TEMITOPE MUSOWO writes on a new concept of reducing rural poverty in the
face of worrisome rapidly increasing population of the country, without
proportionate increase in food production, due to the current threat to food
security across the country, resulting from the incessant herders/farmers’
clash
Discovery of oil
It
is no longer news that before the discovery of oil at Oloibiri, Bayelsa in
1956, agriculture was the mainstay of Nigerian economy. But after the discovery
of oil, the groundnut pyramid in the northern part of the country, cocoa
plantation in the West and palm oil in the South parts, respectively, once
boasted of now exist in our history book.
Focus
on oil as the major source of revenue to the Nigerian government, took
attention away from the agricultural sector. And to make things worse for the
country, there is a gradual shift away from oil all over the world, probably to
mitigate the effects of climate change. What this means is that a new reality
confronting the world had set in- attention is gradually shifting from oil to
renewable sources of energy. Of course, this accounts for the dwindling oil
price at the international market, even when there were rise in oil price as is
the case now, the federal revenue accruing through sales from oil do not really
trickle down to the grassroots, hence the pervasive rural poverty.
Pervasive rural poverty
On
the sudden realisation that building national economy based on oil revenue in
this century would not guarantee a sustainable economy, the renewed effort
towards the agricultural sector which cannot produce immediate result, because
revamping our moribund cocoa industries, our oil mills, textile industries and
other agricultural industries would not happen overnight, becomes necessary.
Feeding 195 million Nigerians and looming hunger
According
to the latest United Nations estimate as at Wednesday, July 4, 2018, the
current population of Nigeria is 195,851,811, making it 2.57 percent of the
total world population.
It
is very worrisome that as the country’s population increases rapidly, there is
no proportionate increase in food production. As a matter of fact, there are
indications that food production in Nigeria is certainly nose diving.
Unfortunately,
most Nigerian farmers merely engage in subsistent farming to provide food for
their families while very little is made available for sale in the market. This
corroborates the fact that majority of these people who engage in farming in
Nigeria don’t have access to modern implement.
Local farmers’ challenge
These
local farmers who still rely on their crude implements are largely dependent
upon to feed both the rural and urban population. This is made worse by the
large number of young farmers who are fast migrating to the urban centres in
search of greener pasture leaving the aged farmers with hoes and cutlasses on the
farm to feed the nation.
Unlike
in the past, farmers today are confronted with sudden collapse of government
services such as input supply, credit provision and purchase of output, little
intervention from government to support these local farmers through the Bank of
Agriculture, Bank of Industries and other programmes end up in the hand of
political farmers who do not have even a garden in their backyard, little
wonder government’s claims on agricultural supports and interventions do not
add up.
Frequent farmers/ herdsmen clash threat to food security
More
worrisome is the new challenge the nation has to grapple with- the frequent
clash between farmers and herdsmen, which has made many farmers left their farm
land. This is experienced particularly in Benue state which is regarded as the
Food Basket of the nation, other agrarian communities in the country are not
also spared in the herders’ attacks. These are clear threat to food security,
foster by the dry Lake Chad region and the Boko Haram insurgency in the North
East, the horizon is fast becoming ominous.
Combating rural poverty through agriculture
Agriculture
in Nigeria has a potential to contribute to poverty reduction and economic
development. Agriculture contributes up to 20 percent of Nigerian total GDP. In
1990, it was speculated that about 82 million hectares out of Nigerian’s total
land area of 91 million hectares were found to be arable, and merely 42 percent
of this was farmed, this depict the agricultural potential of the country.
However,
growth in the agricultural sector has persistently been lower than the levels
required to reduce poverty significantly and to improve the livelihoods as well
as living standards of the majority of the population.
Over
60 percent of Nigerian population still live in the rural areas and depend on
agriculture for their livelihoods. However, for agriculture to become a tool
for economic development, a revolution in smallholder productivity is
necessary.
Majority
of Nigerian farmers are smallholders who cultivate less than three acres of
land, these people are faced with numerous challenges, ranging from poor land
tenure system, lack of modern implements, lack of credit facilities, inadequate
farm inputs, improved seedling to lack of access to market among other
challenges.
Any
government or organisation keen on reducing rural poverty must focus on
agriculture and how to combat these challenges confronting the smallholder
farmers who form a larger percentage of the agricultural sector.
‘’Agricultural
Development is a panacea to reducing rural poverty, any rural development
programme that undermines the importance of agriculture is a programme designed
to fail, the rural community thrive on agriculture as a major occupation and to
develop the rural community you have to give adequate attention to agricultural
development
The major are
the rural community can feel the presence of government is through agricultural
development, the rural dwellers suffer so much neglect in the hand of government
particularly in Nigeria since the discovery of oil which has shifted the
attention of government away from agriculture and unless we go back to
agriculture there cannot be any meaningful development in the country’’, Dr.
Fadairo maintained.
Developing agriculture via innovation platform
However,
having established the fact that majority of Nigerian farmers are smallholders
who are confronted with challenges which still impede their production and
economic growth, it is appropriate at this juncture to point out that one of
the ways to resolving these challenges is through the innovation platform.
But
the question is: What is an innovation platform?
An
innovation platform is a group of individuals with different backgrounds and
interests: farmers, agricultural input suppliers, traders, food processors,
researchers, government officials, among others, who come together to identify
a common problem, proffer solution to them, develop a common vision and find
ways to achieving their goals.
Problem solving approach
The
problem solving approach brings all the stakeholders in the value chain
together on a platform, the smallholder producers under their farmers
association/groups, the lead buyers/off takers, processors, exporters, input
suppliers, financial institutions and all others who are involve in a
particular agricultural value chain.
It
is a business platform through which stakeholders come together to plan ahead
of the planting season, production are done base on market specifications, the
farmers and buyers dialogue through pre- season meeting and find out the need
in the produce market which will enable them know the input required, the
quality/variety and quantity to produce, the financial requirement and so on,
all these based on market specification.
At
the end of the planting season, all the farmer producer groups bring together
their produce through their farmers association and sell to the big buyers
collectively.
Unnecessary cost
This
model saves the farmers of unnecessary cost of transport, storage, looking for
buyers all around, it also saves the buyers, processors, off-takers the
overhead cost of looking for produce from individual farmers around as well.
It
is pertinent to note that this is an approach developed to improve agricultural
productivity and as well improve the income of the farmers through improved
market opportunities and increased value addition.
Improved access to markets and information
This
will ultimately result to increased incomes of the smallholder producers. The
benefits will primarily result to: improved access to markets and
information; reduced transaction costs, reduced post-harvest losses, enhanced
food safety, improved product quality and increased producer (farm gate)
prices, increased output and productivity, and improved economies of scale
among other benefits.
Of
course, all stakeholders and governments must do the needful to reduce rural
poverty.
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