Tunde Sanni
27 October 2009
analysis
Lagos — Nigeria is presently burdened. The burden of assuring the world that in spite of its rich and abundant soil complemented with reasonable rainfall all year round, it is not being threatened by food insecurity.
More than any other nation in the African continent, Nigeria is blessed with abundant arable land and rich vegetation. The country boasts of abundant surface and underground water, reasonable rainfall and extensive coastal region. But despite these obviously abundant human and natural resources, majority of its citizens are living in fear; the fear of the gradual dry up of the oil wells and the return to agriculture which for years was abandoned due to the discovery of oil wells. To put it bluntly, the fear of food scarcity or food insecurity is real.
Like other African nations, funding for agriculture took the back seat for decades until the present administration's intervention. According to official figures, agriculture received not more than six per cent of the national budget in the past. This year, funding has been raised to between 12 and 13 per cent of the national budget up from seven per cent in 2008. Furthermore, the Federal Government has approved the utilisation of 1.68 per cent of the national reserves from the federation account for agricultural development.
The 2006 global hunger index published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seemed to have compounded the problem. The index which ranks developing countries on the basis of dimension of hunger, insufficient availability of food, shortfall in the nutritional status of children and child mortality; in the rage of 0-100 with zero being a state of no hunger and 100 as the worst, ranked Nigeria at 20. By any standard, these are frightening statistics.
In the current situation of high food prices, providing emergency assistance and supporting agricultural productivity enhancement and income earning by food, insecure people have become the main means to reduce hunger and ensure an improved world food situation. Protecting the most vulnerable people in rural and urban areas requires targeted direct food distribution and food subsidies including food reserve. As a short-term response, support for boosting local food production has become the priority of most countries, Nigeria inclusive.
Faced with such challenges in the past, previous leaders attempted to proffer solutions through agricultural and food policies. Various policies and programmes were introduced to cushion the effect and ensure price stability but one after the other, the policies, like a pack of card fell by the way side because they lacked co-ordination and strategic focus. They equally lacked clarity of objectives in solving food crisis in the country.
The underlying aim of maintaining price stability at levels affordable by urban populations was often confused with the objectives of meeting urgent food needs arising from emergency situations and addressing the needs of populations suffering from chronic food insecurity. This in most cases led to complex management structures with overlapping and sometimes contradictory policy priorities, often resulting in inefficient and inappropriate use of resources. The absence of comprehensive policies had a negative impact on the effectiveness of the food reserves.
Apparently disappointed by the inability to achieve their agricultural plans and policies, and overwhelmed by the seeming emergence of new, more dreadful challenges, the leaders were prompted to dispense with grandiose plans and resign themselves to the slower, circuitous pace of progress that characterised the past.
Now, the nation is poised to reverse all that with the national strategy on food security. Nigeria is on the threshold of unprecedented opportunities to do away with the frightening statistics of food insecurity and accelerate food security. President Umaru Yar'Adua appeared to have accepted the challenge by refusing to take a queue from the seeming past failure and instead chart a course of rescuing the nation from the throes of hunger. Since everything in the past one year points to the fact that he loathes the consequences of allowing the most vulnerable people in rural and urban areas to remain hungry.
To him, Nigeria is now capable of more rapid and radical action to put in place an enduring National Food Security Strategy. Already, government has floated a N200 million bond for lending to commercial farmers as soft loans. This is meant to further address the funding constraints which farmers and agro-business entrepreneurs have had to grapple with in the past.
The thrust of the new policy is a paradigm shift from supply chain management to value chain strengthening. Instead of concentrating all energy and resources on production alone, the government is pursuing the food security agenda in a holistic manner. The policy, while emphasising massive production in food, livestock and fish, also gives equal attention to processing, storage and market development.
Government, in realisation of the critical role of the private sector in the various parts of the reforms to ensure sustainability and efficiency in agricultural development, has extended an olive brand to private investors. For instance, government provides 25 per cent subsidy to reduce the burden of high prices on farmers' procurement of fertilisers which has been the responsibility of the private sector though.
Also to improve the tractor density in the country, the government is promoting a community tractor hiring scheme with the Federal Government providing 30 per cent of the cost of a tractor as grant to farmers. The policy is as a backdrop of inadequate tractors in the country. According to statistics from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, in the past 30 years, Nigeria has not had more than 30,000 tractors. With about 20 million farm families engaged in agriculture and bringing area under cultivation to about 49 million hectares, low tractor density remains a big challenge.
The new scheme which aims to increase tractor density requires communities as cooperatives expressing desire to participate to sign 10 per cent of the cost as co-owners. State governments on the other hand provide 10 per cent of the cost, while the private sector bankrolls the balance.
Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Sayyadi Abba Ruma has restated the new food security programme was premised on the need to subsidise agriculture, promote large scale commercial agriculture, while providing support to the small holder farmers, erecting efficient infrastructure and providing credit facilities in a comprehensive and sustainable manner.
All, these, he explained, should revolve around value chain strengthening involving production, processing and marketing under international best practice. The Minister said while the Yar'Adua Administration acknowledges past efforts and policy measures to boost agriculture, it is imperative to chart a new course and devise fresh measures that will avoid the pitfalls of the past. According to him "it is not exactly re-inventing the wheel but borrowing from success stories around the world". He gave one striking example. While the FAO benchmark says Nigeria requires about five million metric tonnes of food storage in strategic reserve, the country presently has 300,000 metric tonnes capacity. This, by any standard, he explained, cannot be described as a pragmatic position for a country with a population of 150 million.
"For nearly 25 years, Nigeria has been grappling with the realities of building the necessary infrastructure that will provide strategic food storage. The benchmark requirement is about five million metric tonnes and we can presently boast of 300,000 metric tonnes. The gap is quite huge. Though there are challenges, we are poised to make good things happen," Ruma said.
The minister also mentioned the community tractor scheme which is aimed at enabling farmers to own the machine in a three-year timeline when the private sector must have recouped their investment. "Using this approach, we will enhance the density from 30,000 tractors as it was for over 30 years, to 30,000 tractors in three years," he said
According to him, the essence of the programme is not only to enhance tractor density, but also to provide opportunities for small holder farmers to have access to tractor services and mechanisation at the same time to cushion the effect of soaring costs of tractor services. Government has positioned the National Food Reserve Agency, NFRA, as the engine room to move Nigeria away from food scarcity and vulnerability to hunger. It is expected that with the agency, the country can expect the availability of food all year round at affordable prices, reduce post harvest losses, and have about five percent of total national food output for necessary life line in times of need kept in reserve.
Executive Director of the agency, Dr. Salisu Ahmed Ingawa said NFRA is not scared of the new challenge as it is poised to promote commercialisation of agricultural produce through public-private partnership; develop viable supply chain; facilitate provision of enabling environment for sustainable commercial agricultural development and supply.
Ingawa stated that the agency's operations have been decentralised with regional offices in each of the six geo-political zones in order to ensure closer linkage with the three tiers of government and communities, and for quick decision-making, feedback and sustainability of activities. The policy focus of the agency, he explained, includes support for the implementation of the National Programme for Food Security; developing an exit strategy to allow the private sector take full responsibility of fertiliser procurement and distribution to farmers, with government regulating standards and quality assurance. Others include facilitation of tractor and farm machinery services through public-private partnership; support for the development of seeds through provision of training equipment and seed money for the production and marketing of improved seeds and seedlings.
The agency, he said is also mandated to enhance production through small scale irrigation development; and improving processing capacities through establishment of cottage industries, export conditioning centres and agro-industrial parks in partnership with the private sector. Others are improve access to credit through linkage with financial institutions; establish and operate a guaranteed minimum price policy, increase national storage capacity through building and completion of silos and community warehouses; build capacity access to support services and facilitate participation of the rural people in the development of their community.
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