In September 2016 ,at the thick of our harvesting season Archbishop OlubumiOkogie in a letter to President Mohammadu Buhari alerted the nation of the hunger in the land .That was obviously because prices of food stuffs had skyrocketed as inflation soars on the heels of the massive devaluation of the Naira and the partial deregulation of price of petrol earlier in the year .The two audacious and imperative policy changes as our oil wealth plummeted redefined inflationary trend, purchasing power ,cost of living and cost of foodstuffs. The general rise in price level dwarfed the bumper harvest we had in 2016 because of favourable weather and sufficient rainfall across the nation .The trend has not abated as price of foods and other essentials of living are on the increase as we wade through the recession reputed to be the worst in the past 25 years of our nationhood.
Other contributory factors to the hunger in the land are the upsurge in demand for food as we succeeded in subduing the insurgency in the North East freeing war victims to live their normal lives again ,the upsurge in disruptive pastoral herdsmen farmers clashes in the middle belt which would have hampered farmers’ productivity and output ,escalation in cost of imported inputs and rising cost of imported food such as wheat ,vegetable oil dairies etc. due to the depreciating currency .Hunger is defined as a condition in which a person, for a sustained period ,is unable to eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs. The hunger in the land in spite of bumper harvest is peculiar because it is driven by increasing cost of food production,diminishing purchasing power of the populace ,soaring inflation ,increasing cost of imported food and reduced supply as some of our foodstuffs especially grains are exported to neighbouring countries for scarce foreign exchange earnings and for extra- ordinary profits as our food is used to fill the supply gap orchestrated by poor harvest last year in Sehalian Northern border nations of Niger ,Chad,Sudan and Cameroon(North) which encountered mild drought in 2016 and famine .
The setting up by The Federal Executive Council of Food Security Inter-ministerial Task Force comprising of Ministers of Agriculture ,Finance and Water Resources to evaluate and proffer solutions to escalating prices of foodstuffs seven months after the alarm and at a period we ought to be enjoying stable food prices after the bumper harvest of 2016 is a welcome development. Their interim report identified escalation in transportation cost, cost of inputs and exportation of our agricultural produce as the main cause of rising food prices. The timing of the Inter-ministerial committee assignment is very apt as we are preparing for commencement of the 2017 planting season and passage of the 2017 budget by the National Assembly .The exceptional growth of agriculture GDP in 2016 by 4.03% at a time the nation’s economy grew by a dismal 1.5% and had been in recession in the past three quarters is a pointer to the sector we must focus on for the economy to grow again .The Inter -Ministerial Committee should unveil how prepared we are for 2017 planting season and what the government is doing to ease doing agribusiness in Nigeria which should be a major fulcrum for diversification of the economy . Some of the issues to be addressed should include what we are doing to clear new land for farming .Availability of the tractors to harrow, plough and plant the seeds. Where to access the seed treatment chemicals, fertilizer and herbicides for this year’s cropping season. What our research stations and universities of agriculture are doing to generate new knowledge and production innovations to increase our farmers’ productivity and income .The availability of well trained and equipped Agricultural Extension workers to take improved seeds, seedlings and cultural practices to farmers for improved productivity. What the government is doing to support farmers to harvest, transport, process and store their produce. The Inter-Ministerial Committee should be able to evaluate our strategic grains reserves program and how we are using the mechanism to stabilize prices, make food prices affordable, ,ensure farmers earn reasonable income and promote national food security .We need to have a distinct task force to focus on process of easing doing agribusiness in Nigeria as the sector is pivotal for our economic recovery and growth.
With our unique location in African continent we ought to be self-sufficient in food production and be the food basket of Sub-Saharan Africa providing food security for the sub-continent .We can only achieve this laudable goal by spending more on agriculture at the three tiers of government .The budgets in most States and Local governments of Nigeria are only meant for recurrent expenditures .The Federal Government is only spending about 1.04 per cent of 2017 budget on agriculture .The good news this year is the plan to spend 90.9 per cent of the agriculture budget on capital projects .We are heavily lagging behind African nations declaratory normative budgetary spending target of 10percent which the nations all agreed would enable the agricultural sector to grow at over 6percent per annum for the continent to attain food security and self-sufficiency .What we are spending now is bound to limit our capacity to grow at the desirable rate for the sector to play its traditional role in our economic development .
The vital take away from the recession we are going through is the huge multiplier effect it has on food prices which had literally doubled in the last one year and the devastating effects it is having on the wellbeing of the citizens across the income strata with more debilitating impact on the poor. The prevailing situation is a foretaste of the danger the economy faces when oil would not be available to generate the petrol dollars to fund our food imports. We need to spend more on agriculture to build critical agricultural infrastructure (like irrigation facilities, rural roads, silos for storage ,food processing facilities etc. ) ,create innovative funding of the various components of the agricultural value chain ,develop the quality human capital needed to manage the sector, evolve new set of incentives for emergence of a new generation of educated agro entrepreneurs to replace our aging farmers .We must evolve smart ways to support our agriculture as practiced by nations that attained self-sufficiency in food production and still maintains food security which is essential for inclusive economic development.
Bolade Agbola
An Executive Director with Cashcraft Securities is the Author of Agricultural Finance -A Practical Guide For Lenders And Entrepreneurs, writes from Lagos
