There is gold in farming-Amaka Chukwudum, Amicable Mondiale agricultural outfit boss

By Abdulfatah Last updated May 21, 2019

Chukwudum Amaka studied English Education but has been a farmer since childhood. In 2012, after her studies, she went fully into organic farming and produce export. Chukwudum runs an agricultural outfit, Amicable Mondiale, which she describes as a friendly global network of farmers.

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I am from Anambra State, from a family of seven. My parents were farmers. My father was a pig farmer but my mum, a teacher and poultry farmer till date. I grew up loving agriculture from my parents. I learnt it first hand from them before I went to study about it. I am a graduate of Abia State University where I studied English Education and I have my Master’s from the Netherlands and I did some other training too in Germany. I worked in a bank for a couple of years, first in a logistics company, but my passion for farming couldn’t quelled. I manage to teach, to carry on with my certificate but my passion couldn’t just be limited, so I had to enter the bush to pack the gold in the bush.

What is Amicable Mondiale all about?

We grow seeds; help farmers set up their farms. We also process mostly agricultural produce from other farmers, like we have our black soap, we process our honey, we have palm oil production, we do body butters but most importantly we do training for farmers.

We realized that many farmers are closing up because of capital, many people will keep telling you agriculture is capital, but we are of the opinion that farming can be run on five percent of capital Nigerians use to run their farms. Have you ever wondered why oyinbo will bring in their chicken and it will be cheaper than Nigerian chicken? It is because they do what we call organic farming. In organic farming, you recycle your waste. The chicken waste can actually be recycled back into feed. And that would reduce the cost of your production to five percent. So the major thing we do is training farmers on organic farming.

What is organic farming about?

Organic farming is growing your crops without chemicals, growing it the natural way. Most people will buy NPK; buy inorganic fertilizers that they use for their crops. All these are waste of money. Have you asked why grasses you stomped on in the morning and yet come evening, they are still green and thriving? But step on your corn in the farm and they die. Grasses are naturally equipped with something about them that make them resilient. So we can dig compost pit, extract these things from grasses that make them strong and then input it into your own crop. We teach farmers on how to recycle even the grass in your farm so that they become useful, so instead of buying these fertilizers, you turn the things in your farms to fertilizers. Growing maggots for your fish make them very big. Maggots on its own have 44 percent of nutrients your fishes need to grow big.

Why is it so important to practice organic farming?

Organic farming helps in the recycling of the ecosystem. It balances the ecosystem. We have seen that the weather is too hot. It is because most of us do not balance the ecosystem, and organic food too is healthier than any synthetic food, any chemical food you could buy in the market. So organic food is a way to go, it is cheaper, it is healthier, it balances the ecosystem and it is better in many ways. If you eat organic food, hardly will you fall sick. Take for example, the white sugar we consume daily. We have tamarind in Nigeria in excess, take these things and consume them and it takes care of your liver as a person. But because we are not knowledgeable about them, we don’t know how to do it. Our job is to educate farmers; we go state to state, to train them. Another project we did is on children. We expose them to agriculture early, make them see the beauty of agriculture and appreciate agriculture it as an occupation.

Did the fact that your parents were farmers influence or motivate you to become a farmer?

My father died of cancer. I was hurt and I began to do research. Apart from him exposing me to agriculture early, I felt nature has provided us with the needed roots to take care of our health. That took me into research and that was how I got to know other things that could help our body build immunity against cancer. That was what took me actually into food processing. Instead of waiting for bad diseases to get a hold of you and you start spending a fortune on treatments, build yourself against them. I began to grow nature’s immune boosters. My parents were animal farmers, but I went into crops and I can categorically tell you it has been an interesting journey. My happiest moment is when I am in the farm. No matter how sad I am, as I enter the farm, my mood changes.

Other benefits of organic farming?

As I said, if we Nigerian farmers can learn organic farming, it can reduce our production cost to five percent. Secondly, it balances the ecosystem.

Soursop is a very good fruit that helps fight all kinds of cancers but we don’t have them anymore, because we keep cutting down trees and we don’t plant trees.

Organic farming recycles the nature, it balances the nature. We need to plant more trees, if every family in Nigeria today plants one tree, by this time next year; the weather in this country will change. If we can look at production and processing agricultural products, our economy will get the much-needed boost. Because most times we export our wealth and we import poverty. We export cashew when we should have been using every part of this cash crop to make money. Cashew processing factories in Nigeria are few. We export cashew nuts raw, Let Nigerians learn to process what we produce. If government really wants to invest in agriculture, the first thing to do is invest in training farmers the right way. Ghanaians don’t grow yams as much as we do here, but go everywhere. Go to Canada, you would find them selling yams. They buy their yams from Nigeria, transport it to their country and export from there. The cost of export in Nigeria is too high for a normal farmer. We need to encourage non-oil export so that farmers can be encouraged to continue. Many farmers are dropping out; many youths are going out of farming. There are more internet farmers today than the practicing farmers, because they feel there is no money in there.

What is internet farming if I may ask?

Those talk about farming on the internet but they don’t have a single farm.

What are the greatest challenges facing farmers in Nigeria right now apart from export?

The greatest challenge is there is no place to train farmers freely. Many people dabble into farming. I am one person that believes money is not the basis for every business. The first thing you need in every business is knowledge. If you don’t have the knowledge, even if you invest millions of naira, it will go down. So a farmer needs to be trained first.

What more can Amicable Mondiale offer to the society, if given the enabling environment?

Amicable Mondiale sells all kinds of seedlings. We grow it and we set up farms for people. Call us anywhere you are, tell us the size of the farm you have, we will come, check your land, test the soil and we will know what your soil can grow. If your soil has a problem, I always say it that you can grow your crops anywhere. You can grow cabbage in the east; you can grow carrot in the east…

I thought it had something to do with the climate in the North, which is why the above crops mentioned are only grown there?

No there are some fruits that need some climate such as strawberry and grapes, but others depends on the soil in your land. If the soil is treated and given what it needs, even if your soil is not balanced, we can feed the soil with what it needs, once you feed the soil, it will give you the food, but because we don’t know this, we believe that it is kept for certain places. I have farms we managed in the east today, they grow cabbage, lettuce but most importantly, I tell people, if you want to do large investment, invest in crops. I call them your pension investment. Invest in things like cash crops, invest in cocoa, coconut is the money spinner now. If you can bring out one acre and plant just coconut on it and you manage it and coconut grow in less than three years, in less than three years you can make two million naira from that one acre, if you manage it well. Between these same coconuts, you can intercrop. And within six months you are already harvesting and making your money. If you are planting plantain, plantain fruits in nine months. Make that investment, we will come and manage the farm for you. The most important thing is to set it up right, professionally. Give the soil what it needs to eat and it will give you what you need to smile. From our palm oil, we get our black soaps and body butters; we have our tamarind and spices. Any of these we supply to supermarkets and you can also place your order from any part of the world. We dry meat, our bush meat and send it out of the country, for those that place orders. Periwinkles, we dry it and pack it and we can supply as much as 10,000 snails. Any kind of livestock you need, we have them.

Farming is vast, what is your favourite type of farming?

Personally, I love to research and I realized that every day, new things about crops keep coming up. Farming is ever evolving. I actually enjoy production of crops and it gives me what I want like recently I discovered a new way to do animal farming that can bring you more money. I realized that chicken only uses a quarter of what they produce, we waste the other three-quarters and we keep complaining that poultry farming is very expensive. I love the research part and I love crop farming.

Are there women farmers in the same category like you?

I have colleagues who are women. We actually have a cooperative presently where we are growing about 16,000 birds. We have them at Ibadan, but we need money in all these groups. If only we can put all hands on deck, by this time next year, the cost of food in the market should go down.