BY BOLAJI ADEBIYI
One of the challenges for President Goodluck
Jonathan when he took office was how to transform agricultural practices in
Nigeria in a way that will ensure the actualization of the full potential of
the sector.
Years before he ascended the saddle of
leadership, great efforts had been made to turn Nigeria's over 84 million
hectares of arable land and favourable climatic conditions into source of
wealth, employments and food for its massive population. And with 44 per cent
contribution to GDP and an estimated 70 per cent of Nigerians engaged in the
sector, agriculture remains the most important sector of Nigeria's economy.
But nothing manifests the failure of those
great efforts, including the Operation Feed the Nation and the Green Revolution
programmes than the fact that Nigeria remains a net food importing nation,
spending about N1.3 trillion on importation of basic food items annually. Even,
when some of the schemes can moderately be described as successful like the
cassava initiative of the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, such
successes were not long lasting as a result of flip-flop or misalignment in
policy.
Meanwhile, for many years, fertilizer
procurement was the major activity of the sector even when the poor farmers in
far-flung places across the country are left to their own devices as they
struggle to produce foods to feed the nation while "big men" struggle
for fertilizer contracts in Abuja. Worse still, the fertilizer after
procurement, never get to the farmers at the intended subsidized prices. And so
the nation was in deficit of its pre- and immediate post-independence glory:
the largest producer and exporter of groundnut and palm oil; the second largest
exporter of cocoa and the largest exporter of cotton in West Africa.
Knowing that the development of the Nigerian
agricultural sector holds the ace to the diversification of the Nigerian
economy, provision of jobs for millions of unemployed youths and food security,
President Jonathan knew he had to put square pegs in square holes. He got that
right with the appointment of Dr Akinwumi Adesina whose expertise in turning
around agricultural practices in many African countries has been acknowledged.
With Adesina as the superintending officer, the Jonathan administration has in
the past one year embarked on the most comprehensive reform of the agricultural
sector ever attempted by any government in Nigeria with his Agriculture
Transformation Agenda, ATA with focus on transformation of the sector through
the development of agricultural value chains.
The transformation plan of President Jonathan
essentially implies tackling the gamut of problems that have been at the root
of poor performance of the sector from lack of access to finance, poor
seedlings and lack of adequate processing facilities. The plan entails reforms
on distribution of key inputs like fertilizers and seedlings, agriculture
financing and implementation of nationwide activities with state governments to
improve the value chain of crops especially rice, cassava, maize, soya beans,
sorghum, cotton, cocoa, oil palm, fisheries and livestock to facilitate increased
productivity and production in the sector. On the input side for instance, the
government is providing 50 per cent support for seeds and fertilizers for
farmers. The Government is also empowering companies involved in the production
of inputs like fertilizer, seeds and other agro products to scale up their
production by ensuring that loans are granted to them at a seven percent
interest rate while also providing 70 per cent guarantee on the loans.
Government is also encouraging the companies to sell their inputs directly to
farmers and build their supply chains to get to rural areas. It is expected
that with such policy, inputs like fertilizers would get to the farmers in
record time and at over 95 per cent reach (20 million) from its present dismal
11 per cent (550,000) reach.
Like in the developed world, the Jonathan
administration has introduced the use of Guarantee Minimum Price, GMP to
stabilise prices and to absorb excess output of agricultural produce. The fact
that farmers know that there is a guaranteed market for their product and at a
guaranteed price will encourage them to increase their production. This will
also encourage investments in processing plants at the lower ladder of the
value as the investors will be assured that they will have feeds for their
machines all year round.
To further indicate its seriousness,
government has awarded contract for the construction of 18 high grade cassava
flour processors capable of processing 1.3 million metric tonnes of cassava
flour for local use to mix with wheat to bake bread and other confectionaries.
The 18 plants will make Nigeria the biggest cassava processor in the world when
they are completed in the next 24 months. With the various intervention of
President Jonathan, it has been estimated that Nigeria's cassava production
will rise from 34 million metric tons to 51 million metric tons by 2015. Of
course, many Nigerians are by now aware of the commitment of President Jonathan
to promoting the eating of bread partly made from cassava. It is estimated that
over N60 billion in wheat import bills will be saved from the substitution of
40 per cent of bread wheat flour with cassava flour annually by the country
from the policy.
Government has also been promoting the
cultivation of another staple that has been bleeding Nigeria of its foreign
exchange: rice. Efforts and incentives provided by the Federal Government to
encourage local production of rice is already yielding results with the
commissioning of new rice processing plants in Ebonyi and Lagos States. Another
multibillion naira investment in rice production in Taraba State is also set to
commence. Just like in the case of cassava, Nigeria will save over N350 billion
in yearly import bill with local production of rice.
The ultimate aim is to ensure that Nigeria is
food secure by increasing production of key food staples by 20 million metric
tons by 2015. President Jonathan's Agriculture Transformation Agenda has
received endorsements locally and internationally. Ekiti, Kano and Taraba
States have already aligned with it, while internationally, Cargill, one of the
largest food processors in the world, has expressed interest in investing in
Nigeria's cassava sector. The AGCO, a tractor manufacturing giant has also
signified its intention to set up two tractor assembly plants in Nigeria. This
will bring down the cost of tractors in Nigeria and further facilitate
mechanized farming as envisaged under transformation agenda. The World Cocoa
Foundation has also agreed to provide support for the training of Nigerian
cocoa farmers in modern cocoa production procedures while on the financial
side, the World Bank decided to support the programme's implementation with
about N135 billion.
Adebiyi is special assistant on media to
President Jonathan
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