Why government must stop working with ‘brief-case farmers’ — Salisu

What is the concept behind Arewa Young Farmers Initiative?Arewa Young Farmers Initiative (AYFI) is a non-governmental, no-profit making and non-religious organisation that is accessible to all irrespective of nationality or ethnic origin. AYFI is an umbrella organisation that consists of some other non-governmental bodies which share common goals and objectives. It was formed by a […]

What is the concept behind Arewa Young Farmers Initiative?
Arewa Young Farmers Initiative (AYFI) is a non-governmental, no-profit making and non-religious organisation that is accessible to all irrespective of nationality or ethnic origin. AYFI is an umbrella organisation that consists of some other non-governmental bodies which share common goals and objectives. It was formed by a group of young and focused individuals who are determined to forcefully and doggedly pursue agricultural development in all ramifications in Nigeria until there is a meaningful turnaround from the over dependence on oil. Even though the initiative is northern based, its overall vision is to positively impact the lives of the teeming population of our country psychologically, socially, economically and educationally. We are poised to address the issue of unemployment in Nigeria through the promotion of agriculture for sound economic future.
What exactly do you do to boost agriculture in the North and country as a whole?
From inception to date, we have focused on different types of activities such as advocacy, sensitisation and training; community dialogue on contemporary agricultural practices, provision of funds to local farmers, among others. We have been able to teach people effective ways of land cultivation, rearing of animals for the purpose of providing food for man, feeding of animals and provision of raw materials for industries. We are involved in forestry training, fishing, agricultural produce processing, packaging and marketing of these products. 
How many states do you currently operate in?
Currently, we operate in four states in the country, namely: Katsina, Kaduna, Kano and Sokoto. However, our corporate headquarters is in Katsina. Very soon, we intend to expand to other parts of the North.
What have been your achievements so far?
To a good extent we have been able to address the issue of restiveness and unemployment among some of our youths. We have been able to facilitate the procurement of fertilizers to grassroots farmers and also to relevant institutions. Again, we have intervened in several farmland disputes among locals. Similarly, we have contributed in tremendous ways to resolving crises between Fulani herdsmen and farmers and we have been able to distinguish between farm areas and grazing areas. The organisation has been able to engage with some foreign investors that are ready to invest in agriculture; but we need government support on this because we need to assure and reassure the investors of the safety of their investments and also their security. Nonetheless, we have been able to convince some of them that security has improved in the North and the incoming administration will do more in that regard. But we don’t have to depend on the foreign investors to invest in our agriculture. Our businessmen, the wealthy and the government must diversify to agriculture in order to boost the sector.
More so, one fundamental problem we have been working out modalities to tackle, with the support of the government and other agencies, is the desertification in the North. This is because desertification is a major threat to agriculture and if it is effectively tackled it can reduce water scarcity and boost food security.
Talking about desertification, how challenging has it been and what must be done immediately to tackle it?
What we do with our soil determines the quality and quantity of food we eat. It has been predicted that the effects of desertification, land degradation and drought may expose almost two-thirds of the world’s population to increased water stress by 2025, while this will have a critical impact on agricultural production and contribute to soaring food prices and shortages worldwide. This is one of the reasons why some people living in dry lands are the poorest in the world. In the northern part of Nigeria, desertification has been occurring persistently for some decades now. It has been estimated that over 50 million people have been seriously affected in Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states, and approximately 350,999 hectares of land is lost to desertification annually.
The primary sources of desertification in Nigeria have been said to be overgrazing, over exploitation, deforestation and poor irrigation practices. In tackling desertification therefore, government must come in through social and economic intervention. The government must establish early warning systems, leading to early actions, and checkmate inordinate grazing.  Tree-felling should be highly discouraged, while strategic tree planning programmes should always be initiated and sustained. Also, government should provide alternative means of livelihood to rural dwellers whose commerce is in wood, while agricultural practices through poor irrigation should be seriously discouraged.
The agricultural sector has suffered neglect over the years and young people are not interested in it? What is the real problem?
The problem with Nigerian agricultural sector began with the oil boom, where everyone wants to go and get easy money without much labour. Till date I still wonder how the groundnut pyramids in Kano disappeared, how Malaysia which took palm nut from Nigeria can now become the biggest exporter of palm oil and how Côte d’Ivoire can top Nigeria in cocoa production and how some unexpected countries can even best us in cassava production and export. Again, how can the Nigerian government spend more than $11 billion yearly to import wheat, rice, sugar, fish and other things? Frankly, this is unacceptable. However, inasmuch as the government must be blamed for this, many of us still have faults. For instance, how can a northern businessman who understands that agriculture is our strength and treasure-base have no single investment in agriculture but will have huge investments in oil and gas and other sectors.
 So, if the government and the wealthy businessmen do not give priority to the sector how then can young people be encouraged to go into it? Recently, Arewa Young Farmers Initiative conducted a survey on why young people don’t want to go into agriculture and our findings revealed that many of the youth are afraid to go into it because of its poor rating and structure. They see agriculture, especially farming, as a labourious profession exclusively meant for the villagers. Apart from providing food for consumption, they don’t seem to agree with the marketing and financial potentials in agriculture that can take care of their economic, social and other basic needs.
Also, some complained about lack of motivation, lack of contemporary agricultural implements and other challenges. And for those who want to go into agriculture, their problem has been funding. Some of them have interest in poultry, fishing and other things but they don’t have the empowerment or start-up capital. Some have even had training in those areas, but yet they never got the take-off grant from some of the government agencies that trained them.
So, part of our recommendations in that survey is that government must work with grassroots oriented individuals and bodies that can tell them the exact basic needs of the farmers and how best to intervene. We also recommended that government must stop working with ‘brief-case farmers’ who sit in Abuja and craft unworkable approaches for the government and suggest only things that they can benefit from.