Lagos — Many out there, especially those engrossed in the hustle of city life, may not appreciate the magnitude of the impending food crisis. For such and more, agriculture appears secondary on the scale of things that require urgent attention from government at all levels.

We all complain about zero electricity and water supply, bad roads, terrible schools and all those other things that ordinarily are essential in sane climes where it is granted that government is led by wise men. We grumble about the comatose health system that has somehow driven a chunk of our population to herbalists, ritualists and traditional priests for medical attention and the AIDS infected educational system that have generously left us with more "educated illiterates" than elites. For those who fall into this category urban dwellers, one can only but wish they are prepared for the imports of food scarcity which is the worst of nightmares.

A few years ago, in my remote village and others along Ibadan-Ilorin road, I mean that famous route, now death trap, a small basket of Orange, Tangerine, Tangelo and Mango sold for between fifty naira ("Wazo", N50) and one hundred naira (N100). The price covers the entire annual citrus season. On the average, such baskets had about ten pieces each which means a medium size Orange for instance will sell for five naira (N5) or thereabout. Same goes for Tangerine, Tangelo, Mango and Lemon. About the same time, it was sold in cities for three (3) for twenty naira (N20).

Today, an Orange sells for between twenty (N20) and thirty (N30) naira even in those villages. I didn't even know it was this bad, because we had them on the farm. I was, however, taken aback when I decided to help myself to buy fruits on the road side a few weeks ago at Ibadan, the Oyo state capital

Cassava, which we use to sell at seven thousand naira (N7, 000) per truck load of one thousand medium tubers at the farm gate, was sold for forty five thousand naira (N45, 000) last month in most villages around Oyo town, Ogbomoso, Eruwa and Oke-ogun area of Oyo state. Same goes for Yellow Maize, a critical commodity in livestock feed production, a tonne now goes for between seventy thousand (N70, 000) and ninety (N90, 000) thousand naira as against forty five thousand naira (N45, 000) early in the year. Let me not even mention Beans, Rice, Yam and Yam flour.

Those housewives and bachelors who shuttle markets daily will tell you what have become of the prices of Yam, Garri, Plantain, Tomato, Dried-fish and Cow meat. It was my friend's mum that told me she no longer buys her meat in Lagos. The poor woman now patronizes rural markets for almost all her foodstuffs.

My quotations are modest because I have restricted them to prevailing trends in the southwest region. Ask an average working class Abuja resident and you will be amazed how they cope. Those who are not sure of themselves dare not visit Wuse Market. That market in the heart of the city drowns the salary of civil servants without apology. As a survival strategy, most government workers now sneak to places like Dei dei, Bwari, Karu, Katampe and all those funny FCT satellite towns to buy food stuffs. The big ones order foodstuffs from down south or nearby Suleja, Lafia, Akwanga and Markurdi. I know a family that buys their monthly foodstuff from Ilorin.

A few years ago, to think that taking a fruit as dessert will become a luxury in this country will be termed impossible. But alas, it has started and with the rate things are going only the super rich will be able to eat fruits on a daily basis. See how water melon, pineapple, pawpaw and apple have become so expensive. An apple sells for one hundred naira (N100), the big one sells for one hundred and fifty naira (N150) on the Island. Even banana, ordinary banana now sells for ten naira (N10) per pieces (not per bunch).

Yet government at all levels allocates billions of naira to agriculture annually. Our last three presidents, including the present one are big time farmers. Some of our governors have very big farms too. Infact, two of them chair the Nigerian Farmers Council and All Nigeria Farmers Union or so. We all know Obasanjo's Ota Farms and those other ones he has in virtually all the regions of this country. We are not strangers to Gen. Abubakar's Maizube Farms in Niger state. And of course, the Yar'Adua farms in Funtua and other parts of Katsina state where I did my mandatory national youth service.

It is an understatement to say these men have done well for themselves, their families and their generations yet unborn. But then, what happens to the average Nigerian who does not have any link to the national swag. I must not forget that some of our ministers, past and present, including permanent secretaries and director generals have also suddenly become big time farmers courtesy of previous national bazaar, the latest vision 20 20-20 and other sharing sessions of our commonwealth.

It is a shame that most of the rice and almost all of the stockfish we consume in Nigeria today are imported. We import all kinds of agricultural produce from turkey wings to chicken laps; from Kote to Sardine, tin tomato, milk, spices and even toothpick. The goats and cows we eat daily still come from North Africa and neighboring Niger. I can go on and on. And no one seems to bother about these things.

My grudge with the present administration is her inability to check this trend and take remarkable actions in the agricultural sector with all the substantial goodwill and enormous foreign reserve at her disposal at inception. At the expense of sounding immodest, let me categorically state that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources in Nigeria is either playing politics with agriculture or stranded. This ministry as far as I am concerned is not ready to move our agriculture forward. My reasons are uncomplicated.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources in its bid to achieve food security as espoused in the Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (CADP) initiative of the present administration developed a 5-Point Agenda (sounds like 7-Point Agenda) for Agriculture and National Development. This agenda is what they intend to use as a short and long term implementation roadmap which will reposition and consolidate existing successful programmes in the sector.

The first step will be Developing Agricultural Policy and Regulatory System (DARPS); secondly, establish Agricultural Commodity Exchange Market (ACCOMEX Nigeria Project); then, Raising Agricultural Income with Sustainable Environment (RAISE); also, Maximizing Agricultural Revenue in Key Enterprises (MARKETS) and lastly, Water, Aquaculture and Environmental Resource Management.

While I will not bore you with the excessive English in the details of each point articulated on the ministry's agenda, I like to single out the third point which is Raising Agricultural Income with Sustainable Environment. This comes in two parts. It intends to focus on the development of the following basic components (i.e. rural energy, rural markets, schools, communications, water and sanitation, transport and health) as a way of addressing the challenges of small and medium scale agribusiness development in the area of value chain infrastructure development and infrastructure for sustenance of the environment.

The RAISE small-scale is a deliberate approach for integrating rural agribusiness development with socio-economic district development, which they intend to commence in 2009 (and we are in November) with four hundred (400) real (?) sites.

The RAISE medium-scale, which initially caught my attention, targets young educated, unemployed (read self-employed) persons to replace the present ageing farming groups as an out-grower based project, commencing with twelve real (?) sites also in 2009.

These goals, well articulated and publicized, are to say the least, lofty. You cannot have a better roadmap than this in the short term. These ordinarily should facilitate a national agricultural revolution of some sort. But then, we have seen much more than these before only to end up with nothing tangible or visible on ground. It appears more like a curse in this nation that we write and say a lot of things and almost instantly execute the opposite or somehow do nothing at all.

The fifth point also involves the development of one thousand five hundred (1,500) targeted RAISE sites with small dams and irrigation infrastructure facilities; flood control; early warning systems; agricultural cadastral through auto-photo mapping of farmlands; migratory pest control; bio-energy development and carbon credit project through aforestation and reforestation.

My concern right now is how these points will leave the realm of an agenda into reality. If as at now, with the looming deregulation brouhaha, the unpredictable dry season ahead and few months into another election year, we don't know exactly what is going on as regards both the 5 and 7 point agenda.

Earlier in the year, government announced to the joy of farmers an unprecedented two hundred billion naira (N200, 000, 000,000) lifeline to the sector through two banks for onward lending to farmers nationwide under the auspices of the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS). These are the same banks that will never for anything fairly invest in the productive sector especially agriculture. These same banks that where quick in releasing money without collateral to money doublers and invisible stockbrokers at the detriment of genuine investors.

We latter discovered it was meant for just the big farmers. Those of us searching for few millions were schemed out. And of course you and I know very well that CACS, the way it is presently disbursed won't produce any beneficial result for the general populace. It is dead on arrival. Very soon, EFCC will be trailing those billions to private accounts of the privileged and prodigal class. These big guys don't really need the money for their farms. Some of them are seasonal big time political farmers. They are not farming to feed any nation; they are farming to legitimize questionable resources garnered over the years. At best, one feels it's a settlement scheme for those who have been very supportive and appreciative of government efforts in all "ramifications".

The truth, however, is that they are playing politics with a dangerous aspect of human existence, hunger. One cannot estimate the role that food plays among humans and animals alike. Is it not even indicting that with one of the best soils in the world, Nigeria is still grappling with food scarcity.

A recent report by UNICEF shows that 80 per cent of the world's chronically under-nourished children are in 24 countries, including Nigeria. The report stated that there were over ten thousand (10,000) stunted children in Nigeria as at 2008. This number it said accounted for 5.2 per cent of the world's stunted children in the year under review.

As far as UNICEF is concerned, under-nutrition is a violation of child rights. The Convention on the Rights of the Child emphasizes children's right to the highest attainable standard of health and places responsibility on the State to combat malnutrition. I don't see that happening in Nigeria of 2009.

The grouping of Nigeria with countries like Niger, Burundi, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Sudan is shocking but true. With the tremendous land, forest and water resources in this country one will expect us to be feeding our neighbors in the west coast if we cannot feed the whole continent.

If a tenth of the two hundred billion for CACS or Sanusi's over five hundred billion largesse to raped banks is expended on resuscitating the rural school farms project in public secondary schools across the country alone, we will be witnessing an unprecedented season of harvest. With one hundred billion, our universities of agriculture can turn things around both in the short and long term.

- Kolawole wrote from Lagos

We are talking about an entire generation in the nation classrooms taking on agriculture as part of their curriculum all year round.

With one thousand five hundred (1500) RAISE sites spread across predominantly agrarian communities in about 800 local council and development areas, we will be talking of well over thirty thousand (30,000) direct new jobs with the template I have in my possession, within the space of one year. In five years this nation will have produced more than a hundred thousand (100,000) young graduate farmers. Apart from food security, this singular move will also check the ugly trend of unnecessary rural-urban migration, fast-track agricultural mechanization and empower close to fifty thousand (50,000) families.

My argument has always been and will remain that given the will, purposeful leadership and diligent hands, Nigeria can actually feed the African continent. What we see in Shongai Farms is not magic. We can do better if our government is serious. I am unfortunately one of the few that rarely thinks we can actually pull a stunt in the ICT world than the Japanese but I strongly believe we can deliver on agriculture.

If countries like Israel with all the natural and artificial challenges can breakthrough in Agriculture, we don't even have an excuse not to do better.

Is it not bad news that we import vegetables and fruits from the Mediterranean region? The parent stocks of our livestock are imported year in year out form Europe and the Middle-East. We even import some of our livestock feed especially soya beans and yellow maize from neighboring African countries. Fishmeal used in animal feeds for instance is imported from European countries. We also import additives like Metonine, Lysin and co. Even supplements like Blood-meal, Oyster shell and Bone-meal are imported. The same goes for drugs like IVOMEC and other antibiotics.

Why do we have to import fishmeal when we have an expansive coastline and a fertile delta not to talk of the numerous inland water bodies? The other day, fishermen in Yenogoa, Bayelsa state protested their exclusion from the N200 billion CACS fund. Farmers across several rural communities in other regions of the country have also made similar protest publicly. But our almighty minister of agriculture is still processing his academic response.

Sometimes I wonder how and where the minister of agriculture spends his day. We only time we get to see or hear him are during fertilizer allocation sessions as if it is the only mandate of his ministry. The other is at FEC routine meetings.

Our agriculture is not mechanized. Extension services are skeletal and non existent in most states. All the agricultural research facilities built with several billions of naira are languishing all over the country. The potential and capacity of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is grossly underutilized and taken for granted by Nigeria. The other day I was at the Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN), Ibadan and I wept for this country.

Cocoa and timber was what Chief Awolowo used in developing the entire Western region. He built roads, schools, hospital, post offices, dams, farm settlements and estates better than the once we build these days. He even gave scholarships to the generation of my father from primary to tertiary level. Some of them even went abroad for free.