The news about their plight was everywhere. Their battle with the late President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, was a common story. They were white Zimbabwean commercial farmers, whose land were confiscated in Mugabe’s land redistribution programme and they were in search of a new home to continue their farming exploits. Everybody outside of Zimbabwe wanted to court them. Senator Bukola Saraki was among them. Dr Saraki was the governor of Kwara State then when the issue was raging like wildfire.
Until 18 years ago, Kwara State’s agricultural space was mainly dominated by peasant farmers, whose total output was barely enough to feed the people of the state, let alone, selling to neighbouring states.
Though Saraki realised that agriculture could grow the state’s economy, the major challenge was how to shift from just peasant farming into commercial agriculture to feed his people and generate income for the state.
One of the targets of the administration was to revitalise the agricultural sector in the state and make Kwara the agriculture hub of North Central Nigeria and indeed the entire country.
Incidentally, the white Zimbabwean commercial farmers were in search of a new home, to continue their farming exploits.
To the Kwara State government, it wasn’t only a dream come true to the state, but a blessing in disguise as the state perceive the farmers’ displacement as a chance to tap into years of expertise and kick-start commercial farming operations in a state where farming was not taken seriously.
According to Saraki: “Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa, but that vast wealth has done little to improve the lives of millions of Nigerians who toil as subsistence and small scale farmers. Improving agriculture is key to broad economic development in rural states like Kwara.
“We have always said that to get the Nigerian economy going, it has to be driven through agriculture – that has to be the focus.”
Saraki was convinced that the farmers had essential skills that Nigeria’s strong population could learn from. To him, the benefits were already visible in Kwara and this would guarantee the projects continuation beyond the end of his tenure.
In 2005, the 13 white Zimbabwean farmers finally relocated to Kwara State, this paved way for what came to be known as Shonga Farms Holdings Ltd (SFH) in Edu Local Council of the state.
Under the arrangement, Saraki, who saw the development as opportunity to revolutionise agriculture in Kwara, launched the Back-to-Farm Project and offered the expatriate farmers a 25-year renewable lease to operate on 13,000 hectares of land (1,000 hectares of land for each farmer).
The then Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mohammed Gana-Yisa, who confirmed the partnership, said: “The government realised that agriculture could grow our economy, but that to do this there must be a shift from just peasant farming.
“At the time, government was conceptualising moving into commercial agriculture, there was this land use problem with Zimbabwean white farmers. So, the government took advantage of that situation.”
The Guardian investigations showed that until the 13 farmers arrived Nigeria, the Shonga farmland where they occupied was like a forest, and unattractive, with few scattered subsistence farms, which were a sharp contrast to what they had in Zimbabwe where they were displaced.
But what attracted the white farmers was the enthusiasm from Nigerian authorities, as against the government-sponsored violence that forced them out of Zimbabwe.
As soon as the farm was registered, reports had it that the state government invested in the project by clearing the lands, opening up of the roads, provision of electricity, potable water and other infrastructural facilities to make farming easy for the visitors.
True to the state’s expectations, within few years of project take off, it was celebrated as a success story. The Guardian learnt that though the journey was very strenuous and not too pleasant at the beginning owing to several teething problems, coupled with hostility from the original land owners, who were very reluctant to release their land, in the first two years, the farm, which was like a department under the state Ministry of Agriculture, and supervised by a Director, had shown lots of promises.
In 2017, the General Manager of the farm, Mr. Bayo Sangobiyi, was quoted saying: “We started experiencing progress when the farm became a full fledge limited liability company, and since then, it has been one success story or the other. We were able to achieve this through a three-way syndicated process structurally tagged, Mixed Crop Syndicate, Poultry Syndicate and Dairy Syndicate.
“It was under this arrangement that the farm has been producing commercial crops such as maize, rice, cassava, ginger, soya bean, milk and poultry meat. The Poultry Syndicate has the capacity to raise 160,000 birds on weekly basis or 12 million broiler chickens yearly. Apart from that, we had a fully automated modern abattoir with installed capacity of 10,000 birds daily, though it currently dresses 5,000 birds daily.
“Averagely, every section is involved in cropping because it is like a general responsibility for all of them. What we are doing is backward integration; the poultry and the dairy sections plant their own crops. They plant their maize, soya beans, millet and everything. They process them into feeds for the chickens, while the dairy section also plants its own silage.
“Under the Dairy Syndicate operation, we had the capacity to process up to 50,000 litres of milk daily. Although the farm’s primary focus is serving the local market in Kwara State, it supplies 2,500 litres of raw milk daily to West African Milk Company (WAMCO), producers of Peak Milk. The poultry farm supplies chicken to the popular fast food company, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), in Lagos.”
It was reliably gathered that the success of SFH was said to have prompted the Federal Government to use it as a demonstration farm for the purpose of raising high quality cassava stems and to train local farmers for high quality cassava production.
The experiment achieved its objective as many multinational companies either sourced their cassava requirement from Kwara or made direct investment on cassava in the state.
Attesting to this, Sangobiyi said it is on record that Shonga Farms is the first Nigerian company to have successfully exported high quality Cassava chips to China and Israel.
It was gathered that the Nigeria Starch Mill in Anambra State and Thia Farm and subsidiary of Nigeria Flour Mills were sourcing their cassava needs from Shonga.
According to Sangobiyi: “Apart from the poultry, dairy and planting activities, the farm also engages in research and development in the areas of breeding and genetics and there were plans to develop adaptable cattle to the farm environment. The farm also partnered a lot of seed companies in the USA and Brazil on the supply of maize and soya beans respectively. It also supplies banana to Shoprite in Ilorin.”
In the area of employment, the farm employed between 4,500 and 6,000 workers for both off and peak periods, with expectation to increase to about 10,000 workers when the expansion is completed.
During an official visit to farm, the former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who was accompanied by Saraki, now Senate President, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and some members of the Senate, commended the state government for its initiative, which he said, is worthy of emulation by other states of the federation, to serve as commercial agriculture model in diversifying the economy.
He said Shonga Farms was a practical example of how governments could collaborate with the private sector to deliver real dividends of democracy such as jobs and agro-allied prosperity.
He was particularly impressed with the poultry section of the farm owned and managed by Valentine Farms, and praised it for providing employment to many unemployed youths in the state.
How N1.7b Loan Led To Fall Of Shonga Farms
HOWEVER, despite these success stories and testimonies, 18 years after, the relics of these white Zimbabwean farmers only exist in the imagination of the state, residents and other players in the sector.
Sadly, the much-prized Shonga Farms that was once the pride of Kwarans, and their boisterous 13,000 hectares plantations, have now become a shadow of itself and a sorry sight to behold, as it has nearly been abandoned and overgrown with weeds.
The development, according to industry players, has hampered the state government’s dream of using the farm to revolutionise agriculture, create job opportunities for the locals and also improve productivity and enhance food security in the state.
But the first setback experienced by the farmers, according to reports, was the taken over of the plantation by Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), allegedly due to about N1.7b debt incurred by the farms.
It was learnt that the arrangement was for the state government to secure $250,000 loan for each farmer, guaranteed from banks for the farmers after which the state would be appreciated with 25 per cent shareholding.
Five banks – Guaranteed Trust Bank, Access Bank, First City Monument Bank, Keystone Bank and Unity Bank reportedly bankrolled the finances with 15 per cent shareholding each, making the banks and the state government owners of the farm.
However, it was their inability to offset a whopping N1.7b debt that made AMCON to later take over the asset.
It was learnt that after the exit of Saraki, his successor, Ahmed, also toed the part of his predecessor by ensuring that the laudable project succeeded. The Ahmed’s government did this by ensuring that the farmers and general operators of the Shonga Farms still saw themselves lucky being in Nigeria, particularly Kwara.
For another eight years, they enjoyed government patronage until there was change in government, which perceived the whole exercise as a financial drain pipe, useless and undesired.
Aside from the general neglect by the state government, the aggrieved Kwarans, whose lands were taken for the project, also cast doubts on the feasibility of the project as they later accused the Saraki government of giving away their lands to foreigners with little or almost nothing as compensation.
Notable among sundry accusations was that the foreign farmers were from South Africa and that since his mother was from there, he must have brought them to compensate his stranded maternal kinsmen, not minding the benefits the fact that the project had opened the area and the job incentives it behoves on the local workers.
Again, it was generally expected that on takeoff, the agricultural produce would be sold at lower prices and would ease the economic burden and consequently ensure food on the table in every home, but it was alleged that contrary to their expectations, the produce including dairies, crops and livestock were sold at competitive prices.
Also, it was a surprise that most of the produce were taken out of the state, to as far neighbouring foreign countries like Cameroun and Chad where ready buyers were eager to grab them.
It was revealed that the issue of power was another major challenge faced by the farmers. Sources disclosed that despite the farmers’ welcome in Nigeria, the promise that their land would be connected to the national power grid with guaranteed 24-hour power and irrigation to the farms did not happen.
Another challenge, according to investigations, was the issue of weather. Reports have it that the Zimbabwean farmers complained that the maize and soya yields were disappointing. “It’s just too hot. In Zimbabwe, we could expect at least eight tonnes of yield per hectare, compared with just four tonnes in Nigeria,” one of the farmers, Reid, was quoted as saying.
“And in Zimbabwe, the inputs – such as fertiliser and seeds were cheaper,” said Reid.
The Guardian learnt that this infuriated Kwarans who eventually called for the heads of the farmers. This infamous development must have triggered the unyielding Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq’s patronage and the subsequent almost total collapse of the project.
According to him, the Shonga Farms was a practical example of how governments could collaborate with the private sector to deliver real dividends of democracy such as jobs and agro-allied prosperity. Unfortunately, the dream is as good as already dead currently.
When The Guardian visited the farm, it was gathered that the farmers left in batches, leaving only one farmer – Mr. Jack. But just like his other 12 colleagues, he also left in 2019 owing to unfavourable environment, including poor government patronage.
However, the reporter also gathered that though there are still some white farmers around the struggling Shonga farm, they are just about three farmers whom the original 13 settlers bequeathed their 13,000 hectares of land to manage.
According to the Managing Director of Valentine Chicken Company, Betrus Stelyn, one of the companies making Shonga Farms, he said the project faced unsolicited nightmares – poor infrastructure and low patronage, which were major reasons for the unfulfilled dream.
Stelyn also blamed the company’s fate on high interest rate on commercial loans and absence of financial institutions in the locality.
The General Manager of Harmony Holdings, the state government’s controlling arm of Shonga farms, Mrs. Lydia Afolayan, said she knew little about the happenings in the farm, promising to send her response after getting briefing from the field officers.
“I was just appointed here, I don’t know much about the farm, but our representative there has not briefed me about your (our reporter’s) enquiries, but I will reach out to you as soon as he reaches me because I am going to send your questions to him.”
But three days after the meeting, she was yet to get back to The Guardian.
