Aliyu Samaila
2 January 2009
opinion
All industrialized economies evolved from agricultural base, and the emergence of sophisticated technologies only enhanced that base. Therefore, no right thinking government or people treat, or should treat, agriculture with levity.
In Nigeria however, the story is different. It has been more of too much motion without movement. Successive Nigerian governments make the right noises on turning the country into an agricultural wonderland, or of exploiting the agricultural potentials to the maximum but alas, there is little to show after almost 50 years of independence. The country is only left with a retinue of acronyms that are as many as the number of governments the country has had. The governments are either unwilling or unable to go beyond the initial fanfare of launching programmes and forecasting the expected benefits, but that is where it stops.
The military era had Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), back to the farm, accelerated food production, particularly wheat production .The last two programmes neither accelerated the production of food nor that of wheat. In fact, when the accelerated wheat production was launched in 1988, local production of the commodity was about 50,000 metric tonnes. The nation's import bill for bulk wheat was 25 million US dollars. Twenty years on, production rose only marginally to 70,000 metric tones but, the import bills for bulk Wheat flew to a staggering 6.5 billion US dollars. The only acceleration therefore, is in the flight of foreign exchange. Good business for some one might say but, just imagine half the amount used for importation going to farmers Borno, Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Bauchi and Jigawa states, which were the pilot states for the programme. Not to be outdone, the civilian regimes came with their different programmes which included Green Revolution and cotton development programme, just to mention two. Well, the revolution was neither green, and the cotton is still comatose and will soon expire as its sibling - the textile industry.
Serious countries have shown overtime that you do not need fanciful acronyms or grand launchings for agricultural programmes to succeed; in fact, launching is done with the first set of produce. Ever bereft of ideas, our leaders have now resorted to inviting foreigners to come and 'develop our agriculture'. Everyone but Nigerians!
Though the government takes the bulk of the blame, the private sector is equally guilty. Most of the large-scale farming enterprises in Nigeria belong to ex-this or ex-that, who treat agriculture more like a past-time than the serious business it is. Just like they showcase Polo ponies or Hummer jeeps, the farm has been turned into an avenue of 'my Friesian cow is bigger than yours' or 'I have imported micro-filters to irrigate orchard' with fresh water'. Take for instance, a Friesian cow that gives an average yield of 8,000 litres of milk per year or about 26,000 litres in its lifetime. The cost of one cow and its maintenance runs into millions of naira. Even where artificial insemination is done, the cost of semen alone runs into hundreds of thousands. Our large-scale farmers use this expensive investment only to produce yoghurt in two flavours - plain and strawberry. Now, there is nothing wrong with yoghurt production and, it is also a good business. It is just that to justify this huge investment one needs a more serious product than yoghurt. Their counterparts elsewhere put Friesians to good use by extending its milk into the production of butter, condensed, pasteurized and even powdered milk. To think that while yoghurt is being savoured, Promasidor is importing milk powder to package as Cowbell in the same country. This lack of will to add value is akin to the village lumpen who sold a grown chicken only to buy a chicken wing from Mr BIGGS because it is fried and garnished. Improved Mango and Citrus varieties are grown only to be sold whole, while our shelves are full of 'TANG' orange and mango juices. Maize is grown extensively but the country imports Kellog's cornflakes. Corned beef is imported from Europe and Argentina in spite of the heavy investment in beef cattle. The contradictions are endless.
Another example is in the area of fruits and vegetables. While Nigeria produced about 1 million metric tonnes of tomato last year, half of the quantity was wasted due to lack of storage facilities. The processing companies that should mop up the excess produce were either not functioning or were at half capacity. In the same year however, Nigeria imported $45 million worth of tomato paste. These are areas our large scale farmers would have cashed-in if only agriculture is business to them. It is not.
The third culprit in the quagmire Nigeria's agriculture finds itself are the Nigerian Banks. Being one of the few sectors of the country's economy that still declare profits, the banks are simply impatient with any business that has a gestation period. They have abdicated the responsibility of assisting small enterprises to grow and for established ones to expand or diversify. With lending interest neighbouring 30%, it is impossible for anyone to borrow in order to invest in agriculture. The banks don't even pretend to have interest in financing agricultural enterprise. Presently, only First Bank attempts to do something in that respect.
When you add all the aforementioned to the existing lack of ancillary infrastructural requirements of good roads and rail network, the recipe is that of failure. With the present government having agriculture as the third item in its 7-point agenda, the following may be worthy of note:
1. The role of government is most fundamental and cannot be over emphasized in enhanced agricultural production. It has to provide the enabling environment in terms making inputs like viable seeds, fertilizer and agro chemicals not only available but affordable and timely to the end users. Government especially at the local level, should reduce the burden of labour faced by small-scale farmers and should provide subsidized mechanization especially in land preparation. The problem of nomadic pastoralists has always been a thorny one especially for the small-scale farmer. This can be solved by the provision of new grazing reserves and water holes and also reviving the existing ones. In addition to revitalizing extension services, it is also incumbent on government to mop up excess produce to ensure price stability.
Government should not only stand as a guarantor for large scale farmers wanting to diversify into processing, it should also give incentives like tax holiday and remove the traditional stumbling blocks associated with manufacturing in this country.
Government should also as a matter of priority discourage the importation of finished milk products, fruit juices and tomato paste and, to encourage the local processing of same.
2. The private sector: For the large scale farmers, if you see agriculture as a past-time, get out! It is serious business. In some countries, it is the only business. There is no point investing billions, if you can't have your own brand of 'pringles' from potato grown on your farm, or canned tomato paste to have your own brand of De Rica. The 'made in Nigeria' stamp should be on a produce from your farm. Anything less, is self delusion! Recently, the government introduced a private sector-government partnership in Rice production and milling. This is the way to go. Sadly though, there is no single Nigerian agri-business concern among those listed for the project. That is how irrelevant the Nigerian large scale farmer is.
3. Banks are supposed to be partners in progress and should play a significant role in Nigeria's agricultural revival. They can start by first reducing the interest rates on agricultural loans to below 10%. Though this may look unattractive, it will surely encourage more agricultural entrepreneurs to borrow. What the banks lose in high rates, they will recover in the high number of people borrowing. Economics of scale holds true here. Finally, getting Nigeria's agriculture out of the doldrums will require all stakeholders to put hands on deck. It is serious business!
Samaila wrote from No.6 EMCON Road, Dogarawa, Zaria.
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