As the hunger protest in Nigeria enters day 6, an agricultural expert and former chairman of Shongai Farms Holdings, Kwara State, Dr Tope Daramola has said that decisions taken by President Bola Tinubu to boost food supply are not in alignment with the problems on ground.
Daramola while speaking as a guest on Channels Television Sunrise Daily on Tuesday said trucks of grains given to the states, the N200 billion agricultural subsidy, tax and tariffs rebates on grains imports and attempts to clear some forests to provide farming land would not result to any good if insecurity remains unchallenged.
He stressed that millions of small scale farmers in the villages who are the primary sources of food supply to the cities have left their farms due to insecurity, maintaining that until the problem of insecurity is solved, every other thing the president is doing to ensure food security will not work.
The Nigerian Economy monitored the interview and brings you excerpts below:
“Insecurity has chased away people from the farm. Without security nobody can go to farm and so if you have farms without having access to your farms and if you have factories without having access to them to process foods how would you have foods on the table?
Tope Daramola
“The problem has been that the government has been shifting attention and resources away from this critical sector (agriculture) to other sectors of the economy. So, the manpower has been leaving; the youths are leaving the farms and quite a lot of people are not farming because they are not safe in the farms. The sector is not giving hope to people and it is not rewarding operators. So, why would anyone want to be there? If a sector can offer commiserate rewards to the efforts you’re putting there, you stay in there, but in the case of farming in Nigeria, it has not been so.
“I remember the problems we had when Shogai Farms started 20 years ago; we are still having same problems till today. For example we have land, but we don’t have good access to the lands. We have to change from what we are doing now as a country and begin to create and enforce policies and processes that support things that can enhance farming and farm production.
“Food Security is an aspect of the national security because without food, you can’t do anything. If you’ve not eaten, you can’t be at work. We need to give it the appropriate priority. These interventions or what the president has done in reaction to the issues on ground right now is just a panic siege. These are consequences of improper planning. And if we don’t put our ass together now, we are still going to pay the price tomorrow.
“Yes, the parliatives the government is giving is okay, I dont have problem with that but I believe we have to go back to the basis. We must fix all the broken infrastructure that support farming. For example, we used to have River Basin Authority that provides irrigation water for farmers, agriculture extension workers, but they have all collapsed.
Minister of Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari
There’s no data available on agriculture in Nigeria. There’s no land mapping; no form of definition of soil texture to know what kind of soil we have in an area; which states can we grow this crop or the other and what kind of fertilisers should we be looking for…all those things are elementary farm supports that we don’t even have. We need to go back now and fix those things and in fixing them we need to ensure that the things we are doing are proper and that they are monitored.
“Another major problem I’m seeing in the sector is there is no way to measure efficiency and productivity. My take is that we have to go back immediately and find a way to bring back the manpower and the resources that are required for us to fix the agricultural sector. We need to fix the insecurity that is on ground. The land that Mr President said they were clearing is a good direction but we need to know what we need to do with it and how to do it. And I had expected the minister of agriculture to come out and tell Nigerians what exactly is the plan from the laid down of all the proposals that Mr Presdient has already given to us. People are hungry and they are angry. A hungry man is an angry man. So a quick intervention is required.”
