Changing the face of agric…but for whom?

To meet the target of raising domestic food supply and creating jobs, Minister of Agriculture Dr Akinwumi Adesina decided to drive farmers in the country through the path of agribusiness, stressing that agriculture is no longer a development programme.The Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES)The ministry embarked on the registration of farmers across the country. According to […]

To meet the target of raising domestic food supply and creating jobs, Minister of Agriculture Dr Akinwumi Adesina decided to drive farmers in the country through the path of agribusiness, stressing that agriculture is no longer a development programme.
The Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES)
The ministry embarked on the registration of farmers across the country. According to statistics from the ministry, 10.5 million farmers were registered in 2011 to 2014 under the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) – a scheme that allows government to distribute agro inputs directly to farmers through mobile phones rather than middlemen.
To deliver the GES to smallholder farmers, the electronic wallet system was introduced. This allows registered farmers under the GES to receive subsidised inputs such as fertilisers and seeds directly through a text message sent to their mobile phones. The text tells them where to redeem their inputs.
Farmers paid N6,000, which is 50% cost for two bags of fertiliser under the GES while the seeds and seedlings were given free. However, this year, seeds and seedlings are no longer free. Farmers have to pay 10% and 20% respectively as against what obtained in the last two years.
The federal government pays 25% of the fertiliser subsidy and the states 25%.
The challenges with the system are that many registered farmers complain of not receiving their inputs despite registration and are in some cases surcharged by agro dealers. For some smallholder farmers, N6,000 for two bags of fertiliser is beyond their reach.
Experts believe the system suffers because majority of the rural farmers cannot read text messages, while some villages suffer poor or no network coverage as such farmers there face difficulty subscribing to the scheme.
Commercial farmers in the country were, however, not pleased with the government policies in terms of agro inputs supply or subsidy. For them the two bags of fertiliser were grossly significant for their farms. But government said the GES is meant for smallholder farmers not commercial farmers.
Crop value chain
In the area of production, various crop and animal value chains were introduced to meet domestic demands. For rice, the total demand for rice is estimated at 5.5 million metric tonnes annually. But only 3.3 million metric tonnes are produced locally leaving 2.2 to importation. To make up the deficit, the country spends N356 billion annually on the importation of rice. Nigeria by implication spends over N850 million importing rice daily!
Government through ATA came up with the rice value chain to redeem the by stepping up local production. However the 2012 flood forced government to introduce the dry season farming support programme to produce rice in all seasons, taking advantage of the irrigation potentials in the North.
In 2013, President Jonathan gave N9 billion to support the scheme. For 2014, he gave N14 billion for dry season rice production. According to Dr Adesina, the nation has added 1.8 million metric tonnes of paddy rice since the launch of the rice value chain.
However, issues of land grabbing by multinational companies are raising dust among many communities in the North, with farmers alleging that they have been displaced from their source of livelihood.
 Cassava in the last three years also received huge attention with the launch of the scheme to cut importation of wheat for bread making and substitute it with casava. Nigeria spends N635 billion annually on wheat imports. On November 30, 2011, the President directed that cassava bread should be commercialised.
To achieve this goal, the cassava bread development fund financed through the increased tariff on wheat flour was established. In 2013, a N10 billion cassava development fund was released. Policies were fashioned to make it mandatory for master bakers to include at least 20% cassava composite flour in bread making in the country. Cassava growers are also to receive N2.4 billion loan from the fund at 5% interest rate.
Other value chains include the sorghum value chain developed for the production of high energy nutrition food in the North particularly in areas with severe malnutrition problems. During the just concluded World Economic Forum, Dangote announced that they are setting up a $30 million high energy food plant in Kano.
Staple crops processing zones
14 Staple Crops Processing Zones (SCPZs) were established across the six geopolitical zones of the country. The ministry has presented the first six pilot SCPZs due to takeoff soon in Badegi in Niger, Dafan in Kano, Alape in Kogi, Omor in Anambra, Ikorodu in Lagos, and Adani in Enugu states.
SCPZs are agro-processing clusters where investors enjoy attractive location in the middle of dedicated high production areas called Agribusiness Investment Regions (ABIRs); infrastructure and services to connect investors with producers and end markets and a competitive cost advantage that can reduce costs by 14-36%.
Reviving extension services
This year, the federal government made an attempt to revive the collapsed extension services with the setting up of Department of Extension Services. 800 motorcycles were distributed to Extension Agents across the country. This is said to be too small considering the number of farming villages all over the country that need extension services.
Equipment hiring
Although government made a pronouncement of setting up 80 equipment hiring centres in the country last year, it is yet to walk the talk in the implementation as none has commenced services to the small holder farmers. Over N2 billion has been earmarked for their establishment through Private Public Partnership (PPP).