Hadiza Muhammad Kola is the Kebbi State Coordinator of the Female Farmers Association, and she is also the Kebbi State President of the National Council of Women Societies (NCWS). In this interview with our Kebbi State correspondent, YARIMA HARUNA, the retired community nurse spoke on a wide range of issues bordering on farming, and her plans to reposition the NCWS in Kebbi State. Excerpts…
We all know that farming is the exclusive reserve of men, particularly in the core North. How come you are into farming, and what informed your decision to become a farmer?
Well, I was born in my village, Kola, by a farmer-farther. So, growing up in the village, it was our tradition to go to the farm, with small children as a form of fancy. But then, we only do planting, which is called ‘shukka’ in Hausa language in the millet farms. But after the shukka, we don’t go back to the farms.
However, my passion for farming was borne out of the belief that women are humans, too, and therefore, can also trade the paths of men.
I lost both parents, and I had many siblings to look after. As such, to cater for them in a difficult economic situation, I needed some support. I realised that only farming can make food available (for us). So, I began with the farms at Kola, my village.
I leave all the produce with them to eat, at least, for the whole year. Usually, I don’t sell the farm produce. But gradually, I began to expand by acquiring farms in different places.
How many farms can you boast of as a farmer?
So far, I have, at least, twelve farms aside the ones I borrow for a year or above which is called ‘talme’ in Hausa language. In those farms, I farm rice, millet, groundnuts, sweet potato, water melon, and very many other food and cash crops.
Do you make a huge harvest in a farming year?
It all depends on the blessings of the season. Sometimes, in the rice farms, I can cultivate up to five thousand bags of rice, four thousand sacks of millet and guinea corn. I also get many bags of beans and water melon, and sacks of sweet potatoes, gaskiya Alhamdulliahi!
Farming requires funds for ferlisers, seeds, labour, and other demands of. How do you source funds?
Initially, I was using my little pensions, because I am a retired community nurse. When Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, introduced home gardening, which was implemented in Kebbi State by the Kebbi State First Lady, Zainab Nasare Nasir Idris, we began to get support from the programme, and I will sell some cash crops to continue the farming throughout the year. But the cash crops, I don’t sell all of them. Like I earlier said, I give some to my family in the village, and some part of the produce go to the needy.
It must be very stressful to combine the top job of presiding over the NCWS affairs and your farming. How do you marry them together?
Yes, they are really stressful. But despite that, we are making progress in ensuring that we protect the rights of women in Kebbi State, and as well sit up to make sure that women benefit from all the social security funds from the trader money then and market women’s petty trades support.
We are standing firm to ensure that justice is done to the victims of sexual molestation which is being supported by the wife of the Kebbi State Governor through her foundation. Unfortunately, we are lacking funds to really meet the expectations of women as a council.
Where will Kola be in the next five years?
I pray that I live beyond five years. I am hoping to expand my farming to a mechanised level to attract more bumper harvest, and which means more assistance to my family and to the larger society.
Finally, any words of encouragement to the women that are not in farming, or any trade?
As far as I am concerned, those women are living in the past. Women are now agile to face men in their trade. Those who sit idle and wait for their husbands to provide every penny at home are lazy, and not doing good for themselves.