Ending food importation

Prior to the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in a village called Oloibiri in present-day Bayelsa State, Nigeria was known for her agrarian economy. Agriculture was the major source of her foreign exchange earnings through the exportation of cash crops such as rubber from Delta State in the south-south region; groundnut, hide, and skin produced by the northern region; cocoa and coffee from the western region; and palm oil and kernels from the eastern region of the country.

However, Nigeria shifted her attention to crude oil production and abandoned agriculture. This turned the cash-crops exporting country to an importer. Nigeria has failed and finds it hard to feed its citizens.

It will be recalled that President Muhammad Buhari challenged farmers to go to farms and save lives so that Nigeria can produce what we need in sufficient quantity without having to import food. He added that Nigeria does not have money to import food.

Where did Nigeria get it wrong? Nigeria as a nation missed a step right from the time crude oil was discovered. The discovery has indeed done more damage than good to the agricultural sector. It is a pity that Nigeria is facing this challenge in this century which it did not experience about sixty years back. To tackle the challenge of depending on other countries for our food, Nigeria must return agriculture on her scale of preference as it was before independence.

Governments at federal, state, and local levels only pay lip service to agriculture, without pragmatic commitment to the sector. For instance, the Federal Government budgeted only 1.5 per cent in 2019 and 1.3 per cent in 2020 of its national budget to agriculture. The same thing applies to states and local governments. Budgets on agriculture are quite meager, and unfortunately many governments are not into the farming business, with the mindset that citizens alone could farm and feed the nation.

If each of the 774 local governments in Nigeria could produce twenty thousand metric tonnes of grains yearly with each of the 36 state governors harvesting 50,000 and the Federal Government a hundred thousand metric tonnes or more, then Nigeria would in the nearest time end food scarcity and begin exporting.

Furthermore, governments must digitize the farming system in Nigeria. The era of analogue farming systems is over. It is unfortunate that a lot of farmers carry out their farming activities with hoes and other implements used by our forefathers. We need up-to-date farming technologies, chemicals, and seeds. If Nigeria wants to grow agriculturally, then we must adopt the methods of farming being used in India, Thailand, Germany, Brazil, and China.

Another factor that needs to be dealt with in order to experience a bumper harvest in Nigeria is the farmer/herder incessant clashes. The clashes have inflicted injuries, loss of lives and properties worth millions of naira across many parts of the country. There have been cases of reprisals and communal clashes. These have retired thousands of farmers and rendered many vulnerable. Governments must protect farmers and herders as well as provide a lasting solution to the problem.

Farmers must be equipped with practical and theoretical knowledge of farming so as to maximise yields and lessen expenses. Nigerians must also change their perception on farming by seeing it as something that must be done. The government must also introduce price control of seeds and other farming necessities especially at this time of a global pandemic in order to cushion its impact on both farmers and consumers.

• Bilyaminu Kong-kol, Bayero University, Kano

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