Norma's Letter from Jos: 12 January 2012 - We are reducing petrol consumption

Note: Norma runs Zamani Farms near Jos, which has endured many trials order to provide vegetables to customers in Abuja and environs  -- insecurity, threats to empolyees, and now a rise in petrol prices and public demonstrations.  This is her most recent email:

Vegetable orders

From: Norma, Zamani Farms

Hello customers,

We are intending to deliver your orders today. Audu is currently on his way to Abuja, (bundled up like an Eskimo – it was 8 degrees when I woke up at 5am this morning), and we hope he will be able to get through to all of you who put in orders for today. If he has problems getting to some of your residences due to demonstrations or blocked roads he will call you and see what arrangements can be made for delivery. If he experiences any delays on the road to Abuja I will try to let you know.

Here in Jos things have been very quiet since the strike began. Due to the state of emergency and the security situation in Jos, all parties agreed that there would be no public demonstrations for fear that they could deteriorate into violence. So most people, even if they are on strike, are staying at home and the town is quiet with hardly any traffic or people out on the streets. In the rural areas life is continuing as usual, except that there is virtually no vehicular traffic, either cars or motorcycles, because people cannot afford the cost of petrol. We have been able to go to the farm, and our workers have been coming, even though they have been paying N300 per litre in their village for petrol to fuel their motorbikes. Obviously we will have to subsidise their transport costs if we want them to come to work.

On the farm, work is going on well. We are trying to see how we can reduce our petrol consumption without compromising our level of irrigation or the quality of our vegetables. At present we are running up to five petrol-powered water pumps every day, which obviously consumes a lot of fuel. The ideal solution would be for us to install a drip system, and we have been investigating the costs of this. But we are not likely to be able to afford this for the time being as it is quite expensive.

 Our produce on the farm is really beautiful at the moment. The continuously cold weather we have been experiencing has kept most of our stuff looking fresh and lovely....