Considering the ravaging hunger, poverty, unemployment, food shortage, inflation and economic hardship in the country, an agriculturist, Mr. Richard Udeh, has urged Nigerians to utilize their vicinity and engage in farming inorder to boost their income and make food available to themselves and the entire country.
Speaking on the topic; ” Improving Family Finance Through Farming”, during a Variety Service organized by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Spring of Life Parish, Eliowhani, Port Harcourt,on Sunday, he said alot of people think that they can only engage in agriculture or farming when they have enough money and land or other resources.
He further said experiment drawn from the East African countries such as Kenya and Ugandan have shown that agriculture practices within the vicinity of somebody’s compound could contribute alot to self and national development.
He urged civil servants and others with meagre income to utilize available space in their residence to engage in farming.
He noted that such farm practice would provide food, which nourishes their body and help eke out a living.
He added that even in farming of birds and other animals, does not require much at a small scale in the vicinity.
Udeh advised members of the public to take advantage of different options, depending on the one suitable to them.
The options, he said are; Kitchen garden, Pyramid, hydroponic, aquaponic and livestock farming.
His words, ” I am going to show you farming models you can use to yield high income for your family.. Now, the problem with farming in Africa is that we have clusters of people who have left the village in search of white collar jobs in township and in their utter dismay, the jobs are not available and they can no longer go back to the village. So, they are trapped in the township and can no longer do farming. I understand that even the people in the village are no longer interested in farming. So, it is a critical situation”.
“When thinking about farming, the first thing you will contend with is space. You have left your village and you are in township and when you final find a little space there is just where you can live. But I have good news for you. There is pyramid farming . Pyramid means steps. So, you can have five(5) steps of a farm. A small space of one(1) square foot can contain up to 120 crops especially vegetables. What it means is that in a space of a quarter plot, you can harvest vegetables that somebody else would plant in ten(10)plots of land. Now, this pyramid farming can translate into kitchen garden. Right now in Kenya and Ugandan, it is a national programme. Every family is encouraged to have one. They have a department in government that goes round to teach families to atleast cultivate the vegetables that they eat. Now the advantage is, you are sure how it is grown.
“You can have a back pyramid by your kitchen no mater how small it is. You know the way a bag of rice or ‘garri’ stands, that is the way pyramid stands and it will grow 120 vegetables. It is organic, without toxic that enters your system and cause all types of destructions”.
“There is another one called hydroponic. This is when you have to grow the vegetables inside water. They are all organic. When you do hydroponic pyramid, you can produce from this room what would have been produced from 20 plots of land. That is the current solution and do you know that one of the solutions to hunger is vegetables. Why I say vegetables is that the result of hunger is malnourishment. When you are eating vegetables, you don’t get malnourished. Even if you eat alot of vegetables without eating ‘garri’ or any other food, you will become healthier than all of us. That is Daniel’s formula”..
“There is aquaponic farming where you grow vegetables from water with fish. The water circulates from fish pond to vegetables,nourishing them with the waste that comes down from the fish”.
“I restricted my discussion on crops to vegetables. It is intentional because they are easily grown and fast moving business and if you start a kitchen garden you can produce enough to eat , then, sell to your neighbours. It grows very well in dry season and that is when you make alot of money.”
” With the farmers- herders clash happening in Nigeria, you can see there is opportunity in livestock farming. My wife and I started a farm and by Christmas, people were willing to buy one dwarf goat as much as N30,000,N40,000, N50,000. So, it is a good business. People are tired of eating cow meat. From our findings, we discovered people prefer dwarf goats because they have powerful fragrance. Rabbit is one of the best business we can do. Everything about it is money. Also, pig business”.
“Even while you are working, it is an intelligent thing to do to be thinking of what to set up for yourself. The way the economy is going, the work is not going to be there always”.
