The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this month that Nigeria is likely to experience famine in January 2017. The Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, (ARCN), Prof. Baba Abubakar, disclosed that Nigeria is the largest importer of US hard red and white wheat worth N635 billion annually; world’s number 2 importer of rice at N356 billion; N217 billion on sugar and N97 billion on fish.
Our agriculture value chain does not work to its full potential, why?
Below are extracts from an interview given in September 2016 by Alhaji Hassan Buhari, who is the Zamfara state chairman of Cotton Farmers Association and National Secretary of National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN). It provides a bit of what is missing and what needs to be done to bridge the gap in agricultural output.
No seeds….
“Most of the organizations responsible for providing farmers with quality seeds, including private and government establishments, have failed woefully in this direction.”
“This is because a cotton farmer can easily be discouraged if he fails to get good seeds. A cotton farmer wants seeds that will guarantee high yield, not seeds that cannot give good harvest with an attendant consequence of loss.”
No Marketing Boards…
“For example, since the dissolution of Marketing Board, there is no particular cotton market in the state where a farmer can take his cotton to be graded to ascertain its quality. In those days, cotton used to be graded and rated A, B, C and D according to its quality. If this is done, a farmer will get value for his produce. This is because any contaminated cotton will be rejected right from there.”
No Post harvest processing
“In Zamfara, we have about 15 ginneries and only four are working because of the unavailability of cotton in the market and most of these ginneries have laid off their workers. Each ginnery is bound to employ about 200 workers.”
No Agricultural Subsidies…
“Financial interventions by the federal government for the farmers are not forth coming”..
“Our farmers have joined this CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme and were asked to open bank accounts but nothing was done about it. I receive phone call calls from these farmers asking about the development every day. Delay in this intervention is discouraging the farmers,”
Rural to Urban Drift
“Before the creation of Zamfara State, cotton business was booming. But after the creation of the state many big cotton dealers abandoned the business for politics and contracts. A cotton dealer will prefer to close his ginnery and go for contracts. Not because the cotton business is not a money spinner but they consider contracts as more juicy.”
Imports
“Our citizens preferred to buy those imported items because they were cheaper and not because they are of higher quality.”
Poor Power Supply
“Another problem is inadequate power supply and this had seriously affected our production. For instance, up to the time we closed, we were paying N15 million electricity bill monthly. We have three 2000KVA capacity generators and getting the diesel at cheaper rate was not easy at that time. Each of the generators was consuming 680 litres per hour.”
Summary
Overall lots of great points. what is needed is to formally sit down and address these issues holistically…some issues highlighted fall to the Min of Finance, some to Ministry of Trade, others are Power supply, etc
So we need to get out a plan to implement to action, less talk, more action
Read more at http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/business/-why-cotton-farming-is-in-decline-ginneries-shutting-down-in-zamfara/163667.html#37cs0kgZTd3Usk65.99
(Photo Credit: Royal Times)
