‘Nigeria should review its stance on agriculture’

Agriculture in Nigeria is yet to attain a business status. What could be the problem?The major problem facing agriculture, essentially, is deviation of policy from multi- economic drive to a mono -economic drive policy.When you flash back in the 70s and 80s we were never short in food supply because we gave agriculture its supreme […]

Agriculture in Nigeria is yet to attain a business status. What could be the problem?
The major problem facing agriculture, essentially, is deviation of policy from multi- economic drive to a mono -economic drive policy.
When you flash back in the 70s and 80s we were never short in food supply because we gave agriculture its supreme place in the economy.
But immediately we deviated and shifted emphasis to oil at the expense of agriculture that was the beginning of our problem. So, we have to go back to agriculture. We should start from the primary school level just like in the 60s and 70s when schools must have farm. Then, each student must have a plot of any crop to nurture for a period of one year. So, everyone that passed through primary and secondary school in those days was engaged in agriculture and by the time you graduated, you already have knowledge of agriculture and the interest has been inculcated in the minds of the students. But now, when allocation comes, the federal and state governments will sit down in Abuja and share free money from oil, forgetting that oil can be exhausted but agriculture is the only thing that is sustainable as long as man lives on earth. Even the solid minerals, once you are exploring, it would be exhausted. But with proper planning you can build your agriculture to determine the quantity of fish you produce, tomatoes and other crops for local consumption and international market. When you look at countries like Israel and even Kenya, they have been able to build their agriculture because they don’t have oil. The economy of Ghana is being driven by cocoa and Nigeria has better cocoa than them and at times they buy our cocoa and blend them with their own before pushing them to international market because our own has better flavour due to our weather. So, if Ghana can use one crop to drive its economy, Nigeria has no excuse because we have all the potentials to grow agriculture. We are so endowed. Look at Malaysia and Singapore that collected palm kernel seedlings from Nigeria, they are doing excellently well in palm kernel oil production and are now selling to us as a nation. That means something is wrong with us. We must go back to the drawing board to rediscover our agriculture and use the proceeds from oil to rebuild our agriculture.
How best do you think government can address the problems of agriculture?
My advice to the government is that we should look at all our policies from 1970 till date and pick six essential elements in those policies and blend them together. From the mid-70s we had the Operation Feed the Nation, Food for All, Green Revolution and many others. Now we have Transformation Agenda. Agriculture must be holistic and if it has to be holistic every aspect of agriculture must be given prominence.
And there must be direct contact between the federal government and the farmers through extension service. Now there is no extension service, we must bring it back because extension service is the link between modern technology and rural farmers as they would be in touch to show farmers how to do it. Government must intervene at every point, from farm preparation to marketing of commodities. In essence, subsidy must be there from land preparation to harvest.
Most countries in Africa are into warehousing that gives farmers the opportunity to save their grains after harvest. In Nigeria, silos have been built and abandoned. We are now talking of processing zones that are yet to be developed. How can farmers save their crops after harvest?
We saw the concept as a noble idea because most of the challenges farmers are having are at the point of harvest. Farmers have surplus but there are no adequate facilities on the ground to process them and there are also no warehouses to store them till such a period of drudgery is over they can be gradually being released to the consumers when market prices appreciate. We have thought that the over 800 silos or there about by now would have been gradually established because we are at the peak of the season and in two to three months there would be harvest time and farmers will be in need of them.
Unfortunately, they are not still ready. I learnt that the project is going to be under Public Private Partnership (PPP) programme. Each local government supposed to have one silo project managed by a private firm while some states capital are supposed to have more than one. Nobody is telling us what is delaying the project. I think if there is any logjam, they should clear it to ensure that the project comes to reality. On the processing zone, the president has said recently that they are working seriously to ensure that the crop processing zones come on board. Again, the minister of agriculture and Mr President while in Nasarawa State for the foundation laying ceremony of a rice processing centre belonging to Olam, made a policy statement that they are working on power and road to ensure that  crop processing zones get adequate facilities before they come on board. I believe these facilities have to be on board before the processing zones come alive because if you complete the processing zone and the infrastructural facilities to propel them to function optimally are not on the ground, they will not achieve the expected result.