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.
Source: allafrica.com
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