From first-aider to farmer, Saratu Aboki works with food producers to find a healthier, cheaper way of making fertilizer. 'It keeps me going because I know it's protecting our ecosystem, the communities and people's health -- and it's making money for the farmers.'
Like many young people in Nigeria, Saratu Aboki was introduced to the Red Cross in grade school, when she learned a range of first-aid skills to care for herself and others in emergencies.
Over the years, she trained many others in first aid and in doing so she learned to speak many of the 29 languages spoken in her home state of Nasarawa.
But even though she always had a strong love for the environment and the natural world, she says she was never very interested in one of the biggest activities in her home state: farming. Despite the fact that farming makes up a big part of the economy in Nasarawa, she didn't know much about what it took to grow the food that ended up on her table.
That was until she saw how much the farmers were suffering due to the dual impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic - which put a halt on nearly all trade for farmers for several seasons -- and the prolonged heatwaves and droughts in the years since.
Saratu knew she wanted to do something to help. After all, the farmers were the lifeblood of their area, bringing in income and producing the yams, sesame seeds, casava and maize beloved and needed by everyone.
"After the Covid-19 pandemic, the small-scale farmers in my community had a hard time getting back on their feet because during the crisis they could not take their product to market to sell," Saratu says. "They lost a lot of their crops, especially the perishable ones. They lost almost half of their livelihoods."
After the pandemic eased up, it didn't get much better. The normal rainy seasons weren't coming as usual. After losing so much, farmers could no longer afford supplies like fertilizers that they needed to put on their crops of wheat, rice, melon, cassava yams and maize.
"The farmers had this ritual where, at the end of each harvest, they clear their fields by setting fire to the remains of the plants in the field," she recalls. "So I started to think about how to convert the leftover plant material into organic fertilizer."
"When the IFRC was calling for applications for its 'Limitless' project at the Solferino Academy, for people who have innovative ideas, I saw it as an opportunity for me to help the people of my community to get back on their feet," she says.
'So excited to share'
With support from her local branch, Saratu's first step was to organize training sessions with about 120 farmers, who came from 15 communities in the area. The trainings went well and the farmers were receptive.
In the coming months, Saratu and other branch volunteers organized trainings in 10 other communities, where they invited farm leaders from various communities in the hope that they would share the knowledge with other farmers.
The composting process they proposed to the farmers is relatively simple, though it is hard work. First, the farmers collect all the leftover plant stalks and leaves. Then they make a pit and put the organic material inside.
After that, they add some topsoil and some fresh plant material. Then sprinkle occasionally with water over the next three or four months. After that, the compost is ready to be put on the fields, in time for the next planting season.
But it's also not so simple. It's important to get the right balance of materials and to give the process enough time. Too much of one ingredient - or not enough of another - can inhibit the composting process. Also, if the compost is not cured properly, it can be too strong and hurt the crops' growth.
It's been a joint learning process, and Saratu stays in constant touch with farmers as an evolving experiment as they refine their technique and continue to share ideas.
"They call me at all times of the day and night," she says with a smile. "They are so excited to share what they've learned as they try new techniques and successes. They call me and say, 'You have to come to my village and see my yams."'
"One farmer told me that last year, he got an increasing yield and was able to buy a car and that car is now helping get his produce from farm to the community. He doesn't have to pay money to convey the produce to the community any longer. Also, he says his kids have gone back to school. I told him I was so happy."
"It keeps me going because I know it's protecting our ecosystem, the communities and people's health -- and it's making money for the farmers."
Helping people displaced by violence
The project has now expanded to other states in Nigeria. In Benue State, Saratu and other volunteers have done many trainings in camps for people displaced due to violence between herding and farming communities.
"The idea is to train them so that as go back to their homes, they have something to fall back on," she says. "A lot of the displaced people lost everything and they have to go back to farming. A lot of them are not able to afford the supplies they need."
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So far, the volunteers have trained more than 2,000 farmers. They also show a similar process to women who manage gardens from which their families get much of their daily food. In this case, the compost is made mainly with cow dung, chicken dropping and rice husks.
From first-aider to farmer
Now, many years after learning first aid as a young student, Saratu is still also a first aid volunteer who offers trainings in first aid wherever she goes. But she also has a new found love for farming.
"Now I am putting these farming skills to the test myself," she says. "I plant around my house and I do different tests, trying other things, mixing different ingredients to make the compost."
For example, she says, if you apply too much compost to a patch of sweet potatoes, you might end up with plants that produce a lot of leaves but not much of a fruit, or in this case the root.
Now that she's got the farming bug she wants to keep developing her own green thumb. "I just learnt it on my own," she says. "I was someone who did not really like farming. But now I love it."
"I intend to farm really big now. I want to grow maize and rice. Presently, rice is one of crops that is very expensive so I would like to experiment on techniques so it can be grown more affordably."
"But I have a lot to learn. I am still on the journey."
