Nembe—When Governor Douye Diri was swearing-in a group of commissioners and government appointees sometime in 2020, he declared that every political appointee and government official under his government must go into farming as a vocation.
Little did the Governor know that by that singular declaration, he was going to inspire someone into finding his love for farming and make it a real business from which he would make real fortunes.
Hon. Azibato Diete Johnson, a councilor of ward 10 (Okoroma) in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, went into rice farming precisely April last year in obedience to the Governor’s directive.
The politician in a chat with mangrovepen.ng revealed that although he studied Agriculture in the university and has always had a thing for farming as his parents trained him with proceeds from farming, it was the Governor’s directive that significantly spurred him to start his rice farm.
“I studied Agricultural Science and finished from the Niger Delta University. The knowledge I acquired in school played a role in my going into farming.
“As a child, my parents used to take me along to the farm. And it was with the small subsistence farming they did that they used in footing the bills and running the home. So as an adult, I needed to think out of the box and look for other ways to make money outside of my salary as an elected official.
“But I must say, the major thing that made me go into rice cultivation was Governor Douye Diri’s directive for all Government officials under his administration to go into farming. That inspired and challenged me. Today, I’m grateful I took up the challenge,” he said.
Johnson may have started his agribusiness just about nine months ago yet he is already reaping the benefits of his labour.
About November last year, he said, he made his first round of harvest, harvesting over 44 bags of rice.
In the last nine months, the politician turned farmer has been able to establish an agribusiness company Viz; KIRI-ISIBO Global Services limited which aside from rice also supplies vegetables like pumpkin leaves, fresh pepper and other food crops like cocoyam, sweet potatoes, and cucumber to customers including traders in Yenagoa.
In a clime where not too many people are into commercial farming let alone rice farming, it will not be farfetched to state that Johnson is starting to build a reputation as an expansive agribusiness man in the state.
But just like all fields of human endeavour, farming and the cultivation of food crops are not without challenges. When asked about the challenges he has faced so far in the cause of farming, he retorted almost immediately and mentioned “finances.”
According to Johnson: “Definitely finance is one of the challenges. You know, it is only when you have money that you can afford to pay for labour on your farm.
“And in a large scale farming, you need several workers because people who would prepare the soil for cultivation by tilling it are different from the ones who would do the actual planting. So it involves a lot of money.
“Transportation is also a major issue. The means to transport labourers to the farm and even most times to carry the farm produce to different destinations is a big challenge.
“Every day I spend not less than 5,000 naira to transport my workers alone to the farm. In the meantime, we make use of tricycles to carry our workers from different communities to the farm and that costs us a fortune every day.”
However, the councilor appealed to the state government to provide farm machines like tractors available to farmers in the state to ease the farming process and reduce the cost of labour.
He explained that there are not enough rice milling machines in the state, so hulling the paddy (freshly harvested rice with husk) after harvest becomes difficult and most times ends in delaying the process.
Johnson stated that in line with the state government’s policy to improve agricultural activities in the state, he said there is no better way to incentivize the sector especially for rice farmers other than to provide the milling machines to ease processing.
When asked if he has had any form of support from either government or private organizations, Johnson said “so far none but I’m hoping because like I said earlier one of our major challenges in this agribusiness is funding.
“If the government or private companies can support us with credit facilities with little or no interest rate, it would boost our businesses.
He continued, “Talking about loans, usually there are agencies of government that do give loans to farmers including the Central Bank of Nigeria but when such opportunities come, it rarely gets to the people that need it.
He explained that his rice market and customers are mostly within Yenagoa, especially his colleagues and top government officials, stating that he hopes to expand his market frontiers by breaking into the larger Nigerian market in the long run.
He also revealed that he has two farms. A rice farm which he said is located along the Otuoke road in the Bayelsa palm axis as well as a vegetable farm situated around airport junction, along Amassoma road, Bayelsa State.
Johnson posited that farming is a very much lucrative business and one which has the potential to change the fortunes of anyone who goes into it despite its attendant challenges.
He said, oftentimes, he wonders why there is the rapid rise in youth unemployment in the state and the country at large when in fact People can go into farming no matter how small.
The Councilor advised youths to think out of the box and take up farming to engage themselves and for those working already to supplement their work with it to diversify their stream of income.
“The youths should always think out of the box. We should not depend on our monthly salary alone but diversify the sources of our income.
“Youths should go into agriculture because there’s a lot of opportunities there,” he advised.
He further appreciated Governor Diri for prioritizing agriculture and directing all appointees in his government to key in.
