By Lekan Sote:
Nigerians are complaining about scarcity
of food. A cousin called recently to say: “Please, tell (President
Muhammadu) Buhari in your column that Nigerians are hungry; the cost of
food items is too high. Before his agricultural programme yields fruits
(no pun intended), let him open the borders for food to come in. He
should also import “eran Muri,” (beef imported by the regime of the late
Head of State, Gen Murtala Muhammed).
It was not too difficult to notice the
pathos, if not agony, in her voice. A visit to the markets will confirm
that the prices of food items like tomatoes, peppers, fish, beef,
poultry, palm oil, vegetable oil, garri, beans, rice, milk, butter, jam,
corn flakes, have gone up north. Another cousin puts the price
increases to somewhere between 150 per cent and 250 per cent. Mothers
now only ask if their children have eaten, and not if they had enough.
The Nigeria Customs Service confirms
that the policy that restricts rice importers access to the Central Bank
of Nigeria’s foreign exchange window has drastically reduced the
importation of rice. But without a credible plan by government to
increase local production of rice, the NCS boast is a negative
achievement.
The evident scarcity of all food items
confirms that Nigerians are paying for their collective folly of
abandoning agriculture. Analysts say that Africa accounts for a mere 5.6
per cent of global meat production, Asia, 42.3; the Americas, 31.4;
Europe, 18.7; and other parts, two per cent. An obviously worried
President Buhari observes: “In the past few years… we have spent in
excess of $11 billion annually importing wheat, rice, sugar, and fish.
We… cannot continue on this trajectory.”
You won’t be the only one that is tired
of frustrating reminiscences about the groundnut pyramids, and hides and
skins in Northern Nigeria, and cocoa, timber, and rubber plantations of
the Western and Mid-Western Nigeria. And you will be justified to take
umbrage that Malaysia that learnt how to propagate palm trees from
Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research now exports bleached palm oil,
as vegetable oil, to Nigeria.
President Buhari correctly identifies
“agriculture (as) key to our economic growth and social investment
policies.” He adds that the major strategy of his government “is to
ensure that Nigeria becomes self-sufficient in the foods that we consume
the most.” He argues that “maize, rice, corn, millets, fruits, poultry
products, and their derivatives can all be produced at home if we put
our hearts to it.” He concludes Nigerians should “produce what we eat!
It is not only logical, it is necessary.”
You should agree with him when you
consider that in 2016, about 1.5 million jute bags needed to pack cashew
nuts and cocoa beans for export were not available. The exporters of
these commodities threatened to use polypropylene bags instead: This is
an indictment of government’s failure to encourage farmers to grow sisal
hemp, and empower the agro-allied industries to convert the commodity
into jute bag.
Keith Richards, a former Managing
Director of Guinness Nigeria Plc, says: “Almost all locally processed
food has imported raw materials and packaging as part of their bill of
material. Multinationals have been desperately seeking to replace
imports with locally sourced produce for several years, with limited
success. The reliability of supply, consistent quality, in sufficient
and guaranteed quantity are just not there.”
Though Richards is an aspiring
Nigeria-phile, with a traditional chieftaincy title, one cannot be too
sure of the commitment of foreign multinationals, or nationals, to the
progress of Nigeria’s agricultural sector. By importing their raw
materials and supplies, foreign companies can easily “pad” (that word
again), or “load” their invoices – to creatively increase their profits
and transfer funds to their home countries.
President Buhari says that “Nearly all
our crop-based farming activities are dependent on rain-fed agriculture,
and this makes our agricultural productivity entirely vulnerable to the
effects of climate change.” That is correct, but it’s not a problem
that can’t be overcome; success in agriculture is dependent on man’s
ability to work with geography and science.
Nigeria’s labour movement wants the
country to take advantage of the United Nations Ecosystem Based
Adaptation for Food Security Assembly whose aim is to check the effect
of global food crisis. This platform helps governments to develop and
implement policies to enhance the performance of agriculture, its value
chain, industrialisation, and job creation.
Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode
notes that “Prior to the oil boom era, agriculture was the mainstay of
Nigeria’s economy: It contributed about 65 per cent of (Nigeria’s) Gross
Domestic Product, 70 per cent of exports,” and, you may add, more than
70 per cent of employment.
The American society commenced in the
17th century with agriculture, which employed 19 out of every 20
workers, as economic mainstay. By 1979, only one out of every 20
workers, or five per cent, remained in agriculture, yet America became,
and remains, the largest producer of food in the world. Nigeria can
replicate this feat with the right policies.
Ambode reveals that there will be
collaborative efforts between Lagos State and Kebbi State to develop an
agricultural commodity value-chain that can produce close to 70 per cent
of Nigeria’s rice need, feed its agro-allied industry, and provide jobs
for the youths. He plans to enhance Lagos capacity to increase fish
production.
Government must however note that
Operation Feed the Nation, Green Revolution and Directorate of Foods
Roads and Rural Infrastructure programmes of the respective governments
of Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, President Shehu Shagari, and Gen Ibrahim
Babangida, failed woefully because they were driven from top down.
Therefore, government must find a way to
transform individual economic freedom, another word for private gain,
into country-wide economic cooperation. That is how the agricultural
sector can grow the crops in quantum, and the industrial sector will
efficiently process the same to increase both profitability and the GDP.
Ambode’s advocacy for functional rail
and water transport will likely get a fillip with Vice President Yemi
Osinbajo’s announcement that work will soon start on the Lagos-Kano and
Lagos-Calabar rail lines and 31 major roads across Nigeria. The increase
and improvement in rail and road networks should link the farm gate and
industry to consumers.
Somebody must strengthen the Nigerian
Commodities Exchange, which the All Progressives Congress National
Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, thinks is one sham that the previous
government probably did not thoroughly think through. This Exchange
should be integral to Nigeria’s agricultural value chain, and guarantee
appropriate prices for agricultural produce.
Apart from the mention in President
Buhari’s inaugural speech, imprecise allusions by Minister of
Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, and uncoordinated snippets by sundry other
government functionaries, no one has quite unfolded a Big Picture plan
for local food production.
Prof Ibrahim Gambari, a former Nigerian
Permanent Representative to the United Nations, says “it would be
incorrect to say that (the Buhari) government does not have an economic
policy.” But he wants the government to clearly “list out their
priorities.”
If the local food production deity
cannot produce enough food for Nigerians, it should let the food import
regime be. If this sounds like economic suicide, government must
urgently deploy a local food plan. The hike in prices of foodstuff has
arrived all neighbourhoods.
Twitter @lekansote1
(PUNCH).
