Agriculture used to generate about 60 per cent of Nigeria’s labour force. A mainstay of most nations, it is said that any country that cannot feed itself is an impoverished land. Countries like Somali, Sudan and others are sustained by the United Nations and other organizations because they are not able to feed their citizens.
Though Nigeria can boast of fertile land spread across the country, majority of her citizens are still impoverished. Farmers’ yields have been reported to be stagnated with total output declining year in year out. This can be attributed to the fact that Nigerian farmers have suffered years of neglect. Successive governments have only paid lip service to the plight of farmers and farming in Nigeria. The farmers are lamenting and because they cannot do much for themselves, the situation remains the same.
Nde Goshit, a farmer who is definitely affected laments that the government has in the past had initiatives like The Green Revolution, Operation Feed the Nation, DFRRI, and so on, yet nothing seems to come the way of the farmers and instead, things have only gone worse. ‘‘We only hear about billions of naira being released for the agricultural sector and yet nothing gets to us. Fifteen years ago, I could produce twenty tons of food, but today, getting two tons is a big task. I cannot afford fertilizer. Politicians only supply fertilizer to their party men and the government subsided ones are re-sold in the open market for somewhere between 5 to 7 thousand naira if you are lucky enough to get it. So you see, farming is no longer lucrative like it used to be in the time of our parents and even when I started about twenty years ago.”
On the other hand, Mallam Shehu, from Gusau believes things are getting better. ‘‘In my state, things have improved for farmers. We used to have problems with farming but since the inception of democracy, our state government has been trying to revive and improve the sector. They have made farming very lucrative for us by offering us soft loans and after producing the crops, they buy the food from us and in turn sell to the federal government. So we make profit out of farming now. If they will continue this way, then our youths who are rushing to work for government will come back to farming soon.”
From the point of view of an Agricultural consultant, Peter Asukutu, agriculture plays an important role in the development of humanity. ‘‘It is widely believed that the domestication of plants and animals allowed humans to settle and give up their previous hunter-gatherer lifestyle during the Neolithic Revolution. If government develops the agricultural sector with the provision of up to date equipments, there would be increase in agricultural output and this would lead to a revolution. There has been a remarkable shift in agricultural practices over the centuries to correspond with new technologies in developed nations.
Nigerian agriculture can be revolutionised by introducing things like hydroponics, plant breeding, hybridization, gene manipulation, better management of soil nutrients, and improved weed control which would translate in the production of plants of higher yield and which are disease resistant. If farmers can be taught how to modify seeds, it can germinate faster and thus, can be grown on a fast level. Developed nations now use genetic engineering of plants particularly in the case of herbicide-resistant plants and this allows for easy irrigation, drainage, conservation and sanitary engineering. This type of farming requires little fossil fuel.”
Alhaji Mohammed Mogaji is the national publicity secretary of All Farmers Association of Nigeria. He too is of the opinion that people started losing interest in agriculture a long time ago.
‘‘Whatever one does, you would want to benefit or reap from, so when you spend lots of money without getting anything from the farm and the output, is always small compared to the input then you would be forced to have a re think. For example, if the cost of production per ton is five thousand naira, you take your goods to the market and you sell a ton for three thousand, five hundred naira, it means you have lost. With the way the state and federal government are handling agriculture, I will say that, people are just suffering for nothing. But if the government at every level will adopt the new technology that is used in other nations, things can change for. During the Obasanjo regime, there was a fifty billion naira loan that was released for the sector but farmers were not able to access the money. The conditions attached to the money were so difficult for the average farmer to meet. Then during the late Yaradua tenure, there was two hundred billion naira that was released for the sector again, though it was intended for commercial farming, but still, many people were not able to access it because of the same conditions.
Let me tell you, Nigeria is fed by the smallest farmers from other counties. The big farmers are very few and when they produce a lot, they put it in their store and leave it for two- three years; they take farming as luxury. But the small farmers bring the small goods they are able to produce to the market. Anytime you go to the market, who do you see supplying goods?
I am glad government has introduced this new price that will help the small scale farmers. If these small farmers can be assisted with seedlings and fertilizer at the appropriate time and rate and let me repeat, at appropriate time.?? Not that they will start giving farmers fertilizer in June /July, fertilizers should be given in January/February so that farmers can use them in the farms.
Government should also come in when farmers harvest their crops; they should give them farmer’s fair price and sell it to the public. In the past, anywhere you go in Nigeria and see a beautiful house, they will tell you, it is owned? by a farmer ( tsarkin noma) , but lately, anywhere you go and see beautiful house, they tell you it is owned by a Customs officer, Senator, Member or Permanent Secretary. Another thing is that, the land too is not arable. In the past, when you have a farm in your family, it can sustain you but as the family grows, and continue to use that farm, it becomes too small for the whole family and they gradually stop yielding crops like it used to because of over use. If the Nigeria farmer can be given the required assistance, then we have no reason to import food from other nations.”
A staff with the ministry of Agriculture who also contributed said that ‘‘the problems with our agricultural sector are corruption. Government has really tried to revitalize the sector. Every year, government spends $4.2 billion (N638.4bn) to import agricultural produce, where does this go to? Government also releases N22 billion yearly for fertilizer, do the farmers get them? Where does the fertilizer go? These are questions I expect Nigerians to start asking, yet they keep insulting government. If these monies are allowed to get to the intended farmers, then Nigeria would have no reason to complain of unemployment. This sector alone can create over ten million jobs for Nigerians. Before the Agricultural sector can improve, Nigerians must fish out the people that are frustrating government’s efforts. There should be proper investigation by the House and anti-graft bodies and those indicte be prosecuted. Government has spent trillions on this sector over the years and it is only fair that Nigerians get return for their monies. Agriculture is the only sector that can create jobs for teeming Nigerian youths and also generate money for the country.”