This was the theme of the recent Senator Bola Tinubu’s 8th colloquium held in Abuja, where experts from different countries analysed various of potentials available in the Nigeria agricultural sector, JOHN OBA, reports.
Agriculture, no doubt, is one of the major focuses of the present administration in its planned economic diversification and revenue generation, but just like many promises of several governments in the past, it has always been talk and no action, making the theme of the colloquium apt and timely.
Experts in their various lectures bare their minds on how the government can key in and maximize the potential of agriculture as a major economic catalyst that would turn around the whole country earnings.
The CEO of Eleni LLC, Dr. Eleni Zaude Gabre Madhin, who gave the first lecture on “Toward a Vibrant Commodity Exchange in Nigeria,” said commodity exchange of agricultural products would lead to economic transformation as farmers’ livelihoods will be improved, as there will be better production and productivity, quality food security, good export performance, leading to agro-Industrial processing and better tax administration.
And the catalytic impact includes; provision of storage facilities, good logistics, quality management, investment in good transport system, packaging, training services, market intelligence, data services and higher education.
She further said the performance of the exchange would be the engagement of 350 members, 15,000 clients, 2.4 million farmers direct, over 20 million farmers indirect, $1.5 billion trading value annually; 600,000 metric tons, 17 warehouse sites/ 55 warehouses, 1million SMS subscribers; 60,000 telephone data call-ins per month, over 120 rural electronic displays, and like Ethiopia, it will be one of the only next day payment clearing exchange in Africa.
Asking what it will take Nigeria to achieve this, she said, political will, private buy-in and right design are the only way of achieving this.
On her part, presenting a lecture on “The Extent and Cost of the Value Chain challenges,” the co-founder and COO, 5th Harvest Limited, Dr. Fatima Wushishi, said Nigeria all it weather and environment attribute, the county can be a major producer, processor and exporter of agri-produce.
She stated further that unfavorable and unsustainable government policies that promoted a slowdown in the industry, and stakeholder abandonment of Agriculture from the 1960’s onwards for the more lucrative oil sector were some of the reason agriculture in Nigeria is retarded.
She said: “Lack of adequate collateral for loans, low insurance utilization, unsustainable and ineffective government policies, poor management expertise and ineffective dissemination of information,” as part of the challenges the sector is faced with.
She said food losses in Nigeria annually are in the region of one trillion naira.
Speaking on financing agriculture which has been one of the major bone of contention the CEO TAK Group of Companies, Dr. Valentine Nwandu, it is hard but not impossible to secure financing if a farmer has credible off-takers with a history of paying.
“Similarly, with the off-take, processing and trading (downstream) sections of the value chain, banks would also finance you provided; again you have credible off-takers with a history of paying on me. This sectors position is even stronger because the at least have stock which could also serve as additional collateral.
He said the most difficult section to finance in the value chain is the middle section where you have primarily the farmers.
“Why? This section of the value chain is highly fragmented, widely geographically dispersed, are found mostly in the rural areas, generally they are poor, unbanked and likely to be operating outside of the formal economy. Finding a commercial bank to effectively and profitably serve this group is near impossible. Not surprisingly, only development institutions attempt it.
As this group make up a very large, if not the majority of our population, successive governments feel obliged to address their need, as any responsible government should.
As a result, government programmes like Green revolution, Feed the Nation to NIRSAL and GESS emerged. In tackling these challenges, governments are ultimately drawn the into areas they have no business being such as purchasing and distributing fertilizers,” he said.
He therefore suggested that government should strict its actions to being an enabler saying investment decisions are delayed pending policy moves because of the roles government has been playing.
He therefore spent time taking the audience through innovative Agric Value Chain Financing Model that requires government as an enabler and the private sector as the driver.
Giving the facts about poultry products in what he themed: “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: A narrative of Nigeria’s poultry industry in numbers” the CEO, Farm Limited, Dr. Lanre Carew, said Nigeria have to critically look at the cost drivers of poultry production and aim to increase efficiency, this according to him, will increase the competitiveness of Nigeria’s poultry with the benefits of multiplier effects across the economy.
“An integrated approach to strengthen the critical poultry supply chain with the aim of making the poultry industry access inputs such as maize at between N35000 and N40000 per metric ton and Soya at between N70000 and N75000 per metric ton. This will drive down the cost of poultry production by 50%, which will then make local production more competitive than smuggled poultry
“The following routes can take us to the desired results, Implement clustered and integrated farming/agricultural farm estates to drive benefits of economics of scale- ( Supply+Production+Processing).
Support land clearing and mechanization of agricultural farm estates; use technology as a lever to attract the youth to poultry production…the youth have a peculiar penchant for fostering innovation.” he explained.
He further stated that the issues of high input cost of poultry farming can be resolved with a high level of commitment and focus on the right things within the agricultural value chain.
More of the discussion at the colloquium centers on what actions to be taken in different sub-section of the agriculture that will be bring revolution if properly implemented yet the work to be done will only be commensurate with the level of political will on the side of the present administration to ensure that all that were said are not just talking with no walking, as this will be likened to motion without movement for the sector.
