MIDTERM ASSESSMENT OF PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN’ POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES ON AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY By Adeola Soetan, Project Executive, Feed Nigeria Initiative (FENI) The cardinal objective of agriculture is to provide food and enhance food security, create wealth and generate employment. Any serious nation should always have this as the guiding principle in designing policies and programmes for agriculture and sustainable agricultural development. In assessing performance or non performance of a regime in agriculture sector as we are doing here is to critically situate these cardinal goals within the reality of our corporate existence as a nation. Nigeria is on the march again towards another purported transformation agenda of its agriculture. In simple term, to transform means moving from the old ways of doing things to more meaningful and productive ways in order to achieve a better result. Nigerians are familiar with progrmmes and policies of the present regime and previous governments at all levels to transform from the mode of “slash and burn” subsistence farming to mechanized commercial agriculture. Sadly none of these efforts achieved the sets goals and objectives. All successive governments left agriculture worse than they met it. The list is endless from Operation Feed the Nation, Green Revolution, Back to Farm, Graduate Farmers Scheme, Cassava Revolution, Cocoa Revolution, etc. The current Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Adesina Akinwunmi has been trying hard albeit with more statistics than reality to convince Nigerians, farmers and other critical stake holders in agric. sector that President Goodluck Jonathan government’s agricultural transformation agenda would be different in terms of systemic approach to service delivery. Highlights and targets of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the federal government at its inception two years ago. Details of targets set for 4 YearTransformation Agenda Jobs creation Over 3.5 Million jobs within 5 value chain rice, cassava, sorghum, cocoa and cotton. Wealth creation Over 300 Billion Naira (US$2 Billion) in additional income in the hands of Nigerian farmers Over 350 Billion Naira (US$2.2 Billion) injected into the economy from rice self sufficiency Over 60 Billion Naira (US$380 Million) injected into the economy from substituting 20% of bread wheat flour with cassava flour Food Security Enable Nigeria to be food secure by increasing production of key food staples by 20 Million metric tons. Rice: 2 Million metric ton Cassava: 17 Million metric ton Sorghum: 1 Million metric tons --------------------- Growth Enhancement Scheme According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) represents a policy and pragmatic shift within the existing Fertilizer Market Stabilization Programme and it puts the resource constrained farmers at its center through the provision of series of incentives to encourage the critical actors in the fertilizer value chain to work together to improve productivity, household food security and income of the farmer. Goals of GESS:- Target 5 million farmers in each year for 4 years that will receive GESS in their mobile phone directly totaling 20 million at the end of 4 years. To provide support directly to farmers to enable them procure agricultural inputs at affordable prices, at at the right time and place. To increase productivity of farmers across the length and breadth of the country through increased use of fertilizer i.e. 50kg/ha from 13kg/ha. Change the role of Government from direct procurement and distribution of fertilizer to a facilitator of procurement, regulator of fertilizer quality and catalyst of active private sector participation in the fertilizer value chain While presenting the mid-term report of the federal government on agriculture, the ever effervescent Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, painted a glowing picture of superlative performance of his ministry in which almost all the set targets for four years have been achieved within two years of the regime. With our political experience as a nation, nobody would have expected serving Minister to come out transparently with the reality of the state of agriculture and the not too palatable food security situation in our country. We will recall that throughout the tenure of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, a big time farmer himself, the same attitude of chest beating and self glorification of superlative performance in agriculture was arrogantly displayed even when the sector was at its lowest ebb in terms of achieving food security, wealth creation and generate viable employment. While other Ministries may escape public scrutiny and escape with startling statistics that do not correspond with reality, Agriculture Ministry would not enjoy the luxury of a fait accompli with its success story because agriculture affects all and every food consumer has the right to make assessment based on his/her experience, market situation and food security indices Government has failed to enhance Food security Food security is the central plank of the millennium development goal one of reducing to half the population of hungry people globally by the year 2015. It would remain a figment of the imagination for Nigeria to achieve this without sustainable agricultural development. To be food-secure means food must always be available and accessible to all for active and healthy life. And it falls within the constitutional and social responsibility of government to guarantee this through good policy formulation and programme implementation. For any government to claim superlative success in its agricultural programme and policies, food security must have been enhanced and achieved by making food available and accessinle Food Availability is when there is sufficient quantities of appropriate, necessary types of food from domestic production, commercial imports or donors are consistently available to the individuals or are within reasonable proximity to them or are within their reach. Food Access is when individuals have adequate incomes or other resources to purchase or barter to obtain levels of appropriate foods needed to maintain consumption of an adequate diet/nutrition level. Contrary to government’s wild celebration of its successful achievement in agriculture, such does not translate into food security. Food situation in Nigeria is not cheering as with many other developing countries in Africa. Over 12 million Nigerians are chronically hungry with at least 70 percent of its population living on less than one dollar (N160) per day. Nigeria’s life expectancy at birth is put at 47.7 percent and Human Development Index drops from 157th to 158th. Nigeria is one of the two African nations listed among the twenty responsible for 80 percent of malnutrition with states in the North rated as the major contributors to the country’s poor rating. In absolute terms, the number of undernourished under- five Nigerian kids outstrips the population of some sub-Saharan African countries. With Nigeria’s current under five ranking of 34, the situation, UNICEF claimed, could be compared with trends in war countries. Market and family menu table reality contradicts government fabulous statistics No matter the polemics on agriculture and food situation in the country, the market and the family menu table remains the best scorecards to assess the impact of government policies and programmes on food security. Nothing much has changed really as indicated from our collective experiences. The indices of food insecurity in Nigeria are many and should be a source of concern to all particularly government whose primary duty is to ensure security and dignity of citizens. The daily hike in market prices of foodstuff including cooking ingredients like tomato, pepper, and onion among others has adversely affected the real purchasing power of the naira. Prices of all major staple foodstuffs from gari, beans, rice, yam and yam flours have tripled in the past twenty four months of the Jonathan administration. A look at galloping market prices of some foodstuffs will reveal that their sweet statistics of performance does not translate to improved food welfare for Nigerians. Prices of some foodstuffs in 2011 and 2013 Foodstuffs Price in 2011 Price in 2013 A bag of white Garri N 4, 500 N9, 500 A bag of Yellow Garri N4,500 N7, 800 A bag of sweet beans N18, 000 N22, 500 4. A bag of ordinary beans N15, 200 N22, 000 5. A basket of tomatoes N4, 000 N13, 000 6. A loaf of bread N30 N70 7. A loaf of family bread N150 N220 8. A bag of rice N8, 500 N11 – 12, 000 This food situation was the focus of the press statement from the leadership of farmers union, the famous Agbekoya farmers’ movement after its national executive meeting. Lamenting the state of food crisis in Nigeria, the President-General of the Nigeria Farmers and Hunters Union, also known as Agbekoya, Chief Kamorudeen Okikiola, complained about the current rising cost of food items in the country. The association was concerned because according to Okikiola, “our people are hungry and 90 per cent of them cannot afford three square meals because of the high cost of food items in the market”. When farmers as primary producers of food cannot eat well, then the nation is in serious trouble! AGRICULTURAL LOANS ASSESSED There is renewed media blitz on the availability of different forms of agricultural credit facilities to farmers in the country. These agricultural loans being advertised come in different modes from different sources. The purported loans are branded by state and federal governments, agencies and banks among others. The various credit facilities include; Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) agricultural credit guarantee funds, agricultural loans from the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB), etc. Despite the good intention of these credit schemes, the reality is that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for farmers to access these loans. As it is now, Commercial banks still give loans at between 25 to 32 percent to the few farmers that are lucky to scale the loan hurdle. The N200bn Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme is yet to be accessed by the targeted farmers Each time there is a new agricultural credit programme, most farmers are always apprehensive and reluctant to believe that it is genuine or reliable partly due to their unpalatable past experiences. This difficulty is aptly captured by the former president Olusegun Obasonjo, under whose regime many agric. credit facilities were initiated without appreciable success, when he once wrote in his letter to the Senate lamenting the low level of farmers’ access to the bankers’ N50 billion agricultural credit funds. He reported in September 2005 that only N7.1 billion was accessed with only 389 applicant farmers throughout the country ten months after the scheme was inaugurated CASSAVA BREAD FARCE Well, Nigeria started the cassava bread experiment during Chief Olusegun Obasanjo regime in order to reduce wheat content in bread and supplement with cassava flour so as to reduce bread price and increase cassava production in the country. The experiment failed woefully after the countrywide extravaganza due majorly to lack of adequate technology to back it up coupled with sabotage from wheat flour millers. The present government has again revisited with no success yet recorded beyond the cassava bread razzmatazz national televisions where Mr. President was shown consuming purported cassava bread in Aso Rock Villa. No doubt, the nation needs to bake its own brand of bread that is affordable, accessible and available at all times. Since we are not a wheat producing country, we should start thinking on how to produce the type of bread with products that we have comparative advantage. In this sense, cassava bread may is a good option as the nation is the highest cassava producer in the world. But almost two years after, cassava bread remains an exclusive consumption of Mr. President and probably the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina. The failure to have cassava bread popularly sold in the marketplace and in our homes is a failure of implementation of a good policy that could have turned around the fortune of cassava farmers OFADA RICE AND OTHER LOCALLY PRODUCED RICE, MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE One of the items on the present regime’s agric transformation agenda is to make Nigeria self sufficient in local rice production. According to released statistics, Nigeria spends an average of N1bn per day on rice importation. Beyond the pronouncement to make Nigeria a rice sufficient country, much impact is yet to be felt to stimulate needed actions and support. Rather than having expanded production, what my personal experience revealed during a research work I conducted for an international development agency in three states of Lagos, Ogun and oyo was a dwindling production due to many reasons. A visit to Ofada and adjoining villages noted for Ofada rice farming in the past revealed that most small scale farmers who are the main producers of Ofada rice have abandoned the rice because of resources constraint, pests, lacking of processing capacity and land grabbing by estate developers. The resultant effect is the persistent hike in the price of Ofada rice. The same experience applies to other brand of rice in Nigeria resulting in persistent rise in rice prices CELLPHONES FOR RURAL FARMERS NOT A PRIORITY Information enhances knowledge and knowledge is power, hence information is power, so to say. As a rural sociologist and agricultural extension practitioner who has done and still doing extensive advocacy work on broadening of useful information to small scale farmers , one is tempted to agree with the proposal by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to give cellphones to ten million rural farmers to aid the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) in the distribution of inputs to farmers. Depending on the choice of the Agric officials, the cost is put between forty to sixty billion naira only! As reported in the media, the permanent secretary in the agriculture ministry, Mrs Ibukun Odusote, threw the bombshell when she informed the startling public of her ministry’s intention. She declared that: “We are talking about 10 million handsets, each handset would be costing, maybe N6000 or N4000 because it is in large number. We are not going to buy in pieces like that. We will buy directly from the manufacturing companies. We have agreement with some organizations in China and some in the United States; they are going to provide all these handsets for us because they are also interested in investing in the agricultural sector in Nigeria. So you have the idea and estimate of the cost. And I tell you that the money is available. It’s on ground. We are looking at the first quarter of this year to roll-out the phones, and by the end of the first quarter, we are done, and they will start hearing about the roll-out” According to the opponents of this proposal, including my humble self, rural farmers need enabling environment to farm and get their products out of their villages on time to avoid post harvest waste which is currently put at over forty five percent. In this regards, government should start with provision of rural infrastructure such as good roads network, boreholes and deep well for water supply, good and well equipped primary health centres to enhance the health of farmers and their households who are primarily the farm hands. Farmers need prompt access to agric credits, cheap and improved seeds, irrigation system, storage and processing facilities. Many of these must be in place before government can start thinking of buying handsets for rural or urban farmers. The obvious fact is that most of these rural farmers don’t even have bank accounts since they bank with their cooperative societies and commodity groups so the argument that farmers can check or transact business with banks does not hold water. May be the minister needs to let us know his concept of a rural farmer. Simply put and from a sociological point of view, a rural community is a community where goats, sheep and dogs compete with human beings for space, be it on the roads or at homes. We can then visualize who a rural farmer is. I did a little elementary arithmetic with the N60 billion figure and what will accrue to each of the 774 local government areas in the country in monetary terms. I am convinced of the folly of the proposal. N60 billion divided by 774 will give each local government Seventy Seven Million, Five Hundred and Nineteen Thousand Three Hundred and Eighty Naira/ (N77, 519,380). If this sum (N77, 519, 380) is available to poor rural farmers in a local government, tractors can be purchased to plough their land, cottage agric processing factories can be established to help in the processing of cassava, rice, etc,. With this amount, local storage facilities can be established or government can give this amount as soft credit for 155 rural farmers at the rate of Five Hundred Thousand (N500, 000) in each local government. ------------------------------- THE FATE OF SMALL SCALE FARMERS IN THE AGRIC. TRANSFORMATION AGENDA Unlike many other ministries that deal with services that may not be time measured immediately, agriculture is quantifiable and is not an abstract vocation. Nigerians and farmers who are almost disillusioned because of past programmes failure are in haste to see qualitative difference in terms of food security enhancement, employment generation and poverty alleviation, improved outputs and, of course, higher income to farmers and all practitioners in agric business As it is presently in Nigeria, Small Scale Farmers, SSF, are responsible for the bulk of domestic food production, yet they are resources deficient, mostly illiterate and more vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change, post harvest loss, land grabbing and other limitations that further add to their burden of food production challenges. While the nation looks forward to knowledge based and technology driven large scale agricultural business, the envisaged transformation plans have not seriously put into consideration the SSF who represent about ninety percent of the nation’s farming population and produce over eighty percent of gross domestic food production to feed the nation. Achieving food security in the country will still largely depend on the vital role played by this segment of the nation’s farmers in the transformation agenda. They need to be reached and effectively touched. This has not been effectively achieved in the last two years of President Goodluck Jonathan adminstration CONCLUSION The midterm report presentation was not a sober reflection of the true state of agriculture and food security in Nigeria and the Agric. Minister’s extravagant romance with questionable statistics, like many of his predecessors in office, might have beclouded his rational appraisal of the gravity of the challenges faced by farmers and other stakeholders in the sector. While noting some achievements recorded in the sector in the period under review, much more could have been achieved if the implementation processes of these policies and programmes were decentralized and be more inclusive to include farmers’ organizations in the local council areas and states of the federation. Before the nation arrives at the envisioned commercial, large scale mechanized agriculture, the small scale farmers that presently constitute over ninety percent of agric. workforce and contribute over eighty percent to domestic food production should be the central focus of the transformation agenda. The performance of the regime in review has not been satisfactory to this vital segment and the resultant effect is the persistent rise in market prices of foods. More attention should be focused in the coming period Adeola Soetan Project Executive Feed Nigeria Initiative (FENI)
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 17:03:40 +0000
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