Segun Adewumi (National President of the Nigeria Cassava Growers Association)
What is required of the government is to provide an enabling environment for the agricultural industry to prosper. This is because aside the fact that food prices are on the increase, we have some impediments that need to be removed in order to enhance the inflow of foreign investments and increase the prosperity of local investors.
One of the impediments is the non-acceptance of agricultural land as collateral for loan requests by farmers. It will interest you to know that on account of the failure of Nigerian banks to accept agricultural land as collateral for loans, many investors have relocated to other countries like Ghana. Recently, an investor from America who wanted to set up a 100,000-litre per day ethanol plant for cassava growers in this country relocated to Ghana. He relocated because the land, which farmers had spent hundreds of millions to acquire, could not form part of the collateral for bank guarantee that is required for foreign loans.
Secondly, there is a very important need for modern agricultural practices in Nigeria. This will go a long way in enhancing food production and reducing the cost of produce. Agricultural commodities required for industrial use need to cost less for the products to penetrate not just the domestic market, but also the international market. And it is pertinent to state that this is beyond what our aging farming population can provide. So, there is an urgent need for modern practice of agriculture that requires the inputs of our educated youths.
Now, consider the crop cassava. Do you know that cassava provides over 20 domestic food types for Nigerians? It also has five major industrial products that are used as raw materials to numerous utility items with limitless domestic and export market potential. Cassava can trigger massive industrial revolution that will earn Nigeria over N20tn annually and can actually serve as the answer to the economic woes of this country. But this can only be achieved when an enabling environment is provided for investors by the government. If this is done, there will be competition and the hike in prices, of course, will be checked.
Dr Ahmed Raji (President, Kwara Chamber Of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture)
I will advise that the government should bring about a rebate in food prices. This can be achieved by the government buying foodstuffs in bulk and then redistribute to the people, like what Lagos State did in partnership with some other agricultural agents to produce rice and sell it at a cheap price.
The government should do all it can to buy farm produce from farmers directly and then resell to consumers. They should encourage farming. For instance, if you come to Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, you will see many shops. Why not direct the efforts and energy of young people towards agriculture that will bring about massive food production and the resultant reduction in prices of food?
There should be re-orientation of our youths which should bring about attitudinal change. The government should enlighten them and make them to be interested in agriculture. The youth should be mobilised and then land be cleared for them. They should be given improved seedlings free of charge. They government should give them the assurance of buying off their produce.
When agriculture is made attractive, youths will go into it and produce food in large quantity, which will reduce the cost of food items. We have good climate and weather.
Chibudum Nwuche (A former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives)
Government should flood the market with grains from its strategic grains reserve. This will bring the cost of food down drastically in the interim. For the long term, it has to improve upon the attention given to agriculture.
It should guarantee a minimum price for stable crops to encourage farmers to produce more and it can serve as the buyer of last resort to reduce waste.
We also need to improve in the area of food preservation.
Basil Enwegbara (An Abuja-based economist)
The real cost of food is the cost of transportation and storage. A large quantity of our perishable food items perish before they get to the market. And a farmer wants to recover the cost of production from whatever remains. This reflects in the price of the product in the market. I will advise Nigerians, who want to spend less, to go directly to the farmer in the farm instead of going to the supermarket.
Government should help people that want to invest in food processing. All over the world, food production is not the problem; it is preservation. Government is supposed to help farmers with logistics to move their farm produce to various markets. Government can also help farmers get farm imputes and assist those who want to invest in processing.
It can start by establishing one food processing industrial park in each of the six geo-political zones so that those who have interest can go into food and vegetable processing.
Dr Georgewill Anthony (Executive Director, Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group)
Government at every level should encourage young people to go back to agriculture. This will go a long way to make food available. There is currently a huge gap between old and young people as far as agriculture is concerned.
The young people are interested in technology; they are interested in computers and other things about technology. This has depleted agricultural manpower. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is a farmer and he is rich. So, we must remove this mentality that being a farmer means the person must be poor.
Again, the crisis in some northern parts of the country where people are killed is making the prices of food to go up. This is why the Federal Government should do everything to stop the killings in Kaduna and some other parts of the North.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the people in the North and if there is crisis there, the entire country will be affected because most of the food crops are transported to other parts of Nigeria from the North.
I have not seen the political will of the Federal Government to fight insecurity so that farmers can increase their level of farming and also increase their harvest.
Prof. Clement Adebooye, (Secretary General, Governing Board of African-German Network of Excellence in Science)
For any country to think of bearable prices of food for its citizens, the country must first ensure that it is food secure. But unfortunately, we don’t have food security in Nigeria. The reason is that we don’t produce enough of food items that we eat, especially rice, wheat, dairy products, and poultry products. We depend on imported food items to feed our people and the dollar crisis is there starring us in the face.
So, for a country to attain status of food security, it must raise stock of agricultural products that are high yielding like high yielding maize, rice, beans and so on.
Do we have those agricultural stocks that are high yielding varieties? No. We don’t have them and that is why the yields are low. For government to be able ensure that there are high yielding varieties, there must be investment in high quality research on high yielding stock.
Investing in agriculture is more than just granting loans to farmers. There should be massive investment into research and the output of these research institutions is what will bring about food security.
Malaysia was able to boost its oil palm production because of high yielding stock; Thailand did the same before it could start exporting rice; Cote d’ Ivoire invested in high yielding cocoa and other serious countries are doing the same.
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