Suleiman Janare, 56, is a father of 18 children with two wives. He is a peasant farmer in Dangamaji Community in Jega Local Government Area of Kebbi State, North West, Nigeria.
Over the years, Janare like other small scale farmers in the communities was facing challenges of getting farming inputs to increase their yields and make money. Despite several efforts to seek help to alleviate his condition, no help came his way. But getting farm inputs and money to expand are not his only problems.
Janare needs to go to his farm everyday, about four kilometre away from the village through a road that’s is in a state of disrepair even as he contends with crossing River Bayen Dangamaji which over flows during the raining season and makes it difficult for him to move his farm produce to the village after harvest.
“We have been farming without any input such as fertilizer; we used to sell our assets to buy fertilizers. I also use to rent water pump machine to wet my small rice farm (about 2-3 acres) because I cannot afford to buy one”.
Despite all the challenges, Janare never gave up. He recounts his experience on how he used to move from pillar to post, borrowing and selling his farm produce at cheap prices to the middlemen all the time to feed his large family.
Making profit in this situation becomes hard because he cannot wait and keep the farm produce till the time when he could make more money from them.
“I have never gotten any support from any organization or government. Water supply is a challenge on this farm; I rent this well for water supply. I borrow hose pipe and machine to water my other farm due to lack of well and that is also affecting my farming yields”, said Janare.
But he heard about Oxfam coming to his community through PROACT, a European Union support to food security and resilience in the Northern Nigeria, Janare was over the moon. His hope was raised. He quickly joined the newly formed group.
“I joined one of the groups where we were saving small money but I was more interested in the assistance they promised us in terms of farm inputs such as fertilizers and water pump machine which are what I need to solve my problems”.
Janare relied on the promise of farm input and went to hire more space of land for dry season rice farming. With five bags of fertilizers he got, he was looking for a better future for his family and livelihood.
“I am happy this organization (Oxfam) came and helped us without any stress or struggle to get fertilizer. I hire this farmland because my own is not enough; I hire it for three years at the cost of 33,000 Naira. This is the first year of farming on this plot of land. I am very happy with your support that is why I went for this farm that is bigger than my previous farm because I can foresee success on my part from your organization to help my household” he said.