Stories by Steve Agbota
Boosting productivity, fostering competitiveness, ensuring food security and making sure that small-scale farmers have greater access to markets should be the key to Nigerian government in realising its full agricultural potential.
The era of oil boom has gone and it is high time government started developing the natural potential to support cultivation of exportable vegetables and fruits, including other cash crops, to the global markets. Nigeria’s farmers estimate to make about N12 billion from exporting vegetables and this is projected to rise to N40 billion by 2018 if government at various levels give farmers the right incentives.
According to official data in 2013, the country’s exports were worth $46.32 billion, of which $3.83 billion came from vegetables and fruits to Europe and America. Recently, the Anambra State Governor, Willy Obiano, disclosed that the state became the first in Nigeria to export vegetables (Ugu and Onugbu) valued at $5 million to Europe. This means that other states that have potential to grow the produce should encourage their farmers and give them inputs to grow the produce.
This is because the demands for agricultural produce are huge overseas as millions of Africans and Nigerians are demanding these produce everyday. Not just vegetables and fruits alone but also other produce like fried fish, beans, yam and crayfish, among others. Vegetables can be grown successfully in Kano, Kaduna, Kogi, Lagos, Ondo, Ogun and Benue among others.
Kenyan vegetables and horticultural exports are cited as a success story in African agriculture but many believe Nigerian farmers can do better. The serial feats of coordination, discipline, productivity, manual labour and government support made Kenyan vegetable and horticulture competitive in global markets.
Nigeria has an advantage because fruits and vegetables can be grown on a wide range of vegetations, from small farms with less than two hectares using family labour to large-scale commercial farms with over 100 hectares and advanced technology.
Vegetables comprise green pepper, carrot, lettuce and cucumber but there are six high premium indigenous vegetable species like local celery (woorowo), local amaranth (teteatetedaye), fluted pumpkin (ugu), African nightshade (odu), eggplant (igbagba) and scarlet eggplant (ogunmo). All these vegetables are planted here in Nigeria and are all good for export if farmers adopt international standard.
Daily Sun learnt that with increased yields, previously marginalised rural women farmers now realise an average income of about $3,376 in a year from the sale of indigenous vegetables.
The Managing Director of Anagro Consult, Mrs. Mope Omotoso, said that there is export potential for agricultural produce in Nigeria but government is not focusing on them, adding that there is need to help farmers with inputs such as tax holidays, provision of some facilities like water, roads, providing land and training farmers on technology improvements in land preparation, seeding rates, staking technology, seed treatment and pest control.
For those states that have potential for vegetable, she urged them to encourage their farmers to do it by providing inputs, training them on standard so that those produce would be of international standard.
She advised: “States should look at every area where they have comparative advantage and focus on it. It may not be everybody that will grow vegetable but whichever area a state has advantage on, like Benue where they have yam, fruits and soybean it should be encouraged. Whichever crop they have advantage on, they should focus on it and encourage people to go into it.”
On the documents that vegetable farmers need to obtain in order to ensure that their produce meet international standard, she explained: “The farmers should approach the Export Promotion Council (NEPC) where they would be advised. Packaging is also a standard. If they approach NEPC, farmers will have standard requirement because NEPC also helps to link with buyers overseas and take up all the terms.”
“On tax holidays, it is not only vegetable farmers that need to be encouraged but other people need to be given support as well. When you are going into agriculture really, there is incubation period and there should be some incentives for farmers to go into it because on the long run, it is going to be of advantage to the nation. There should be tax holidays for exportable products as well as input for people to go into such ventures,” she explained.
Making a living from grasscutter breeding
Over the years, grasscutter has been over-hunted and savanna habitat is often at risk during the dry season from bush fires lit during bushmeat hunting expeditions.
This offers small-scale farmers, investors, businessmen and all those with wealth mindset an economic incentive for raising grasscutters in captivity when they discovered that grasscutter is one of the animals that are extremely suitable for commercial rearing, as a farmer who manages the business very well can make up to N2.5 to N3 million in a year.
However, grasscutters are not just the most prolific of rodent species but are in high demand, attract market price and small amount of investment required make grasscutters a suitable mini-livestock activity for income generation. Unfortunately, this business has been neglected because people consider it as bush animal.
Daily Sun investigation shows that in 2015, grasscutters worth millions of naira were grown and sold in Nigeria and exported to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and France due to high demand for its meat by Nigerians who live in those countries.
The demand for grasscutter is also high in top-class hotels, eateries, supermarkets and restaurants, which often stock the tasty bush meat. The meat is of a higher protein but lower fat content than domesticated farm meat and it is also appreciated for its tenderness and taste. More recently, intensive breeding of grasscutters has been undertaken in many African countries, including Nigeria.
Starting grasscutter farming requires just little capital as low as N60,000 to N100,000 but the most important thing is housing (cage), which could cost N40,000 for a full family of grasscutter that comprises one male and four females as they live in colony.
According to a grasscutter farmer, Mr. Odewale Akinola, if grasscutter farming is properly well managed and harnessed, it could boost the economy of a nation, create more jobs and alleviate poverty. He said it is unfortunate that people are yet to discover the potential economic value of the animal in the country.
He added: “You can’t do grasscutter business for two years and be poor.
That is if you are serious in doing it. Today, grasscutter is sold between N5,000 per kg and above. Four to five hundred grasscuters in a year could earn you between N2.5 million and N3 million. The animal reproduces very quickly and in good numbers. A fully-grown female grasscutter, after gestation, carries the pregnancy for 140 –150 days and delivers about twice a year. Each pregnancy produces average of five to eight young ones. Can you imagine what that could be if they keep multiplying?”
Apart from normal grass, sugarcane leaves and its stems, he said the animal can also be fed with formulated concentrates like pellet as well as other processing byproducts like wheat bran, corn bran, groundnut, soy, oilseed, cotton seed cakes, brewer yeast, grain legume pods, brewers’ grains, maize shucks and cobs, brewer’s yeast and domestic waste food as feed supplements.
With good, adequate feeding, the grasscutter kids can be weaned between four to eight weeks. But as a family, they can be with the mother for four months. The kids can be separated from the mother between five to seven months and placed with a male to mate with them.
IFAD supports 7 northern states with $85.5m agric fund
About seven of northern states in Nigeria will benefit from $85.5 million agriculture support scheme initiated by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Federal Government.
The states to benefit are Borno, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara while breakdown of the financial support includes $500,000 grant from IFAD, $15 million grant from ASAP and $70 million as loan from IFAD.
National Programme Coordinator, IFAD-CASP, Muhammad Lawal, said during a facilitation training workshop for staff of the programme in Abuja that the Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme (CASP) was specifically designed to boost agriculture in the seven northern states in the savannah belt of the nation.
He said the programme would run for seven years in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD).
Lawal said: “The programme funding was sourced from three points; IFAD is giving a loan of $70 million, $500,000 grants and $15 million from ASAP, a body that attends to climate change issues. It will be used for the programme implementation in the seven participating states on climate change resilience agriculture production.”
According to him, the training was organised to design implementation process for primary stakeholders, which are programme support officers and state support officers.
“It is to improve food production in the vulnerable states, especially among youths and women. It is to create more employment for the 104 local governments and 727 village areas in line with the green alternative of the Federal Government,” he added.
He said extending the programme to Borno and Yobe states in particular was capable of salvaging the current food dearth, stressing that it would engage youths in terms of entrepreneurship and food production.
In her remarks, IFAD Country Programme Manager, Ms. Atsuko Toda, said about 120 programme officers from the selected states are to assist in the programme implementation.
She said: “The officers are to design an 18-month plan and map out means to realise the goal. The programme was designed to technically train and orient some of the emerging opportunities and key challenges around climate change, promoting agribusiness, nutrition for women and working with the host communities.”
Borno State Programme Officer, Baba Ali-Yusuf, who commended the initiative, said it would help restore livelihood of the people earlier sacked from their homes during the Boko Haram insurgency.
Yobe State Programme Officer, Ibrahim Bello, lauded the Federal Government and IFAD for developing the programme for survival of the people.
According to him, women, youths and children have been at the receiving end in terms of attacks and malnutrition as he urged the Federal Government to sustain its efforts towards reviving the nation’s agriculture sector.
Agriculture tool to tackle recession – A’Ibom Gov
By Chinyere Anyanwu
Akwa Ibom State Governor, Emmanuel Udom, reiterated the need to salvage the country’s economy from recession through agricultural sector.
Governor Udom who made the call for a return to the land during a chat with journalists on the sidelines of a worship programme at the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, International Bible Training Centre, Ipaja, Lagos, recently emphasised the importance of agriculture in the nation’s quest for economic development. Udom stated that no nation of the world could truly be said to be developed, which cannot feed its citizens.
He said, “I just believe that we Nigerians should go back to agriculture because there’s so much we can get out of the land and when you’re talking about the land, you’re talking about agriculture. So anything we want to do today as a country, our first step of development should be that we should be able to feed our citizens.”
Speaking on the agricultural potential of his state, which he said he is working to tap fully, Udom noted that Akwa Ibom has one of the best quality of cocoa, plantain and cassava globally, adding that, “my state is the most blessed on planet earth in terms of climate, soil condition and anything you can think of.
“I have a lot of rural women who have never seen fertiliser since they were born but they plant cassava and harvest bountifully. So this is the time for execution of our agric policy objectives. We are hoping to carry the people along to see how we can execute and feed the people. That’s the angle of diversification anybody can talk about now if we are actually aiming towards development.”
Harping on the need to break from over dependence on oil, the governor said, “the situation we find ourselves in, I think, calls for a rethink so that we can walk the talk of diversification of our economy.”
On tackling corruption, the Akwa Ibom State governor said every Nigerian should start with him or herself, noting that corruption is not an exclusive attachment of politicians in Abuja or state governors.
He said, “if we start from ourselves, the whole thing will change. We should re-orientate our minds and get our social structures in place so that we can tackle some of these vices that make us not to be who and what we are supposed to be.”
Also speaking, the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor W. F. Kumuyi, urged Nigerians to keep hope alive even in the midst of current economic hardship facing the nation.
Kumuyi stated that, “once we have hope and we know we’re not going to be where we are forever, and we begin to make the change within and there’s a desire that here’s where we are going, then we can ask, how do we get there?”
He believes that if the country is focused, it will get to where God wants it to be and will eventually get better.