Considered as the cradle of agricultural revolution and home to some of the notable agricultural research institutions in Nigeria such as IAR&T, CRIN, IITA, NCRI, NIHORT to mention few; penultimate weeks, it was the turn of Ibadan City in South-West to host the regional AgroNigeria Agricultural Stakeholders meeting aimed at creating enduring template for the sector and at the same time set an agenda for the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration.
Firing the first salvo, the Editor In Chief, AgroNigeria who doubles as the Director General, Nigeria Agricultural Award (NAA), Barr Richard-Mark Mbaram castigated the handlers of Export Expansion Grant (EEG) for ripping investors of their hard earned capital over the incentive on Agro-industrialization program. According to him, companies that invested in export oriented activities in order to take advantage of the initiatives, later discovered that the whole thing was a scam and that the project has been turned to corruption haven by greedy Nigerians.
The stockpiled EEG which has remained so for years without being paid to beneficiaries, in his view, had denied many opportunities to leverage on benefits that the programme would have offered.
Promising to relay stakeholders’ view of any misdeeds to appropriate quarters, the CEO said this is the time to permanently kill corruption in the agric sector and that the medium has therefore provided a platform for farmers and stakeholders alike to lean, on so as to collectively salvage the sector.
Towing the line of the first speaker, the representative of the Dean faculty of Agriculture, Professor Rasheed Adewoyin hailed AgroNigeria magazine for leading a campaign to bring agriculture back to its glorious past.
Clamoring for a well-organized market system as obtainable in Kenya and other Africa countries where farmers and not middle men dictates the market trend, Adewoyin said the fact that many agric produce especially those not processed do not carry price tag, does not mean that it should experience serious price-down fall like we are presently witnessing.
On food sufficiency, he observed that many countries in Africa, Nigeria inclusive do not take their food security policy seriously which could spell doom as time goes on.”With the influx of the teeming youth taking into farming activities like cropping, fishery and even poultry production, effort should be made to make it more attractive for them by easing the risks and challenges associated with it” he added.
Describing FADAMA as a community-driven development programme, the Oyo State Coordinator of FADAMA, Nathaniel Olayinka advocated for continuous increase of capital being allocated to the laudable programmes which were conceived to help grow farmers future and equally open up their rural communities to ease conveyance of agricultural harvests and produce with social amenities support that goes with it.
On revamping of crop processing zone and ramping-up of staple crops production, he said; “States in Nigeria should concentrate on production of crops where it has comparative advantages. For instance, cassava is now a market-driven commodity in South-west in which off takers are abound to take advantage of its by-products for industrial use. In this regards, government should strive to open more doors for investors, credit and grant givers to come in, just like the World Bank $200million credit granted Nigeria a while ago,” he added.
An agricultural activist and the Executive Vice President, Pro-Green Award, Comrade David Kayode Ehindero condemned lack of human face that has over the year characterized successive government’s agricultural policy. He bemoaned seeming silence of farmers and stakeholders in the sector which in his opinion has continually made bureaucrats and their political collaborators have a field day thereby denying farmers and stakeholders in the agricultural value chain their deserved benefits as players in the sector.
“Stakeholders in the sector should keep talking. Time for paper agriculture has passed and now is time for practical agriculture. Take the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) as a case study; if you approach them for a loan, they will deny you only to give same to one oil magnate who for them would bring good returns, just because they do not believe in agriculture. Most a times too, they would reel out stringent conditions which ordinarily cannot be met by poor farmers thereby rendering such financial assistance elusive; imagine what could a graduate offer as collateral,” he argued.
Still on public service bureaucrats, Ehindero cautioned them from their habitual act of developing reports to convince donor agencies with cooked up statistics, such era he said is fast ebbing out and that perpetrators of such evil in the set up should get ready to be mauled down by emerging forces in the sector.
While urging the present administration to consolidate on ATA programmes like GES, youth entrepreneurship empowerment, equipment hiring service, he charged the government to as a matter of urgency, treat migratory fulani herdsmen as an integral part of agriculture and a pastoralists as it were, this for him would go a long away in giving them a sense of belonging and incessant clashes with farmers across the country would be a thing of past.
The CEO FAGNA Consult, Ajadi Bolade, urged government to look into the issue of off-takers so as to discourage drudgery being experienced ceaselessly by players in the sector. He said that if truly government is responsible and responsive NALDA, DFFRI scheme of the old should be prototyped so that land can be procured and cleared for our crop of youth willing to practice any agricultural vocation of their choices.
Lending his own voice, an agricultural graduate operating under the auspices of Graduate Youths in Agriculture, Ayo Oladare charged the Nigeria Government to take a cue from India where they package and make fortunes from herb production.
He opined that Nigeria has not carried out enough research to tackle the menace of seasonal perishable produce which has led to drastic profit reduction. To him, bottom to top approach strategy which could enhance adequate feed-back should be adopted by the government while technocrats in the agricultural sector like former Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina should drive it.
Another participant, Ifeoluwa Opasina was of the view that the school farms of old should be brought back in order to not only create awareness but also inculcate the culture of farm cultivation in the minds of the new generation of farmers. He also said that farm settlement scheme of the old should be re-introduced.
Like the Ajumose Vegetable Model Farms where government empowered farmers with inputs, Abimbola Dauda said it could be replicated throughout South West, so that common vegetables like tomato, onion and other veggies can be grown there rather than solely relying on vegetables from north which would have lost its quality and palatability before getting down south. “A case in point was during the “Tuta Absoluta” breakout when Tomato got temporarily scarce and elusive. Short supply-induced price sky rocketing suddenly took a centre stage and consumers down here paid dearly for it” said Dauda.
In capturing more farmers via the GES, Dr. George Sheguna CEO, Aquatech advised government to re-jig the program while NEMA and other agencies should be pro-active in their dealings so as to minimize seasonal disasters that plagued our crops thereby threatening food productivity and food security policy thrust of the sector.
For Adekoya Adetomi, dearth of extension agents normally deployed from the ADPs to rural farmers was disturbing. Considering their relevance in transferring technologies and new initiatives, she said, “The extension officers should be provided with good take home with incentives in order to sustain the current trend. Nigerian farmers no longer feel the impact of extension officers in their rural areas and we are all pretending as if everything is alright”
Policy formulation to support the use of natural crop improvers on our farms could also reduce over dependence on inorganic fertilizer while value added produce like breadfruit can be promoted as indigenous food for local consumption and for exportation.
Kehinde Osasona
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