting the farm produce immediately to places we don’t know.
“We need a regularized and standard bags as well as measuring or container that we can always get our farm produce measured inside. The sad thing is that these people come with different bags, the bags are in sizes with different names, different companies’ bags everywhere.
“There was a time we advised the last administration to come up with a standardized bag with Plateau name on it so that Plateau State will be on the global map but to no avail. But with the coming of PLACOM, I want to believe it will be achieved,” he stated.
The executive chairman of Qua’an Pan local government area of Plateau State, Hon. Christopher Manship expressed gratitude for the steps taken by PLACOM to arrest the unwanted exploitation of their people by private investors.
“As a council and a people, we have a lot to benefit from this initiative by the governor, considering the fact that our people are mainly farmers, and we have suffered a lot.
“Whenever you go round, you will see scales everywhere in the town. All our produce are being moved from Plateau, branded in other states and these people benefit from it.
“We don’t have factories or industries here in the southern zone, and I think with this by PLACOM, our people will be expecting a value chain programme so that all our products in the Southern zone will be processed in Southern zone and branded in Southern zone,” he expressed with optimism.
The council chairman promised to further engage his people on the initiative by PLACOM and follow the programme to a logical conclusion.
He however gave an insight into the scaling businesses operating in the areas. “The menace of the scale operators we are talking about is that companies outside Plateau now go round with scales not bags again. For instance, they will tell you that one kilogram is N10. They dictate the price but with PLACOM I think our people will be better off for,” he stated
His counterpart from Shendam local government area, Hon. Nicholas Kemi Nshe, recalled how the scale operators (investors) with combined harvester decide the faith of farmers by offering to harvest their rice under the agreement of selling all harvested rice to the company.
“We want to thank the governor for looking at the farmers, what the farmers face during farming season. The farmers struggles to get fertilizers sometimes on credit or loan. The farmer looks for money and maintain the farm, and at the end of the day during the harvest he ends up selling at a poor price where he can not even maintain himself.
“But with this initiative by the governor, at least farmers will have some relief because PLACOM monitors the market. She buys from the farmer with value in such a way that the value they buy is more than what the middle men are buying,” he explained.
Most of the council chairmen are determined to put their money into PLACOM and carry out massive activities that will change the negative impact of the scale operators in the zone and the state at large.
The Shendam council boss further stated: “Plateau is not on the map of rice production, particularly Shendam Qua’an Pan and Mikang among other LGAs in the Southern zone where we produce rice in commercial quantity.
“The rice is always mopped up by the middlemen. They mop them to Kano; they mop them to Nasarawa just because we don’t have a rice processing plant here in the southern zone of Plateau State but they have them there. So, they process and brand it as Kano rice. They process and brand it as Nasarawa rice and push it into the market.
“So, what the governor is trying to do through PLACOM is for us to buy the rice, process it here and brand it where we put our name on the world map that we produce rice too.
“Those with scales are the people coming from Kano and other states. They come and measure. The scales are the measuring equipment, it may read, this is 30kg, this is 50kg then they buy. The price is determined by the scale.
“One other major complaint by the farmers is the issue of harvester. You will find out that some people will stay for one month. Your rice will be ready for harvest but you will stay for one month to get the harvester. And sometimes you don’t get, if you do manual harvesting of the rice, you lose.
“So I feel government at all levels should see into the issues of combined harvester. If we have it, I think it will help. The concept by PLACOM will also address food security in a mass scale and the exploitation of our farmers who laboured very hard and end up not being able to feed himself and his family, not to talk of his other needs,” The Council chairman explained.
The special adviser to the governor on commodity and marketing company, Hon. Ezekiel Davou, at the flag off exercise disclosed that warehouses are to be established in conjunction with various local government chairmen for the offtaking of all assorted farm products.
He said: “As part of this, we have approved the establishment of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). The Plateau Commodity Marketing Company Limited (PLACOM) which will spearhead the marketing of Plateau State produce for both local and international markets.
“This company will not only buy produce from farmers at harvest but also manage post-harvest processes, facilitate access to finance and connect farmers with raider markets. This is a transformative step for the benefits of small holder farmers in our economy.
“PLACOM is determined to enhance agricultural and solid mineral productivity by effectively managing supply chains and to foster the formation of cooperative societies for farmers as well as develope and utilize warehouse infrastructure for post-harvest management.
“We are establishing warehouses where these commodities will be stored. You most not come to the warehouse necessarily to sell, you may come just for storage and we will give you invoice. The invoice is as good as money because if you take it to any bank you can get the value of the commodities you have stored in the warehouse.”
The commissioner for agriculture, Samson Bugama, said the moves by the state government is to encourage farmers to go into mechanized commercial farming through collaboration between the ASTC and PLACOM for the economic emancipation of Plateau State.
He explained that government’s desire is to ensure a large chunk of farmers in the state are into mechanized farming and forming them into clusters where government’s intervention can easily be channeled to as well as monitor the effectiveness of the intervention.
Bugama further explained that through PLACOM, jobs opportunities will be created for the teaming youths as so many youths will served as PLACOM agents: those to work as quality test personnel for export as well as those into the marketing chain of the agricultural revolution of the present administration.
Daily Sun gathered that the scaling business where agents are equipped with resources running into millions are not without it’s challenges as some persons are already languishing in prison custody for not accounting for the money given to them by some of the companies.
Mr Thomas Hoomsuk, an apprentice who has been following his master in the rice scaling businesses for the past two years now gave both the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the business.
He said: “I have been following my Boss for the part two years, understudying the intricacies of the business and I can tell you that the scaling business has it’s advantage and disadvantage.
“I know a number of young people that are in police custody. Some are in prison because they were mobilized with millions of naira to go into the hinterlands and buy rice for the companies but squandered the money. Some buy the rice but when weighed again, it will not give them the figure they earlier established. So you have to look for money elsewhere and complete it for them.
“But some people were able to do meaningful things. Some guys even built houses for themselves which ordinarily could have not been possible.”
For school graduates like Mr Desmond Tenbuet from Piapun in Mikang LGA of the southern Plateau, the scale business is his means of making ends meet at the moment.
He said a kilogram of rice in Piapun goes for N570 “because it is a rural area. The number of kilograms that will give you one 29L bag sometimes at the cost of N112,000 or N120,000. But the price might be different in Shendam town considering the fact that we are in the village and transportation of the goods is another thing.”
Meanwhile some of the farmers like Fanchit Bani in Langtang North is of the opinion that PLACOM must set machinery in motion and hit the ground running considering its late take off with most farmlands already ravaged by the private companies.
Bani added: “Government should also ensure that resources are made available to various PLACOM agents that can purchase farm produce from small holder farmers at any given time without delay to enable them attend to their needs.”