The leading lady

The leading lady

Ladiyo Garba, Nigeria

Cabbage may be just a vegetable to most people, but to Ladiyo Garba, the cabbage has become her totem of women’s empowerment.

Just over two years ago, Ladiyo realized that working for a low wage at a local rice grower in her home village of Galadanchi in Kano state, Nigeria was not going to sustain her and her seven children. Her husband lives between his second and third families in another part of the province and is mostly absent. She is the first wife of a polygamist. A chance meeting with an East-West Seed field officer inspired and convinced her to try her hand at growing vegetables. Even though she had to discuss the idea of farming with her husband, it would be her task to work the land. It wasn’t an easy decision as she would be the first farmer in her community to start cabbage farming, and she only had a small patch of land on which to farm. She started out working on a demonstration-size piece of land that was 250 m2 .

‘I started with cabbages so I didn’t have to build trellises for tomatoes, because I would have had to do all the work myself. I learned everything that the field officer taught me – even when she told me to grow the cabbages in a raised wide row of zig-zag beds and to mulch and fertilize in the right amounts at the right times, which no one here knew about,’ she says.

The weeks passed, and the vigorous, healthy plants that emerged slow-

ly turned to cabbages that silenced the doubtful in her village. ‘I held that first cabbage I harvested close to my heart; I was so happy that I could grow this beautiful cabbage from a seedling. I wished I didn’t have to sell it, but I needed the money.’

The good yields meant happy customers and more sales. Ladiyo was able to put food on her table and pay the school fees for the younger of her children, aged between 8 and 20. She also bought a sewing machine that opened an additional source of income for her household by being able to offer sewing services to others in her community. She eventually doubled the size of her farm to 500 m2 .

Ladiyo’s success made people take notice – especially other women in her village. She laughs that she’s become something of a farming hero. Her efforts smashed barriers by showing that women could achieve new empowerment and create their own income by turning to farming. That is no small feat in a region where women are not allowed to own land and can only farm on land they can lease.

‘I appeal to women to realize that they can be dependent on themselves through farming. They don’t have to go begging for their husbands to pay for school fees or see their children roaming the streets because they can’t go to school,’ she says.

Ladiyo has spent the past two years encouraging women to ‘build big dreams by starting small’. She’s a firm believer in learning the proper farming techniques, the business of farming, and adequate handling of produce, which means even tiny initial yields can be high-quality. That is where success begins.

She was part of establishing a women’s farming cooperative and savings initiative. They’ve been able to pool money to lease more significant pieces of land on which to farm. Ladiyo says everyone is welcome to join the cooperative, provided they are motivated and prepared to work hard tending to their crops. ‘A good farmer is also persistent and someone who

can face massive obstacles and is not easily discouraged.’ Some of the challenges for her community have come from poor road infrastructure and high transport costs that make it challenging to get their produce to new markets. In turn, it affects their ability to scale up.

Still, she says, the group perseveres, and being able to share the burdens of setbacks and disappointments keeps their spirits up. The group has learned valuable lessons in organizing and creating structure, harmonizing different roles for each farmer and resolving conflicts by staying true to their mutual goals.

Her relationship with the field officer and other experts at EWS has been steadfast. She can quickly turn to EWS when encountering hiccups, including fighting pests or finding better solutions to farm in conditions of extreme heat.

‘I have no complaints. I want EWS to bring more seeds to the community, speak to more women about the modern way of farming, and show them that they can also start planting,’ she says.

Building a better future means looking to innovative expansion, and for Ladiyo it means adding tomato plants to her fields in the next season. ‘I am proud to be wearing better clothes, to be able to afford some small treats sometimes like yogurt and eggs; to know that my children are provided for and will have better futures. But I won’t stop; I want everyone to know my name as the woman who farms these beautiful cabbages and believe they can do the same for themselves.’