Zim farmers of Nigeria

Large tracts of Nigeria’s fertile land has been abandoned since the oil boom attracted millions into the cities over the past five decades, leaving Africa’s most populous country dependant on food imports.

In her book, “Dinner with Mugabe”, Heidi Holland records events leading up to the “land reform” carried out by the Zimbabwean president, starting in the late 1990s. She reports an interview with a former Agriculture minister, appointed by Mugabe, a White farmer called Denis Norman.

According to Norman, in 1997 the war veterans who helped Mugabe come to power in 1980 complained bitterly that they had won the country’s freedom but had been overlooked, and demanded a large monthly payment, for life. Initially they were 27,000, but the number jumped to almost double.

The British government at this point was not ready to buy the farmers out, as Mugabe had been led to believe. There was not enough money in the Treasury. Mugabe, instead of saying he would introduce legislation for an equitable distribution of land, eventually told the war veterans that they had indeed been promised land, so perhaps they should just take it. Of course they did.

Thousands of White farmers were dispossessed, many violently. Most fled the country. In 2005, some Nigerians had a bright idea. The Zim farmers know one thing: how to produce food in Africa, on a large scale. They are used to tough conditions and since they want to stay in Africa, why not invite some of them to settle in Nigeria? Nigerians are generally not interested in growing food, so the country has had to import $3b worth of food annually, and has been trying to become self-sufficient.

13 White farmers were invited to Shonga, 250 miles north-west of the commercial capital, Lagos, and each given 1,000 hectares of land under a 25-year renewable lease. Less than five years later, 80 per cent of the land is under cultivation and the farmers have asked for more.

“We arrived to virgin bush. We were basically given grid reference points, told to mark out the plots, clear the bush and find water, build the house and cattle sheds, and import cattle,” one of the farmers said. To begin with 800 Jersey cows were brought in from South Africa. Hundreds of tones of cassava, maize and soya beans are now being harvested for both local consumption and export markets.

Another said: “It is quite ironic. I am here in Nigeria and told I am the biggest cassava grower in the country with 600 hectares of cassava in the ground.” The local community was apprehensive to begin with, but that has changed. They now have electricity, a new clinic and fresh water, and many have found work on the farms, said a local villager. This development has brought new skills to local farmers, triggered off new agricultural industries, increased the local food supply, opened up employment and given people a new purpose.

The agricultural commissioner of Kwara state where Shonga is located said that 15 new commercial farms have been added to the original 13 and that nearly 4,000 people had found work in Shonga alone. The state government has also invested in a multi-million dollar cargo terminal, which will be Africa’s biggest, to be able to ship large quantities of farm produce to anywhere in the world.

The Nigerian banks, recently the object of a big anti-corruption clean-up, have a 45 per cent stake in the project, the Zim farmers hold 40 per cent, and the Kwara state government 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, a spokesman of Justice for Agriculture, a Zimbabwean campaign group, speaking in Harare, said that agricultural production is down to levels of 15-20 per cent of what it used to be. Most of the farmers replacing the ones who left lack commercial farming experience and the money to make a success of the venture. Previously they would work on the farms as labourers, and were never taught how to run a farm.