Stakeholders task agriculture minister on way forward

Stakeholders task agriculture minister on way forward

as Ogbeh, Lokpobiri resume duty

By Jimoh Babatunde & Gabriel Ewepu

The new Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, says the ministry is going to carry a new burden as stakeholders in the sector have urged him to turn around the ministry with his wealth of experience as an administrator and farmer.

Audu Ogbeh, who comes into the ministry with huge experience in agriculture, runs Efugo Farms that is into Castor Oil, Groundnut Oil, Hatching of Fishes and Chicken and Broiler Production.

Audu Ogbeh who resumed office on Wednesday with his minister of state, Heineken Lokpobiri, said there are high expectations from the agricultural sector based on the drive on diversifying the economy from the oil and gas sector.

He said: “This ministry is going to carry a new burden now, oil and gas has served Nigeria well but we didn’t manage the resource well.

“Now the attention is turning to agriculture and how we are going to make it works on the new dynamics is a burden all of us will carry together.

“We have to intensify research, marketing home and abroad, we have to deal with the huge import of food which is $2, billion a year and we have to decide all of us to challenge the situation where certain interests outside the shores have almost taken over the sector.

“What is even worst we will together deal with is the nutrition problem. Cancer, liver and kidney cases have increased over 25 per cent. A lot of poisoning is getting into our food system from packaging alone.

“We have to deal with the problem of our seed policy, there is no point giving the farmer the wrong seed and expect him to make profit and pay bank loan.

“We import milk to the tune of $1 billion annually and some of it not very good. According to UNICEF recently, 37 percent of our children are malnourished.

“We shall work together as team and also encourage our young people to get into agric as the farming population is fast ageing and we need more food as our population in three years time will be 200 million people.”

He charged the directors and staff on being proactive and hard working to achieve the goals before the ministry and surmount the challenges inherent.

“Many of you will be pushed a little harder to achieve results, and I want to thank the former Minister, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina for laying the foundation and we shall build on that,” he stated.

However, the Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, said that, “The time for change has come and I want to pledge that we are going to work together throughout our stay here.”

STAKEHOLDERS ON EXPECTATIONS

Meanwhile, the Minister has been urged by stakeholders in the to turn around the ministry with his wealth of experience as an administrators and farmer.

Speaking on the appointment, the Prince Wale Oyekoya, the Chairman, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI)’s agriculture sector wants Audu Ogbeh to reform the Agricultural sector by bringing back the glory of the sector as it was in the 60s during groundnut pyramid in the North, rubber plantation in the west and cocoa plantation in the south.

Oyekoya, who is also the MD/CEO of Bama farms, said most of the good infrastructures in the country today were built through agriculture before the discovery of oil.

He wants the new minister to focus on mechanization of the sector, this was re-echo by Alhaji Tafida Mafindi, the CEO of Famag-ja, who said mechanization is the way to go.

Mafindi said “Mechanization is the way to go and you can only do this if the farm land is available, because you cannot use private capital to clear land. You can not clear land privately to plant and get something back in terms of profit in three years. There has to be venture capital that will come in to clear farm land and be recoverable over a long period of time, so that the farmer will not be burdened with too much of interest on his productivity.”

Alhaji Mafindi said he wants to see the Agriculture minister come up with a deliberate policy to organize, standardize all the crops produced in Nigeria so that they can create a genuine market for the farmers to sell their products and get good values so that they can re-invest against next season.

“So that they will not allow middle men to buy the crops from the farmers when there is good harvest and make profit off the farmers and the middle men become richer while the farmers remain poor.”

Mafindi and Oyekoya will want the new minister to encourage Nigerian youths to take into farming as business, in the words of Mafindi “I expect to see the agriculture minister encourage the youth to take to farming; I want to see young graduates from the various fields taking into agriculture as business. I want to see a minister of agric that will turn around the livestock sector, so that the hidden resources in our goats, ram, chicken, peacocks and cows can be exposed.”

Mafindi noted that with the proper policies put in place, the agricultural sector is capable of paying 80% of the tax collected in Nigeria “as 70% of Nigerians are farmers and if all the tax they generate can be harnessed, it will re-base our economy and the economy will change from eight trillion per annum to about 250 trillion per annum which we are capable of doing.”

Alhaji Mafindi added “Our expectation from the agric minister is to forget about the importation of rice to exportation of livestock, cassava chips, and rice. We need to harness our exportation strength in major crops.

“We need the minister to network feeder roads for farmers to take their produce to the markets, just as we need him to provide storage facilities for all our perishable items and be able to standardized them at the airports for cargo to be taken to countries that we are having trade with. We will also be happy to see him create a market for a well processed meat that will be sold in well preserved conditions.”

While urging the minister as a farmer himself to carry along stakeholders, Oyekoya said there is need to pay attention to value chain development in the sector, just as he wants him to build more storage facilities to reduce farmers post harvest loss and lease the existing ones to private sector.

Also speaking with Vanguard, the General Secretary, Federation of Agricultural Commodity Associations of Nigeria, FACAN, Akin Gbadamosi, wants the minister to liberalise the sale and distribution of agricultural inputs.

Gbadamosi who is also a cocoa farmer and processor, stated that the issue of fertiliser and incentives, should be left in the hands of the private sector for effective distribution and accessibility.

He also wants the minister to provide special fund for farmers to effectively carry out their agricultural activity and not through banks.

Another stakeholder in the sector, Kwara State coordinator, Catfish Farmers Association of Nigeria, CAFAN, Ajibola Olawale, stated that farmers want the Minister to improve on the achievements in the sector by the former Minister, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.

“ The new minister should continue from where the former minister stopped, and also there are some loopholes we want him to improve upon, like the Growth Enhancement Support, GES, scheme, which we want him to increase the number of fingerling given to fish farmers from 500 to 2000, arable sub-sector, the number of bags of fertilisers should be increased, and instead of farmers to pay 50 percent as part of the cost should be reduced to 20 percent while government pay 80 percent for the first two years.

“Financially, fish farmers are not credibly buoyant we need loans and the interest rate should be reduced to two percent, and farmers need more empowerment.”

An NGO, Agricultural Services External Monitoring Group, ASEMG, urged Audu Ogbeh, to meet farmers’ needs in the sector.

National Coordinator, ASEMG, Alh. Kwajaffa Hamma, said the reports of a survey they carried out in 30 states of the country, show what farmers need to increase productivity.

“The report revealed needs of farmers and call on government to address. The needs include access to improved farm inputs (fertilizer, seeds and herbicides) provision of micro credit to farmers, provision of extension services to help farmers on modern farming techniques, good market for the products, and guaranteed minimum price to markets.”

Hamma said, the prospects and potentials of farmers to ensure food security and job creation were enormous, and urged government to continue its role to take the agricultural sector to greater heights.

The CEO of Bama food, Wale Oyekoya said the issue of foundation seeds need to be given attention too as Audu Ogbeh himself noted during the screening by the senate that the country lacks good seeds for production.

He advised that the various agricultural research institutes in the country and farmers should be mobilised to produce good seeds and prevent the country from becoming a dumping ground for imported seeds.