Report on FfF Training Undertaken by John Vlaming and Jerry Field in Nigeria June 2018

Key person: Professor Yusufu Turaki

Recent Events

Background

Nigeria has a population of over 200 million but is also a large country in area. The Plateau region is a higher area of good soils although they say rain washes all the good down the plateau to the surrounding areas.

The main crops grown are maize, potatoes, rice, vegetables, plantain, mangoes and bananas. They also grow grains such as oats and something called Fendo which is a grain recommended for diabetics.

The Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) is a large organization in Nigeria with a large network of people. They have an agricultural center where the training was held and where in the past they have used it to train other people. Currently it has a few crops planted at the center.

The place where the training was held in Jos was experiencing some issues with violence while we were there, in the outer areas of the town. Herdsmen and local crop farmers clashed and around 86 people were killed with other violence. Military presence and curfews were established. In talking with locals it seems there is more behind this and it has been going on for a long time. The herdsmen are mainly Muslim and the crop farmers Christian, so it has become a land battle.  

Training

There were about 35 people that were involved in the training and they were very engaged. They were a very high standard of people, making training able to go pretty deep into the reasons why the methods are used. Although not the poorest of the poor themselves, they were chosen to be trained because of a farming background and also their potential to become trainers in very poor rural communities.

These people loved the fact that the bible is the main source of information for farming, as they had never thought of this before. They talked many times of having to repent about how they had treated God's created soil, their brother, and how they have been treating him with digging, burning, not covering him.

About seven of the people we trained are involved with a program called POD - Personal Orientation Development. They are using holistic practices of water wells, health training and other things to be an entry into peoples lives to present Christ, especially in Muslim areas.

From the farming that we did see, the same issues of high digging of soil, no mulch, ridges, and lack of attention to standards were evident. 

The people responded well to the concepts of mulch and minimal digging, especially since they see how all the fertile land is being washed away from the high plateau. 

At the end the professor stated that "ignorance has been keeping our people poor, but now we have the knowledge to make a difference in our communities."

Personal Stories

Pastor Adam is married with four children, two are away at secondary school education, one has left home and one son lives at home. Adam has loved farming since he was 12 years old, when his father introduced him to how to grow crops. At this stage he was a Muslim believer.

At the age of 18 he was converted to Christ, and since then has been on a mission to convert other Muslims to Christ. He has studied to become qualified in this area. Currently he runs a center that is set up for Muslims who do convert, so that follow up and encouragement can be done.

He still loves farming. He is currently growing land rice, which he says is the only time anyone has grown this type of rice on the plateau. He has a big mango orchard where he got some better mango varieties that he grafted from the Israelis who used to come to help train farming. We were fortunate to try these mangoes, they were amazing!

Plans for the Future

At the stage now where these people will need to go away and practice what they have learnt. It will be interesting to see the uptake of these people because they do have a great network that can spread FFF throughout Nigeria.

Comments

There is something about these people. They are very generous and humble but obviously have a great real faith. In the final prayers given as the course closed a dear lady broke into tears when praying for her nation and thinking of the potential of the knowledge they now have.

This would be the only course where a budget has been pre-arranged for the Bright Hope World Foundations for Farming fund to be used to pay for most of the course but the Professor refused for us to pay, saying no this is our cost.