Note: Norma runs Zamani farms, which employs a grateful local workforce at a truck farm near Jos to serve customers in the Jos/Abuja area. She has agreed to share her beautifully written messages that offer personal insight into the impact of the sad events in Jos on both people and businesses. Her latest email is posted in full below, including her detailed comments on her crops, about which she (and her customers) care deeply.
From: norma
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Subject: Vegetable orders for Wednesday 26 January
Hello customers,We have had some quiet days in Jos, and finally on Monday people started coming out of their houses, mainly to look for food and other necessities. Most of the shops have opened, as well as the banks, and people are trying to recover their lives as much as possible. Jos is still a strange town. It is divided into Christian and Muslim enclaves, with people afraid to go into the neighborhoods of a different religion. Food is difficult to come by, since most truck drivers are afraid to come to Jos, so whatever is available is about 3 times the normal price. There are still "silent killings" going on, especially of motorcycle riders who stray into the wrong neighborhood. Everyone is still afraid. No one goes out in the morning until they find out whether the area they are headed for is quiet or not. By 5 pm all the shops close and everyone is rushing home. The nights are completely silent -- hardly any cars move around, and there is the occasional sound of gunshots.
The only consolation at present is the on-going voters registration that has taken people's minds off of other problems. But even with this, there are incidents. Monday morning, some Christian youth chased away a Muslim INEC official, a Youth Corper, who had come to their area with registration materials. They chased him to an army post, set him on fire and killed him right in front of the soldiers, They also tried to attack the soldiers, who of course reacted, and two other people were killed. The area where Audu, our driver, lives shares a boundary with the neighborhood where this took place. That night, the soldiers patrolling the area told everyone not to sleep and be ready to either flee or protect themselves, as there was expectation of an attack to drive the people out of the area. So Audu and his family, as well as all of his neighbors, did not get any sleep and waited up all night. Fortunately nothing happened. But this sort of thing happens all the time here. I am afraid that it will take a very long time before things become "normal" in Jos.
Meanwhile, we are trying as best we can to take care of our vegetables and to look for some of the materials we need to continue to run our business, such as cartons, plastic bags for packaging, printer paper, envelopes, cellotape, and other items that we use daily and that had been unobtainable for the past couple of weeks.
The weather in Jos has been extremely cold. It is usually about 11 degrees or less at night and early in the morning, although it warms up slightly during the day. The cold weather has affected some of our crops that need warmer weather like French beans, cucumbers, courgettes, rucola, fennel, and a few other items. Their production has reduced considerably, and we are not harvesting as much of them as we expected. On the other hand the cold weather is great for our lettuces, and they are really fantastic at the moment. We have lots of varieties available, and in good quantity, including sweet iceberg, red cos, Kendo, salad bowl, oak leaf, lollo rossa, green butterhead, and many others. Let us know what you need. Unfortunately we don't have endive yet -- there are a lot of young plants in the field, but they are still too small to pick. We should have them in about two weeks. The same is true of our radicchio, but it is growing well as it really likes colder weather.
Although our courgettes are suffering a bit in the cold, we still have plenty of lovely ones for you. In order to keep up with our production target we are planting lots more, since we get less from each plant in this weather. Our butternut squash are also growing more slowly due to the cold, but some are starting to ripen and we should have a limited amount for next wee.
Cabbages, carrots, radishes, and spinach are all fine and fresh. Beetroot and leeks are still growing. I hope at least we will have some young leeks for you next week. Beetroots will take a bit longer. Herbs are fine and available, although sage and tarragon are limited. However, we have plenty of Genovese basil for pesto. As we noted, rucola has been set back by the cold, but again we are planting lots to have enough for you.
We are getting lovely new Nicola potatoes that I think you have been enjoying. But due to the situation in Jos, they are very difficult to obtain and very expensive. As you will note, we have increased our price slightly to ensure that we don't sell to you at a loss. If the conditions around Jos improve and there is free movement of vehicles, the price should come down.
Onions are still a real problem. If we can get them at all, they cost us much more than the N600 per kg that we are selling them, which I consider quite exorbitant for such a basic food item. So we are not sure what to do about this. Should we increase the price again so that we can supply them, or not supply until such time that the price comes down? I would like to hear your comments on this. As you know, the onion shortage has been caused by severe flooding in the onion growing regions of the far north so there is generally a scarcity of onions nation-wide. This is compounded by the fact that drivers from northern areas are reluctant to come into Jos due to the fighting here.So the ones available have been locally grown around Jos, and they are in very short supply.
We have not been getting the lovely cauliflower that is grown at Tiga Dam in
We are trying to improve our fruit production to satisfy your demand. Pawpaws have started ripening and we should have some for you, although not as much as we would like since several of our trees were destroyed by the fire we had on the farm in December. We are also renovating our grape plants. The whole grape area was burnt in the fire, and many of the plants were killed. We are trying to revive the ones that are still alive, and replace the dead ones. It is a pretty big job, and we are working on it every day. Once we get the plants back into production we might even have some grapes for you in a few months.
Rhubarb loves the cold weather and is doing well. We should have some for you next week, although we don't have a large number of plants, so please order early if you need it.
Our strawberries are shivering in the cold and have not started producing yet. Actually the cold weather is good for them because it puts them into hibernation. Once the warmer weather arrives (at least by March or so, but maybe earlier) they should start producing fruit immediately. We will keep you informed.
For details of all items available, please consult the order form attached to this email. The list of Available items includes those that are supposed to be available, but due to the many problems we have been having, sometimes we don't have as much of them as we need. Customers are not penalised if they have ordered the minimum of N2000 from the Available list and some items are not supplied. This is our own fault, and we are trying to ensure that we actually have these items available for you. Please forgive us our lapses, as we have been struggling with many problems on and off of the farm.
Please note that Sunday 3pm is the deadline for orders. We send our order for beef tomatoes to our supplier on Sunday afternoon, and we only order what we need. So if your order is late you will definitely not get any. Other items that we source from outside the farm may also not be available if you send a late order, since it is taking us a lot of time to get around and try to find them for you. So please ensure that your orders come in by the deadline of 3pm on Sunday at the latest, and preferably much earlier.
Once again, I want to thank you all for the support you have been giving us over this recent period of difficulty. We are working hard to revive the farm and get it back to where it was before the crisis of last January, but this is an ongoing process that will still take some time. Please bear with us if you do not get all of the items you need. We hope that we will be able to rectify this as soon as possible.
More news next week.
Best wishes,
Norma
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