Bring back Nigerian grains board
It has been a season of glad tidings on the lips of government and its spokespersons whose only ‘Breaking News’ for Nigerians in the past one month is bumper harvest. The news was first broken by President MuhammaduBuhari while speaking to journalists in Daura, his native home, after observing the Eidul-Kabir prayers in September 2016. […]
It has been a season of glad tidings on the lips of government and its spokespersons whose only ‘Breaking News’ for Nigerians in the past one month is bumper harvest. The news was first broken by President MuhammaduBuhari while speaking to journalists in Daura, his native home, after observing the Eidul-Kabir prayers in September 2016. President Buhari said reports reaching him then indicated that farmers would have bumper harvest of crops this year.
These hopes have finally becomerealities in many states of the federation including Kebbi, Jigawa, Niger and Ebonyi. For instance, the Governor of Kebbi State and Chairman National Task Force on Rice and Wheat, AtikuBagudu, recently told journalists when he took them roundAugie, Kalgo, Dandi, bunza, Wasagu and BirninKebbi LGAs where farmers were seen displaying and celebrating their bumper harvest of crops that “Kebbi State has surpassed the one million tons of rice targeted for harvest this year with over 850 tons”.
The Chairman of the Rice farmers Association of Nigeria (RFAN) in Kebbi State, SahabiAugie, observed that the increase in yield was due to improved seedlings and the intervention offered to farmers by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Anchor Borrowers Programme. These factors (in the opinion of this writer) are just by the way. The bumper harvest could not have been achieved if other circumstances including fall in oil price, inflation and crashof the naira had not taken their collective toll on Nigeria’s economy. Recession, therefore, has had its positive impact on Nigerians who hitherto did not only believe inoil as a substitute to agriculture but also relied on foreign countries for their food supply needs.
Although we have been told by the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri,that government was “buying part of the harvested grains for storage in its empty silos”; the realities in Nigerian markets do not confirmthe Minister’s claim. Lokpobiri made this declaration in a recent visit to Niger State while reacting to a ‘false’ alarm over imminent famine which the SSA to the President on Media, GarbaShehu, raised in a radio interview in Kano. If, in spite of bumper harvest, prices of food stuff remain as high as they have been, then a worse crisis is better imagined predictably from March 2017 when farmers would have sold all their harvested crops. Prices of food items which should have come down keep rising; making it a paradoxof the harvest which government and farmers say isplentiful. If rice was sold at N450.00 per mudu before now, the price should have(because of bumper harvest) come down to as low as N150 per mudu.
The rate at which trailer loads of grains are being bought from the hands of farmers by individuals who are notknown to be government agents is quite frightening. These commodity dealers make bulk purchases in order tohoard and sell the grains only when they have caused artificial scarcity.The activities of these wicked businessmen (otherwise called middle-men) have become typicalof the transactions in some weekly markets in some northern states of the country including the markets at Agaie, Mokwa, Paiko (all in Niger State); Kura in Kano State; Giwa in Kaduna State; and Funtua in Katsina State. This group of businessmen has so much lost the fear of God that they are ready to buy the grains from unsuspecting farmers at any rate offered them.
Islam forbids hoarding (or ihtikar as it is called in Islamic literature) because of the intent of the hoarder and the harm it causes to people. Abu Daud reports that the Prophet (SAW) said, “No one hoards but sinners”.These individuals have their agents all over these markets buying the grains from farmers. This may explain why prices of food items have refused to come down. I have heard, but I hope it is not true, that some of these agents follow farmers down to their country homes and even farms to purchase grains at the point of harvest. This, indeed, should worry every well-meaning Nigerian who cares about the socio-economic well-being of the country. Government intervention in the purchase of surplus grains from farmers is imperative. Government shall have the capacity to force down or keep food prices low if it has enough stock with which to flood the market and effectively counter the monopoly of the middle-men.
A serious agrarian issue of this nature which requires a strategic and coordinated government action calls for the resuscitation of the erstwhile Nigerian Grains Board (NGB). Some of the basic mandates of the NGB included grains procurement directly from farmers; storage of such grains in strategic silos across the country; and sale of the grains to Nigerian public when prices of commodities are on the high side. Through the NGB,food security was guaranteed. Government, through the mandate of the NGB;was not only able to promptly respond to changes in food prices to protect consumers but also sustained agricultural production especially among peasant farmers.
It would be recalled that the NGB was one of the six Commodity Marketing Boards established in 1977 by the military administration of GeneralOlusegunObasanjo(rtd). The six Commodity Boards were the Nigerian Cocoa Board, Nigerian Groundnut Board, Nigerian Cotton Board, Nigerian Palm Produce Board, Nigeria Rubber Board, and the Nigerian Grains Board. Their headquarters were respectively located in Ibadan, Kano, Funtua, Calabar, Benin and Minna.
These boards served as interventionist agencies which made sure that surplus produce were bought from farmers by government with a view (among other targets) to controlling prices of the commodities. These commodities among other benefits ensured remunerative producer prices which is one reason that is prompting this writer to call for the return particularly of the Nigerian Grains Board.The existence of this boardwould, at least, re-assure farmers that their surplus produce would be bought by government. The NGB shall also guarantee price stability and eliminate wastages usually experienced by farmers on an annual basis. The operational services of the NGB, if brought back, will hopefully facilitate the success of the reform initiatives in the agricultural sector. May Allah (SWT) guide Nigerian leaders to take decisions that will launch the country’s agricultural sector back to its flourishing position as main revenue source, amin.