‘The major problem of agriculture in Nigeria revolves around seeds’

You have been a member of the house committee on agriculture all through the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration, what is it that this government has not done right to move agriculture forward that you think the incoming government should do to move agriculture forward?The issue of governance is a priority. The Jonathan administration’s priority […]

You have been a member of the house committee on agriculture all through the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration, what is it that this government has not done right to move agriculture forward that you think the incoming government should do to move agriculture forward?
The issue of governance is a priority. The Jonathan administration’s priority on agriculture is not so impressive because it started so many things that it could not do well. All through Nigeria’s agriculture, whatever you need is available for you. The resources are there, the fertile soil is everywhere, the excellent weather, availability of water and the needed manpower. Now let’s take the issues one after the other.  The Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) needs to be restructured for better performance of the entire research institutes in the country because at the moment, the mandate of the council is just like that of a monitoring agency not even supervising. The council is just monitoring research activities in the country. The council is supposed to monitor, coordinate, supervise and make recommendations.
A lot of research findings that are capable of enhancing agricultural activities in the country are on the shelves. They are not reaching the end users who are the farmers. Nigeria is spending a lot of money on research work. We need these research findings to get to the farmers. Again, there is overlapping of activities among the research institutes. You will see this research institute conducting a research on a particular crop and another institute doing the same research on that same crop because no agency is coordinating research activities in the country. Both are being funded with public fund. If the council has the mandate to coordinate the activities of the research institutes in the country, such will not be allowed to happen.
You know that today’s world is largely dependent on science and technology and the success of farming is largely dependent on how good is your seed. It could be hybrid seed, improved seed or genetically modified seed. The issue is there must be a common body that collates all these research findings and disseminates the information to the people. Let me give you an example, the Jonathan’s administration said it has conducted research and came up with four varieties of guinea corn. I am a farmer; you have been to all my farms and saw what I am doing. I am from Kano which is one of the major guinea corn producing states like Katsina, Bauchi, Jigawa, Sokoto and so on. I am telling you that many farmers do not know that there is improved variety of guinea corn. It is stated in the report that they have achieved four varieties of high yielding guinea corn. Who have they achieved them for since the farmers are not even aware that there is anything like that? Yes, you can blame that on poor dissemination of information on research findings, but who do you blame?
It seems there is similar problem in the area of livestock?
That is another area with pathetic problems! This administration is lacking in the area of livestock development. We need to have improved variety of cattle and other livestock with high yielding milk content to replace the ones we have. We should have cows that can support themselves. When you have a cow that can consume N200 per day and give you milk of N400 daily, you know you are into business. We do not have such cows among the indigenous Nigerian cows today. What we have are cows that can only produce N50 milk and consume feed of N150 per day.
Our cattle rearing system is not progressing and the breeders are also not progressing. That is why it is difficult to confine our local cows in one place because the owners will be operating at loss. Government should have assisted our cattle breeders with new variety of cows that can be producing high yield of milk and meat. There is a cow in the world that can give you 50 litres of milk per day even when the Nigerian cow cannot give you two litres of milk daily no matter the amount of food you give it.   
How do we improve our vegetable production?
Nigeria is importing a lot of processed tomatoes that ordinarily, we should be exporting. Ordinary tomato ketchup is being imported into Nigeria. The worst thing going on now is banana is now imported from Ghana. Ordinary banana that can grow at your backyard is now being imported into Nigeria from Ghana. We also have Cotonou banana. Even turkey meat is coming from Cotonou. We are fast becoming a dumping ground because the government is lacking in providing adequate improved high yielding seeds for the farmers. Go to the market and see, any good tomato seed you see is either coming from South Africa or America. Ordinary tomato seeds we cannot develop and somebody is sitting somewhere saying we have developed in agriculture. We have several research institutes and we have farmers that are willing to serve as out-growers for growing seeds. These are the major areas that touch directly on our farmers but the government refused to pay attention on them.
Thank God, Dangote has established a tomato company now in Kano, that will give some relief to our farmers. The market is there and the middle class wants to venture into agriculture but the finance is the problem. That is why you see so many people going into fishery because that is the easiest. But if you are going into real agriculture like establishing oil palm plantation, that is where you will come face to face with what is called investment in agriculture. You will spend four years paying your staff salary without harvesting anything.
Agricultural mechanisation is one vital key towards enhancing agricultural production, why was this administration so slow in mechanisation?
They have imported some tractors that were a little better than toys. Nigerians are used to durable tractors. The Nigerian soil is highly clay and therefore requires very strong tractors. The type of tractors they imported is sub-standard and cannot therefore till the soil well. Secondly, the procedures for the importation of those tractors were violated at the detriment of the end users. You cannot import any brand of tractors in that number without first, asking the manufacturers to open maintenance shops in the country. Those brands they imported do not have service stations in Nigeria. The implication is when you buy them and they develop mechanical problem, you will have to park it or find a means of importing the parts and looking for who can repair it for you.
So, the problems of those tractors imported by the federal government are numerous; they cannot till the soil very well, they have no spare parts, they have no service station in Nigeria and are not strong and durable enough to adapt to our situation.
Are you satisfied with the meager amount allocated to agriculture in this year’s budget?
Well, though agriculture is on concurrent list where the federal, states and local governments have stake, the about one percent allocated to the sector is unfortunate and a clear lack of seriousness of the administration on issues that affect agriculture. Remember the Maputo declaration to which Nigeria is a signatory agreed that 10 percent of total budget should be allocated to agriculture but this government is allocating less than one percent and it is always claiming to be promoting agriculture.
The highest this government ever allocated to agriculture was about 2.7 percent. Their funding of agriculture is very low which clearly indicate the lack of seriousness of the administration in promoting the sector.
Fertilizer is one area that defies all solutions. Do you think there is a better way the Buhari administration can make fertilizer available to farmers at subsidised rate?     
Yes, the major input in agriculture is the fertilizer. Everywhere you go to in Nigeria, farmers will tell you that fertilizer supply is inadequate. The issue of subsidy that you mentioned is what is making fertilizer to be scarce. In this country, the moment you provide subsidy on anything you will see people rushing for that item because of the subsidy. It is because of the subsidy in fertilizer that you see people that do not have anything to do with agriculture rushing to buy fertilizer to sell and make profit.
What we want is a situation where a farmer will wake up in the morning and go to shop and buy any quantity of fertilizer and take to his farm at affordable price. That can only be possible when Nigeria starts producing the entire fertilizer we require for our use. Thank God the Natore fertilizer, the former NAFCON fertilizer, has resumed full production. But the issue of privatisation is another major problem. The only fertilizer company in northern Nigeria, Federal Super Phosphate located in Kaduna was sold out and the new owners converted the place to another thing in contradiction to the stipulated condition for selling it. The fertilizer that company was producing is highly needed by the Nigerian soil. Those that bought the company just closed it down and turned part of it to a warehouse. Government should be able to stick to its policies. Big business empires like Dangote should be encouraged to go into fertilizer production. They are already in the business of agriculture. They have farms all over the place, they are manufacturing sugar, flour and so on.