{"id":14205,"date":"2026-06-20T12:33:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/making-a-millionaire-out-of-a-local-farmer\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:30:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:30:49","slug":"making-a-millionaire-out-of-a-local-farmer","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/making-a-millionaire-out-of-a-local-farmer\/","title":{"rendered":"Making a millionaire out of a local farmer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Forty-five-year-old Rebecca Ezekiel is a farmer in the Song Local Government Area (LGA) of Adamawa State in North-East Nigeria. A wife of a farmer and mother of 10, Rebecca grows rice, soybean, maize, and groundnut, but she is not a mere farmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><figure id=\"attachment_24526\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24526\" style=\"width: 820px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24526\" src=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Rebecca-Ezekiel-with-her-undergraduate-daughter.jpg\" alt=\"Rebecca Ezekiel (center) with her undergraduate daughter, Peace, and Extension Agent Juliana Naphtali, in front of her new house.\" width=\"820\" height=\"411\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24526\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rebecca Ezekiel (center) with her undergraduate daughter, Peace, and Extension Agent Juliana Naphtali, in front of her new house.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Having been trained in good agricultural practices (GAP) by the USAID-funded Feed-the-Future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity (IAA), Rebecca put the training to good use in cultivating these crops. She paid particular attention to all GAP conventions, including using IAA\u2019s improved seed varieties, correct fertilizer application, and spacing\u2014a technique she was unfamiliar with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have a big portion of land. I harvested so little whenever I planted, and I kept wondering what was wrong. IAA taught me how effective spacing would improve my yield. I was in the dark like many others, but IAA showed us the light. I tried all they taught us and was so surprised by how many bags I made,\u201d Rebecca narrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><figure id=\"attachment_24527\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24527\" style=\"width: 820px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24527\" src=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Rebecca-Ezekiel-posing-beside-her-manure-processing-tank.jpg\" alt=\"Posing beside her manure processing tank.\" width=\"820\" height=\"411\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24527\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Posing beside her manure processing tank.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rebecca harvested about 80 bags of rice, 20 bags of soybean, and five bags of groundnut. The total sale from the harvest amounted to about NG\u20a62 million (US$4,800), with which Rebecca was able to purchase a piece of land and build a house, one with a spacious compound just like she had always wanted. She has also been able to pay her children\u2019s school fees, especially those in higher institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Le <a href=\"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/\">IITA<\/a>-implemented IAA continues to inspire economic recovery in North-East Nigeria following the devastation caused by the ongoing insurgency in the region. The Activity supports vulnerable populations in 12 LGAs of Adamawa and Borno states to re-engage in basic farming activities. IAA also aims to advance the objectives of inclusive and sustainable agriculture-led economic growth, strengthened resilience among people and systems, and a well-nourished population, especially among women and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Contributed by Joke Fayemi<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forty-five-year-old Rebecca Ezekiel is a farmer in the Song Local Government Area (LGA) of Adamawa State in North-East Nigeria. A wife of a farmer and mother of 10, Rebecca grows rice, soybean, maize, and groundnut, but she is not a mere farmer.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":14206,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[32],"news-type":[],"hub":[61],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[200],"class_list":["post-14205","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-nigeria","hub-western-africa","item-year-200"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/14205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news-item"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/14205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29728,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-item\/14205\/revisions\/29728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"science-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/science-area?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"hub","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"crop","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/crop?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"impact-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/impact-areas?post=14205"},{"taxonomy":"item-year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/item-year?post=14205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}