My grandfather, 1895 to 1985, worked as interpreter for ndiocha at Nkwere Farm Settlement in Anambra State in the 1940s. It is now defunct.
My father worked as an Electrical Engineer at Nkalagu Cement Factory but as a kid who grew up in Nkwere farm settlement, the farm settlement mentality never left him. He was full time civil servant and part time farmer.
He cultivated everything we ate from melon to okra to vegetables to corn to yam. We had a poultry of over 1000 birds. We sold okuko and eggs. We also raised ewu Igbo. At some point, we had over 200 goats. He was a one man farm settlement.
Our house at Nkalagu was paradisaical. We were surrounded by the best species of cashew, mango, guava, sugar cane, oloma. We had a mini plaintain plantation. Banana was everywhere. And our house was lined by hibiscus flowers.
My father couldn't have done it without Ezilo farm settlement about 20 miles from Nkalagu.
Like Nkwere farm settlement, Ezilo farm settlement was an agricultural settlement complete with farms, poultry, ehi Igbo, ewu, vegetables, fruit trees, and worker's quarters. Just like my grandfather lived and raised his kids at Nkwere farm settlement, farm workers also lived with their families at Ezilo farm settlements.
Anyone could stop by to buy goats and ehi or yam or whatever they had to sellat the farm settlements.
But their mission was even greater than that. Working with the Departments of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicines in the University of Nigeria, the farm settlements were a repetoir of best practices and reservoir of best cultivars and species.
We got our guava and mangoes and cashews seedlings and Popo and other fruits from the farm settlements. My father trusted their brand as the best.
A worker from there visited and administered antibiotics to our chicken in the poultry. He helped us set it up and mentored to us in the poultry business.
Whenever my father had any questions, he went to Ezilo farm settlement to get expert advice.
For instance, there was a time when our goats shrank in number due to high mortality. Disease was wiping them out. No apparent reason. Emma, a farm settlement worker came to our rescue. Too much inbreeding he stated Emma brought nkpi from farm settlement and our goat population revived. From then on, we began to hire nkpi from the farm settlement for genetic diversity.
What happened to these brilliant concepts called farm settlements?
They all died. Too much politics. State creations displaced many trained workers and replaced them with state indigenes who didn't know their left from their right. Crude oil killed the rest. It was easier to collect rent from the center than to grow a viable economy. So those farm settlements died.
During Okpara regime and even Ukpabi Asika regime, civil servants were encouraged to farm. Food was abundant. Ehi Igbo was available. Farm settlements were very much part of the local economy. Ndigbo were food sufficient.
And then things fell apart.
Today ndi Fulani are trying to Rugarize us all because we killed our own Rugas.
It is time to bring back Igbo Rugas. Farming is big business. Let's learn our lessons and get right back into it. Every local government in Igboland should have a farm settlement starting from yesterday. In addition to raising our own ehi, ewu and okuko, a trillion naira business by the way, vegetable oil from aku is one of the highest prized vegetable oils. Cassava flour in America is priced like gold. We were once the fastest growing economy in the world. Today, we live in fear of losing our homelands all because we can't stop eating ehi Fulani and start feeding ourselves.
Aniedobe
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