Unreliable grains reserve hurts Nigeria’s poor

Nigeria’s food reserve potential is weakening no thanks to the attitudes of the various tiers of government towards the Strategic Grains Reserves (SGR) as a critical component of food security in the country. Daily Trust gathered that most of the 33 silos across the country, with a total capacity of 1.3 million metric tons of […]

Nigeria’s food reserve potential is weakening no thanks to the attitudes of the various tiers of government towards the Strategic Grains Reserves (SGR) as a critical component of food security in the country.

Daily Trust gathered that most of the 33 silos across the country, with a total capacity of 1.3 million metric tons of grains are empty or put into other uses.

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During the COVID-19 lockdown, the federal government ordered the release of 70,000 metric tonnes of grains from the SGR as a palliative to the vulnerable. Sources said what was left was insignificant to enable intervention in other industries that need help.

A source told this reporter that the 5,000 metric tonnes the Poultry Association of Nigeria got was just about 30% of what is left in the reserves.

“What is left in the reserve is so small that is why the federal government could not intervene in the market to bring down prices,” a source in the ministry, who sought anonymity, said.

Information also showed that most of the silos in operation lack repairs and maintenance. The problem is further compounded by erratic power supply and non-maintenance of generator sets at most of the silos as there was barely little budgetary allocation for facility maintenance.

Seventeen of the 33 silo complexes were concessioned but remained ineffective.

Professor Victor Okoruwa, an agri-economic expert with the University of Ibadan, stated that grains reserve was a very good policy if well implemented because it ensures food stability and protects farmers during glut. He, however, expressed worry over government attitude to the SGR.

“But for Nigeria, it is a paradox in that our SGR hardly works, nor is it efficient. The grains hardly are stored in the silos, and if and when they are stored they are not properly preserved. In the end, the grains develop mould, get spoilt and become unfit for consumption. That was the case we saw in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic when most of the grains distributed to states from the SGR had gone bad and were unfit for human consumption.

“This is because we are not serious as a nation; we politicise a lot of things, and do not hold those responsible to make the GR function effectively. They are not held accountable for their performance in ensuring the grains are properly preserved till when needed.

“So until we change our orientation, become more patriotic, less political and sincere, our SGR will remain epileptic, and unable to help the nation to overcome food insecurity,” Professor Okoruwa said.

Professor Adebisi Moruf Ayodele of the Department of Plant Breeding and Seed Technology, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, said some of the silos are not utilised to full capacity due to insufficient support by the federal government, low level of grain production, inadequate and irregular funding of the programme, lack of commercialisation of research outcomes of grain production, ineffectiveness of the management of the programme and lack of sufficient support from private donors/agencies among others.

“These teething problems have limited the effectiveness and efficiency of our grains reserve programme. The positive effect of the Grains Reserve Scheme of the government was not felt by the people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The 70,000 metric tons of grains ordered by President Buhari to be released to poor and vulnerable Nigerians to cushion the pang of the new coronavirus pandemic was far short of the needs of the people during the period.

“Presently, the prices of grains such as rice, maize, cowpea, wheat, sorghum, millet, cassava (gari) are higher and hardly affordable for the poor and vulnerable Nigerians,” he said.

The don said there was an urgent need for intervention on how strategic grains reserve can be made effective.

Dr Salisu Gusua is a retired federal director with over 40 years in the agric sector. He said the purpose of setting up the strategic grains reserve in the country had been abandoned, making the country now to be food insecure.

“Nigeria is food insecure. You know food security is availability, which means the food should be there. Then affordability, the food should be affordable. What is the essence of the food being available when it is beyond my reach as a poor man and as a common man?

“Then we talk about accessibility, it should be accessible; wherever I want it I should get it. That too is not there. Then we have added another thing we call acceptability. The food you hope for should be acceptable to you. Dr Gusua also kicked against the idea of government concessioning the silos because according to him, that will give unscrupulous marketers free rein to exploit the poor through price hikes.

He stressed that “government needs to take the issue of grains reserve very serious as it is one of the solutions to food insecurity.”

Mr Oloye Rotimi Olibale, national president, Catfish and Allied Fish Farmers Association of Nigeria (CAFFAN) lamented that “We have silos across all the regions and expectedly, the stored grains are supposed to be opened and sold to those in need, but nothing is coming, and this is probably because there is nothing in the silos or what is stored (if any) are not worth their value and could not be shared.

“This is probably why the government has given a partial waiver for the importation of maize at this period of time.”

He said in other climes, governments take necessary steps to get enough grains stored for a day of need like now.

However, the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission said commercialising the silo complex operations to the private sector will “unlock N99.3 billion economic value. On a risk-adjusted basis, the private sector will create N51.5bn additional economic value versus a public sector operator.” But that has not happened.

At the moment, middlemen enjoy the market and determine the prices of grains as the government is powerless with negligible clout in the reserve to rein in prices and intervene with.

Reacting, The Director, Strategic Grains Reserve at the Federal Ministry of  Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Haruna Sule, said that the 33 silos which had 1.3 million  tones capacity would cost  FG over N98 billion to restock them, the amount, he said, was above the ministry’s budget.

Constrained by resources, he said the federal government decided to embark on the concession of the silos with the help and guidance of the World Bank and the ICRC leading to the concessioning of 17 of the silos, adding that the concept is expected to generate over N18 billion over a period of ten years to government rather than leaving them unused.

Dr Sule said out of the 33 silos, the federal government had earmarked six  for national reserve,  adding that it was from these that the 70,000 mt was released to the vulnerable frontline states during the COVID-19 lockdown.

He dismissed the claims that some of the grains were bad, saying those ones were not from the nation’s reserves but connected to the rice seized by customs and distributed to some states in the southwest.

“Today, we have released 2,333 trailer load of food items across the country and this is a huge impact government has made,” he said.

He also informed that the federal government had directed that during harvest and glut, the ministry should restock the reserve with a 100,000 tonnes.

“The essence of concessioning the silos is to put them into effective utilisation so as to address post-harvest loses and also to encourage out-growers…the private sector will be able to bring in money where these silos are located to encourage farmers to grow so that they can store,” he said.