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Vera Wisdom-Bassey
Dr. Olukayode Ogunleye, a veteran in agriculture and a policy analyst, in a recent chat with Daily Sun, called on Nigerians to look into investing in agriculture more than oil. He also urged banks to lend money to the development and growth of the agriculture sector.
Effect of climate change on food production
Despite climate change, people are still discovering ways to produce food using what we will call climate-smart agriculture. Having knowledge of the whether, especially the Baiyo condition, is needed to know when to plant, harvest and stuffs like that. Crops that have short circle of production will have to be given much more attention. Again, you have to look at crops that are tolerant, crops that have short duration and are able to produce. Therefore, knowledge of when and how to plant all of these crops will go a long way for us to ensure we have growth.
Diversifying into agriculture
There hasn’t been much of diversification till date. States that are supposed to be agrarian shy away from agriculture. Out of the 36 states we have in this country, only two states can be said not to be strictly agrarian.
When you talk about major sources of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), you talk about Lagos and River States; the rest of the states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT), are agrarian but the policy and the priority has not really been focused on this (agriculture). It is clear in this circumstance that there hasn’t been much diversification.
There are no practical efforts in this direction, even in cases where there has been some mention of agriculture or agricultural programme, it hasn’t actually been done in a sustainable way. But looking at opportunities at the export markets, for us to be able to make money through the agricultural value chains, we will have to look this way of diversification into agriculture. But right now, there hasn’t been any head way. Therefore, it is a way of generating revenue and depending less on oil.
Attracting investors into agriculture
There are so many factors; first and foremost, in Nigeria today, there’s been a problem of mindset. People haven’t really seen agriculture as a business. People should begin to look at agriculture from the business perceptive. In order words, those who are involved in agric business in one form or the other need to actually see it for what it is; spend time on it.
It’s not enough to say I am rearing animals or farming crops; spend time in investment, read enough about what you are doing, and have a very broad body of knowledge. If it is going to be done as a business, it is knowledge driven; very important. To a great extent, today in Nigeria, many of those involved in agriculture don’t have the right kind of knowledge. Not many know exactly what to do or how to do it. Generally speaking, there has been policy gap in agriculture, negatively affecting those who are investing in the sector.
Again, we have not been really taking advantage of new findings that could actually help us make useful investment in agriculture; scientific findings that could help us make useful investment in agriculture. Then finance is the major constraint. The banking industry has not really been looking in the direction of agriculture.
There is this statement that agriculture is risky, but I wonder if oil and gas is not riskier. There are a lot of people who rush into oil and gas, and the Governor of Central Bank, Godwin Emefele, said in December 2017 that most financial institutes lend to oil and gas and then neglecting the agriculture industry. The oil and gas sector is where there are non performing loans, so why not look in the way of agriculture, give them loans.
Then the issue of insurance; the agric industry has not enjoyed this benefit of getting insurance backing; these people record losses. When people record losses, they don’t have ways of recovering these losses.
If farmers know they are being taken care of by the insurance sector, I think a lot of people will get into meaningful agricultural business but when people record losses and nobody helps them to mitigate or shoulder part of the losses, they are not likely to continue. This is a problem, which has discouraged many people from getting into or continuing in agriculture.
Then, of course, you talk about policy around lands. I think this the area a lot of people who are into agriculture have a problem of securing lands or titles, and when they have, and want to expand, it is a big constraint.
And then marketing and marketing information structure are areas where there are problems. Ultimately, those producing on commercial bases are producing for the market that is not reliable, the market does not reward productivity.
There are lots of problems because people produce a lot of commodities and need to cover the cost of production; that again is a major discouraging factor.
Another major problem is post-harvest losses. You can imagine that about 40 per cent of what is produced goes into waste; a very big loss. We don’t really have reliable storage facility to preserve perishable agricultural produce and this hampers profitable agricultural business. There is need for much research work in Nigeria in terms of post-harvest.
Also, coming to the issue of the right people in the industry, I think this is one area that needs to be looked into. People involved in agriculture do not know where to access knowledge on the business. So, once these issues are solved, those in agriculture will be able to breach the gap and be able to make good money, and be encouraged to sustain it.
