Lynx Eye

Answering agric question goes beyond words and guesses

THE February 12, 2017 edition of theSunday Tribune published an opinion piece entitled: Sad, Ogbeh can’t guess answers to food woes,” written by Mr. Taiwo Adisa. The concern of Mr. Adisa was obvious, going by his article’s title, which showed more emphasis on answering questions or making guesses.

But considering the complexity of the agricultural terrain, particularly in Nigeria, speaking to please critics is not enough. Action speaks louder than voice. And this is a point that Mr. Adisa and other critics of Chief Audu Ogbeh need to recognise.

On the allegations that the agricultural policies under Dr. Adesina were jettisoned, maybe one can excuse Mr. Adisa as probably not up to date on current affairs. Otherwise, he would have been informed enough to know that, since the assumption of office, Chief Audu Ogbeh made it clear that, under his watch, there would be no policy somersault. He pointedly defended ATA and made it clear that government is a continuum and that changing policies by successive governments have resulted in a lot of wastes in the history of Nigeria.

What is unknown to most Nigerians, including Adisa, however, is that the continuation of such programmes has been largely hampered by fund constraints due to budgetary shortfall. Anyone who followed budgetary issues in 2016 would agree that the allocation to agriculture was abysmally low. The release of the funds came about four months to the end of the year, making it near impossible to do anything notable. Even at that, the flagship Growth Enhancement Support scheme still got some attention, although on a very small scale, toward the end of the year.

Moreover, contrary to the thinking of critics who saw virtue in complaints by some fertiliser investors to the National Assembly, the fact remains that Chief Ogbeh has, within the limits of available funds in 2016, paid off N20 billion out of the debt left behind in the implementation of fertiliser and seed subsidies under ATA. The industry players also ought to have been honest enough to tell the entire country that the acclaimed debt profile for the fertilizer subsidy was exaggerated. Upon verification, it was found out that N20 billion of N67 billion claimed was actually fictitious or padding for

inputs not actually supplied.

One of the things Chief Ogbeh stressed was that in addition to retaining the ATA intervention policies, he would deepen and widen them. And, the process that led to the launch of the Green Alternative as successor policy document highlighted key gaps in ATA, with the intention of closing those gaps. Since it is expected that the minister should also think out of the box, he unveiled his own policy interventions to be implemented pari passu.

Nearly three months ago, stakeholders from across the nation gathered at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and validated the Nigerian articulated strategy for ensuring a single quality control management system for Nigeria as regards global acceptance and zero reject of our agricultural commodities and produce. This was the first of its kind in the history of the ministry. Under this arrangement, the ministry has developed two documents, one of them called the methodology of conduit of excellence, quality and safety rules for Nigeria and standard operating procedure manual for zero reject for non-oil exports from Nigeria. All of these are with the support of the European Union and UNIDO. If the Ghanaians havemanaged to acquire certification for their own produce in foreigncountries, we have no reason not to.

It is a curious fact that this is a country where, if you launch a debate on nuclear physics, even carpenters will participate. We import milk and milk products to the tune of $1billion per annum because our cows don’t yield enough milk, one litre per day. And the meat is not of the best possible quality, in part due to the daily long walk of the animals. And, when the minister spoke of special grasses to feed the cows, all manner of abuses and criticisms were written in the media, particularly on the social media because people who don’t know about the subject got involved.

The minister was very blunt, because there grasses vary in species and nutritional values. And there are special grasses for feeding ruminants. People misconstrued the idea of importing grasses in form of planting materials to bulk importation. The grasses are being grown now in some places. Our cows need to drink good water to be able to give good milk. The Fulani cow roaming around doesn’t drink enough water. So, those cows need to be confined and they need to be fed in confinement. Sadly enough, few of the commentators on the grass issue saw the business opportunities that could be exploited. The rest saw opportunity to bash Ogbeh.

Another bold intervention from the minister, which appears to have escaped attention, even of the public analysts and academicians is the operationalisation of the findings on soil map as well as promotion of soil-specific fertiliser. Now that some states are beginning to apply the knowledge, reports are showing increased yields per hectare of lands where these bodies of knowledge are put into use.

We talk of the need to go a little further, improving on seed quality and irrigation. Efforts are already in place to promote all-year-round farming. We are starting that programme shortly. We are also planning ten lakes, or earth dams or small water harvesting scheme in every state. The idea is that we must harvest food all year round and not wait for the rainy season.

Chief Ogbeh’s spotlight of the trend of transporting food in large truckloads from the major markets in northern Nigeria to some neighbouring countries sounded to some as scaremongering. The practice has been on for years, but was glossed over by successive governments until Chief Ogbeh made bold to raise it publicly. Again, most commentators failed to see the opportunities embedded in his disclosures. What should have led to vibrant public discourse opened a floodgate of criticisms.

The support of the Federal Government, empowering the Central Bank of Nigeria to support the anchor borrowers’ programme did not seem to elicit any commendation. Yet, anchor borrowers’ programme took place with active involvement of Chief Ogbeh and participating states – notably Kebbi –took great advantage to increase paddy production, helping to narrow down the gap between production and consumption.

The time to grow food is here. And the minister has made a point that he will do the utmost to see this come to fruition.