Agriculture: Quest for diversification futile without political will

That coordinated efforts to vitalise the working fabrics of the agriculture sector for efficiency towards productivity, largely demanded for the diversification of Nigeria’s economy, remain sacrosanct is rationally justifiable.  Since agriculture has been held in reckon as high ranking among the topmost blend for which the course of diversification can be given the breath of meaningful impact, the need to modify, reconfigure, develop new strategies to boost the efficiency of the sector to configure the fabrics for productivity on a virile strength of resource has become sacrosanct.

In this light, sychronisiing policies with development of working parameters to configure the fabrics in dimension of the much desirable strength of productivity has become of importance. One recent approach in the dimension of devising working fabrics within the sector for coordinated operations,  has been the development and revamping of Agricultural Estates for clustered-output. The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) had last weekend, commissioned the reformation of the 30 years moribund Achara-Ubo Emekuku Integrated Farm Estate in Imo State, seeking to engage 800 farmers. It was gathered the estate in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State, sited on 35 hectares of land embodies a capacity of six poultry houses, having 18 pens containing about 15,000 birds, three goat houses with 196 goats,  and three piggeries containing 108 pigs, fortified with three solar-powered boreholes, access roads, drainage and solar-powered street lights.

According to report gathered, about 1,000 farmers will be engaged in the area of animal husbandry, processing and packaging within the first year. According  to the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, NALDA, Prince Paul Ikonne, the project runs with the vision and passion for the creation of jobs for youths and women in boosting food and nutrition security. He projected the farm will provide 600 direct employments for farmers in poultry, piggery and goat rearing, while 200 additional farmers will be engaged in processing, packaging and export.

“Achara-Ubo farm is expected to take in 600 farmers, the processing and packaging section will soon start, which will take in additional 200 people and the crop section will soon start because we have provided the tractors. This farm will be a centre that will train farmers within and outside Imo State and the 200 beneficiaries have been trained and empowered with knowledge and they are the first set of people to benefit from this project and as they pass out in the next six months, they will start their own farming activities and another set of people will come.  This farm was abandoned for 30 solid years and NALDA took over and developed it. The farm is purely the desire of President Muhammadu Buhari to reactivate and reform farm estate across the country because the President believes that going back to the land is the only way our economy can be sustained and our youth will be gainfully employed to achieve food security, and we are very hopeful that the farm will be very productive and that the farmers will begin to earn income. The direct engagement is about 600 farmers into the poultry, piggery and goat sections and an additional 200 farmers into the processing, packaging and export because we have a processing plant here that is coming up.

“The good thing is that this place would become a training ground for the youths in Imo State as they pass through one year here and they will be established. And we are partnering with the Central Bank of Nigeria to give them support, a grant that they will use to establish their own farms. So, for the first one year they will be here; they will get the technical knowledge; they will know how to rear their own animals and then the central bank grant comes in to support their projects. The grant is across the country and we are  looking at N3 million per farmer and it is a revolving loan, with that you will see that the number of the unemployed will reduce in the state and across the country,” he was quoted.

The fabrics for the sustainability of the farm, according to NALDA was anchored on handing over the project to the community to take its ownership for proper management.  It has also been disclosed that the Federal Government has also approved rehabilitation of Songhai Farm, where young people will be massively engaged in the farm.

The emphasis on agriculture as a sector embodying potentials to modify the profile of Nigeria’s economy has been too convincing that only coordinated efforts are required to tap into the realities of the projections. In Abuja on Tuesday,  Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, re-emphasising same positon had said with the appropriate degree of political will and hard work, Nigeria’s agriculture sector can solve Nigeria’s  Internally Generated Revenues problems. Osinbajo who made the assertion after a presentation by a delegation from the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria Commission on a courtesy visit to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, maintained that with the right efforts, any part of the Federation has the potential to feed the entire country.

The Vice President who was quoted in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, submitted that a lot more attention needs to be paid to how the agriculture value chain works for efficiency. The statement titled ‘With political will, hard work, agriculture can solve internally generated revenue problems, says Osinbajo,’ quoted the Vice President after listening to the Commission’s framework for sustainable agricultural transformation in States, saying: “Agriculture can be the solution to a lot of our IGR needs and a lot of our resource needs; it has been proven so many times that it is possible.”

Citing realities of the 1950s and 60s in the agriculture sector in the then regional governments, he noted that “the truth of the matter is that the difference between then and now is the political will. There is no question at all that there is far more information today than there was then but someone has to have the will to do it. There is no question at all that any part of Nigeria, if there is sufficient dedication and hard work, can feed the entire country. There are smaller countries not up to the size of one State in Nigeria that are producing enough and exporting products to other parts of the world.”

Osinbajo who acknowledged the importance of private sector collaboration in transforming agriculture also emphasised the need for stakeholders to focus on research and development, noting that the progress made by some countries of the world, especially in the area of commercial farming has been hinged on research. Addressing the concern raised about challenges in developing the agriculture value chain, he stated: “There must be a way of perfecting the value chain and ensuring that the value chain works. Of course, it involves logistics, transportation, credit facility, etc. A lot more attention needs to be paid to how that value chain works. No matter how much you are producing, if you don’t work on the value chain, you will just be wasting a lot of the resources.”

It has become necessary for the Government to handle agriculture with articulated strategies commensurate to develop same to the height of productivity, virile enough to satisfy the diversification deficits which have left the Country’s economy at the mercy of suffering the brunt of a monocultural economy, heavily reliant on oil. As the reflections of such monocultural status have left the economy on the scale of wobbling deformities, the prevailing strains handicapping the Government from financing public courses for the desired growth and development, only demand that attention be fortified with concerted efforts to vitalise the agriculture sector, among others, as building  blocks for the economy to lay its rest.

As observed, the necessary political will is much needed to drive the course towards a meaningful end. The years of monolithic dependence on oil have only left unsavoury narratives for the economy. The impacts have left the shores of the economy to unleash its blows on socio-political realities, among other fabrics of the Nigerian society. It behooves the custodians of government authorities to deploy the needed energies and strategies required to get the goal of developing a virile agriculture sector running on track.