Simeon Mpamugoh
Soilless farming is as old as mankind. It has been with man since 2000 years ago. The water hyacinth that grows on the lagoon, the hanging garden of Babylon and one of the Seven Wonders of the World: King Nebuchadnezzar planting in the air are all elements of soilless farming.
However, this brand of farming is uncommon to Nigeria because people don’t know about it. Yet the rest of the world is running with the technology, which is also called hydroponics farming.
It is believed that the technology, if commercialised in Nigeria, has a potential to address the problem of food insecurity in the country considering the nation’s population, which grows at a geometric progression. Also expected to be tackled by this farming technology are problems of herdsmen-farmers clashes, Niger Delta oil spillage and high level of unemployment in the country.
Mr. Adebowale Onafowora, Chief Executive Officer, Bic Farm Concepts, is a pioneer of soilless farming in Nigeria. “Hydroponics farming – the growing of plants in a nutrients liquid with or without gravel or another supporting medium – is not really a new system of farming. What happened is that, we pioneered it in Nigeria,” he intimates.
He said he stumbled on it some time in 2013 through a documentary he saw on Cable News Network (CNN), and was dazed that crops could grow without soil. “I began to research, and discovered a lot of things that can be done. I started with the fodder production, which is the grass. I found out that what we can grow in three months on the soil could be done practically in nine days. And in terms of space that is needed, instead of 100 hectares of land, with one hectare, one can grow the same size of fodder that would grow on hundred hectares of land within nine days,” he added.
He said he was amazed at his finding, adding that it is the solution we need to curb the issue of herdsmen-farmers clashes, oil spillage, food insecurity and youth unemployment.
“When I started developing it, I found out that it was even more than a fodder. In tomato production, for example, 75 per cent of tomatoes we eat in Lagos, and other South West, South East states come from the North. So, with soilless farming, we started growing tomatoes. And now, it is commercially viable because we’ve been able to start a lot of farms that are soilless, growing tomatoes and other crops,” he said.
Food insecurity
It can grow in commercial quantity fruits and vegetables that are commonly consumed including tomatoes, habanero pepper otherwise called rodo, and cucumber. It can grow almost every type of food such as rice, among others. The vegetables consumed in Nigeria, such as pumpkin (ugu in Igbo language) are cooked before being consumed. The cooking process affects some of the nutrients in the vegetables. There is, therefore, need for vegetables that can be consumed raw, which would translate to good health. These include lettuce, cabbage, spinach, and cucumber, with small decking, so this technology is here to help provide better platforms for growing these vegetables.
Growing crops effectively without soil, there is need for what is called a controlled room otherwise known as greenhouse. There is no company that produces greenhouse in Nigeria. It is still being imported. Countries like Spain have 60,000 hectares of covered land; Holland has 80,000 while China has 40,000. Nigeria is just growing, and the country has not covered up to 500 hectares of land. It is a huge industry for agriculture engineers because the material this type of farming needs would be produced by people. So, the engineering and food production aspects of it are huge.
Value chain
There are many tomato processing outfits in Nigeria, which have not been able to function for six months at a stretch. Reason. Despite the quantity of tomatoes produced in Nigeria, the local farmers cannot meet the requirement of South West because tomatoes can only grown once. This type of farming is needed to be able to produce all year round. Tomato is the most consumed vegetable crop in Nigeria.
According to the BIC Farms boss, the country consumes about 2.4 million metric tonnes of tomato while it produces about 1.8 metric tonnes. It is only about 900,000 tonnes that get to the tables of Nigerians; the rest is destroyed because of post-harvest issues.
He stated that hydroponics farming technology can grow better variety of tomato for processing, adding that, “we don’t need to import paste. When you process tomatoes, you need to package it. Packaging material is also value chain material. The product itself needs to go through distribution. We need vehicles that would move the product. Let us also look at products like strawberry.
“We talk about smoothening, herbs and parfait industry, which are springing up; we currently process thyme (peppermint). These are products that can come out of hydroponics farming because they can grow easily. We also have products like stevia, which is a sugar substitute, a sweetener that does a lot of work. These are different products along the value chain. So, the value chain is enormous and inexhaustible.”
Curbing herdsmen-farmers’ clashes through soilless farming
Onafowora noted that this is where government needs to come in because 80 per cent of the beef consumed in Lagos comes from the North. He said the largest cattle market in Nigeria is in Mubi, Adamawa State and most of the animals that leave Adamawa for Kara region in Northern Togo, Lagos and other places come from Niger, Cameroon, and as far as Mali, before they are sold. Lagos consumes a minimum of 4,000 herds of cow daily. Where are they from? Is there any farmer that has 100 herds of cow in a ranch in Lagos? But with hydroponics farming, we can build ranches. We call it fodder centre or feed lot. The issue is with feeding, and we have perfected a system whereby you can keep 1,000
-10,000 herds of cow in about 100 hectares of land, which is not much for that quantity. The normal prescription is, in a 100 hectares of land, you cannot put less than 500 cows but with hydroponics fodder for them, you can put over 10,000 cows and some other feeds substitutes that can be grown on that fodder centre. Imagine a fodder centre somewhere in Ikorodu, Epe, and Badagry; some people would need to manage the animals, and the multiplier effect in terms of job creation along the line is unimaginable. We need veterinary hospital there, the people that would run the fodder centre, manage the animals; and you also have communities. The children would go to school; schools and market would be built as well as farms because to grow fodder, you turn seed into grain. So, there would be a grain farm close by, and people would be needed to work there.
While growing in these fodder centres, these animals would be defecating. The faeces would be turned to biogas for cooking and the effluence is fertiliser otherwise called bio-fertiliser for growing the grains that would be turned to fodder. There would be need to build houses and schools for staff and their children, abattoir, milk collection centres, among others. So, we can build sustainable communities around the fact that we want to eat or sell cows in Lagos.
Tackling oil spillage in the Niger Delta
It is one of the advocacies we are pushing with soilless farming. I would say it is the solution to Niger Delta oil spillage. It is not just the issue of oil spillage; lands are very expensive and how can you maximise the little you have? It is only in soilless farming you can grow vertically. They would grow the crop on the land and major food they import from the North.