On the need to revive agriculture in Nigeria
Our country is blessed with a vast abundance of land that could support a robust agriculture and is equally blessed with regular rainfall and a suitable climate for the sustenance of agriculture. Clearly, our failure to feed ourselves as a nation has nothing to do with the disadvantages of nature because nature has been so […]
Our country is blessed with a vast abundance of land that could support a robust agriculture and is equally blessed with regular rainfall and a suitable climate for the sustenance of agriculture. Clearly, our failure to feed ourselves as a nation has nothing to do with the disadvantages of nature because nature has been so kind to Nigeria. Even in the area of getting needed inputs like fertilizers and pesticides that would guarantee a bumper harvest, Nigeria has all it takes to create several indigenous fertilizer and chemical manufacturing companies on ground. After all, we have the raw materials. Raw materials sourced cheaply from petroleum, if properly channeled, would provide the ingredients that would make Nigeria a manufacturing giant in the production of fertilizers and pesticides. Unfortunately for us, such raw materials are either wasted because we have not been serious-minded enough to ensure they are properly harnessed, or they are sold abroad to countries that utilize such raw materials and manufacture the finished fertilizer or chemical product that is sold at exorbitant prices to our citizens.
The most important thing that is lacking in our bid to ensure food security in Nigeria is the political will and the vision of leaders who have the commitment and the seriousness to ensure that they battle hunger and poverty among our people. As I stated earlier, we have the land and the climate that would support massive agriculture. We equally have the resources to produce inputs like fertilizers and pesticides that would guarantee a bumper yield for our agriculture. We have further been blessed with a year-round rainfall. Clearly, all the important ingredients needed to make Nigeria a very important agricultural nation is very much available but for the absence of a rallying leadership that will show the way forward by marching actions with promises.
Benue State which happens to be my home-state, and where I am hopefully vying for its leadership, is a case in point where everything needed to feed a rich agricultural sector is very much in place. As a matter of fact, despite the lack of seriousness by successive governments in the state to develop the sector, the sector still manages to thrive on the hard work and persistence of the rural farmers. But the implication of this is the farmers are not able to cope in trying to adopt the best technologies that would make their efforts yield more profits for them and further develop our agriculture.
For instance, every year Benue State produces thousands of tons of fruits like oranges that eventually get wasted because the farmers do not have access to storage facilities that would help to preserve such fruits from getting rotten. Only the government has the kind of resources to produce such facilities, but they cannot be bothered as the hapless farmers are left to their own devices. To meet up, the farmers are forced to sell such produces at give-away prices that would bring little returns to them. How then are they expected to emancipate themselves from poverty when most of their efforts have come to naught? Various governments in the state have promised to come to their aid but have yet to do so. What such farmers need is not just storage facilities for their produce but a fruit processing plant that will buy such produces from them and process them to be packaged and sold to various markets, even abroad. Nigerians have a penchant for consuming imported fruit juices, yet a state like Benue if it has the visionary leadership, could very well produce enough fruit juices that would meet the demands of our local markets at more affordable prices. The state and the nation as a whole is performing below capacity in agricultural production. It is such realization that has been prompting concerned Nigerians to make the connection between our backwardness as a nation with the failure of our leadership. But it needs not be so. What Nigerians needare the right people with the vision and ideas and the commitment to harness the resources God has blessed us with and use it for the betterment of the lives of our people. These are some of the tenets which we all must utilize to propel our nation to greatness. We should work together to make Nigeria a great nation.
Maxwell Ahule is a grassroots leader and advocate for change. He can be reached at [email protected]