Landgrabbing for Nigeria’s Rice Revolution, Peter Jopke
The North-Eastern Nigerian State of Taraba is on the verge of handing over 30,000 hectares of land to Dominion Farms. The Memorandum of Understanding of the public-private partnership was signed in February 2012. The mega-project is expected to reduce Nigerian rice imports by 15%. But what is been described as the prelude to Nigeria’s rice revolution could result in livelihood losses for about 45,000 inhabitants who will have to vacate their lands. This intervention also raises concerns about the depletion of an important grazing area: Mutum Biyu Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State, where the land being given to Dominion is located, is said to metamorphose into a “Lagos of Cows” during the Harmattan season.
local rice farm in Gassol
Taraba/Gassol, Mutum Biyu L.G.A.-Dominion Rice Farms and Integrated Ltd. aiming to cultivate and process mainly rice on an area of 30,000 hectares has taken off by importing equipment and establishing an administration at the site. The company is expected to reduce Nigeria’s rice imports by 15%, thereby creating 15,000 jobs. The Taraba State government promises to build a school, a hospital and a road that connects the area of Gassol with the highway between Wukari and Jalingo. There are also plans to reactivate existing silos and Gassol’s water treatment plant. The rosy picture of progress arriving in Gassol further includes talks to supply the community with electricity from a hydro power plant that Dominion intends to build. Only 10% of the farm is going to be turned to a plantation and the remaining land is meant to be given out to locals participating in a contract farming scheme – a term suggesting socially inclusive development.
The fertile land at the edge of the Rivers Benue and Taraba is reported to have “laid fallow for decades” and to “belong to the Federal Government” by a Lagos based daily. A visit on the ground revealed that the land is inhabited and farmed by indigenous people who claim ownership of the land through customary rights. Nevertheless, the His Royal Highness, Alhaji Idris Chiroma, Lamido Gassol, who is the custodian of the land agreed to the handover.
In May 2012 a land acquisition notice – oddly marked “secret” – directed affected land property owners to take part in an assessment for compensation. As a result, about 3,000 holders of land titles were identified. However, according to Chief Alhaji Idris Chiroma, the area contains up to 45,000 inhabitants.
Entering the designated Dominion land, one can see some large swathes of green rice fields developed by the Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority and then given out to locals, a signature of indigenous enterprise.
The “Dominion Land” was spotlighted before
In 1982, the Upper Benue River Development Authority* identified 38,000 ha of available irrigable land in Mutumbiyu Gassol Local Government Area
The authority could only acquire and develop 3,000 ha for rain-fed farming
The fields assigned to local farmers will be handed over to Dominion Farms
Thousands of Fishermen earn a living from numerous “fish ponds” – relict structures of an attempted irrigation scheme
* Agency of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources
Box 2
“The land in the front was already developed. All the land in the back still has to be cleared and channelled because it is marshland that partially experiences seasonal flooding,” a Nigerian staff member of Dominion explains, “Next year February we will start cultivating the first portion.“
Only a small area has been occupied by Dominion so far. With its seven tractors and a handful of staff at the site, it requires fantasy to imagine that only an area of 42,000 football fields is planned to be cultivated here.
First signs of activity: tractors have arrived at the Dominion site
After PR: Nigerian Trainees dropped off
Details of the public private partnership are contained in the memorandum of understanding signed between the federal government and the state government of Taraba and Dominion in 2012. The attempt to get a copy of the file at the State Ministry of Agriculture proved abortive. However, in February last year the company realized its commitment to train 50 Nigerians at its farm in Kenya. Before their departure, the trainees coming from Gassol and other parts of Taraba made a “once in a life time experience”:
“On the last night before our travel to Kenya, we were invited to the Hilton Hotel in Abuja,“ one of the trainees recalls, “There were a lot of dignitaries such as Calvin Burgess, the ambassador of the USA, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, the Federal Ministers of Agriculture, and Finance and the media of course. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding was the reason for the celebration.”
The trainees had learned a lot during the training program. Back in Nigeria, they got disillusioned:
local rice farm in Gassol
Taraba/Gassol, Mutum Biyu L.G.A.-Dominion Rice Farms and Integrated Ltd. aiming to cultivate and process mainly rice on an area of 30,000 hectares has taken off by importing equipment and establishing an administration at the site. The company is expected to reduce Nigeria’s rice imports by 15%, thereby creating 15,000 jobs. The Taraba State government promises to build a school, a hospital and a road that connects the area of Gassol with the highway between Wukari and Jalingo. There are also plans to reactivate existing silos and Gassol’s water treatment plant. The rosy picture of progress arriving in Gassol further includes talks to supply the community with electricity from a hydro power plant that Dominion intends to build. Only 10% of the farm is going to be turned to a plantation and the remaining land is meant to be given out to locals participating in a contract farming scheme – a term suggesting socially inclusive development.
The fertile land at the edge of the Rivers Benue and Taraba is reported to have “laid fallow for decades” and to “belong to the Federal Government” by a Lagos based daily. A visit on the ground revealed that the land is inhabited and farmed by indigenous people who claim ownership of the land through customary rights. Nevertheless, the His Royal Highness, Alhaji Idris Chiroma, Lamido Gassol, who is the custodian of the land agreed to the handover.
In May 2012 a land acquisition notice – oddly marked “secret” – directed affected land property owners to take part in an assessment for compensation. As a result, about 3,000 holders of land titles were identified. However, according to Chief Alhaji Idris Chiroma, the area contains up to 45,000 inhabitants.
Entering the designated Dominion land, one can see some large swathes of green rice fields developed by the Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority and then given out to locals, a signature of indigenous enterprise.
The “Dominion Land” was spotlighted before
In 1982, the Upper Benue River Development Authority* identified 38,000 ha of available irrigable land in Mutumbiyu Gassol Local Government Area
The authority could only acquire and develop 3,000 ha for rain-fed farming
The fields assigned to local farmers will be handed over to Dominion Farms
Thousands of Fishermen earn a living from numerous “fish ponds” – relict structures of an attempted irrigation scheme
* Agency of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources
Box 2
“The land in the front was already developed. All the land in the back still has to be cleared and channelled because it is marshland that partially experiences seasonal flooding,” a Nigerian staff member of Dominion explains, “Next year February we will start cultivating the first portion.“
Only a small area has been occupied by Dominion so far. With its seven tractors and a handful of staff at the site, it requires fantasy to imagine that only an area of 42,000 football fields is planned to be cultivated here.
First signs of activity: tractors have arrived at the Dominion site
After PR: Nigerian Trainees dropped off
Details of the public private partnership are contained in the memorandum of understanding signed between the federal government and the state government of Taraba and Dominion in 2012. The attempt to get a copy of the file at the State Ministry of Agriculture proved abortive. However, in February last year the company realized its commitment to train 50 Nigerians at its farm in Kenya. Before their departure, the trainees coming from Gassol and other parts of Taraba made a “once in a life time experience”:
“On the last night before our travel to Kenya, we were invited to the Hilton Hotel in Abuja,“ one of the trainees recalls, “There were a lot of dignitaries such as Calvin Burgess, the ambassador of the USA, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, the Federal Ministers of Agriculture, and Finance and the media of course. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding was the reason for the celebration.”
The trainees had learned a lot during the training program. Back in Nigeria, they got disillusioned:
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