Batagarawa — The chilly January Northeast trade wind carried in its gust dust which blurred the skyline. The sun looked dull in the misty atmosphere with scanty vegetation covering the hard and dry red clay soil; there was an ambience of bleakness. It was until lush green mango and guava trees started appearing in the horizon, cows lowed, horses neighed and sheep bleated that there appeared to be life in the rustic village of Yankwakai in Batagarawa local government of Katsina state.
Located about 20 kilometres from the Katsina state capital, Walin Hausa Farm occupies a vast stretch of semi-arid land, running into 53.4 hectares. As the territory of the farm is big, so is the concept of the farm too, when it was conceived and executed in 2011.
The farm has a good number of hectares of jatropha plant, an orchard of mangoes and guavas, an animal husbandry section, with a horse stable, a cattle and sheep coop, a chickenpen and a large part of the land for cultivating cereal crops.
According to the Managing Director of the farm, Dr Abduljalil Umar Abdullahi, his father, Justice Umar Abdullahi, former President of the Court of Appeal, who has the traditional tittle Walin Hausa, decided to set up the farm as one of his retirement projects to help in fighting desert encroachment.
Abduljalil said farming is a passion his father would have liked to have enjoyed earlier in his life but his work as a judge didn’t allow him so now that he is retired, he is enjoying it, adding that the idea to establish the jatropha component of the farm was his father’s usual way of always seeking for alternative means to improve on the lives of the people around him.
“It was from their association for environmental protection and prevention of desert encroachment that he came across agriculturalists who had special interest in a plant called jatropha. Jatropha is a drought resistant plant that produces seeds which can be pressed for oil.Incidentally, in order to conserve and protect the environment, the whole world is looking for alternative sources of energy. Jatropha produces high amount of oil and it happens to be a local plant. The locals use it to create barriers and boundaries for their houses and farms but it is ironic that they do not know its economic value,” he said.
He said his father was so fascinated with the idea that he did not waste time in setting up the farm and procuring the machinery that would process the jatropha into biodesiel.
“It is so amazing to know that at such a time in your life you stumble unto something, you believe so much in it, and you go ahead to commit a lot of time and resources just to prove to the world that yes I can do this and actually improve the lives and well being of the people in the villages.
“There are a lot of things that come out of it, apart from the biodesiel. The by-products that you can use to make household materials like candle, soap, shampoo and insecticides. He also went ahead to train people in the local communities around the farm on how to make these by-products so that they can improve their economy and livelihoods. Apart from that, also from the farm, jatropha is a seasonal plant, when the seed is not so much in stock you can also do other things. Presently, we are using cotton seed to produce eadible oil. You can still get by-products from the cotton seed which produces the cake that comes out which also serves as animal feed,” he said.
He said the farm’s main business is planting Jatropha, tending it, harvesting the seeds and processing biodesiel from them. The farm also rears cattle, goats, guinea fowl, horses, besides keeping bees and nursing an orchard.
Abduljalil said the farm started in 2011 and it is still growing.
See More @ https://allafrica.com/stories/201501262436.html