Fired by government’s economic diversification rhetoric, Nigeria’s farmers are expanding operations for the 2016 planting season, even though the delay in the passage of the 2016 budget may have held up incentives expected from up above.
Owing to the crash of the crude oil market, the Federal Government is directing its focus on the non-oil sector, where agriculture takes centre stage.
The government now wants to invest hugely on food crops such as sorghum, maize, taro, yams, cassava, rice and millet, grown in the central and western areas of Nigeria, as well as cash crops like palm kernels, cotton, cocoa, rubber and groundnuts, grown in the east, west, mid-west and northern states of the country.
The government is backing this up with a promise to provide improved seedlings for farmers, distribute fertilisers at no cost to farmers ( similar to the e-wallet system of the immediate past administration), while also building ranches for cattle rearers.
There is also an expectation that agro and agro-allied exporters will get some incentives to enable them earn foreign exchange.
Local farmers seem to be responding to these, as the National Assembly passes the budget.
“What we have resolved to do is just continue with our plans and hope government catches up”, says Yomi Jemibewon, director at Cardinal Stone partners, a firm with investments in cassava in Kogi State.
“Currently, we have cultivated 100 hectares of cassava, and this year, we anticipate cultivation of 1,000 hectares at our plantation in Kogi State. The rains have come earlier than expected, so what we are doing is to change our cultivation plans to adapt to early rains, so that we can frontload as much as we can,” Jemibewon added.
Ismail Bukar, co-founder and head of operations, Caerphilly Farms in Abuja, told BusinessDay that his medium-sized poultry farm has invested N30 million since last year, having pumped in N6 million so far this year.
Many farmers have invested in tractors and other farm inputs to ensure they are not left out during peak demand season. Exporters of agro-allied products have also seen the need to ramp up operations to meet an anticipated agricultural export drive.
Abiodun Olorundenro, chief executive officer of Green Vine farms, told BusinessDay that he intends to employ irrigation as a backup plan to cushion the effect of the dry weather on his crops.
Olorundenro however lamented that using irrigation and the cost which comes with it will limit the extent of hectares he would be able to cultivate in this year’s planting.
Segun Adewunmi, National President of Nigeria Cassava Growers Association (NCGA), says the organisation aims to be able to generate N10 trillion for the country, through cassava in five years, if it is able to achieve its projected volume of cultivation.
“We are making all the efforts to ensure that Nigeria has cassava in two dimensions; cassava for food security, and cassava for industrial use, which is to have high starch content which can compete favourably in the international market,” Adewunmi said.
Big players in the agric sector, including multinationals and local companies, have kept on expanding without recourse to government.
Dangote Group is still ramping up investments in sugarcane-to-sugar value chain, as well as rice and tomatoes, among others.
PZ Wilmar has also kept on its expansion project in palm oil in Calabar and promises more investment in the backward integration project.
Tomato farmers have continued to produce, in spite of low government support in the form of storage facilities and fertilisers. Some manufacturers are on their own supporting micro and small scale farmers in the value chain.
“The Erisco Foods Revolution in tomato paste production will stop the annual wastages of over 75 percent of fresh tomatoes across Nigeria. Only recently, I was moved to tears when I saw a picture-story showing tons of tomatoes lying wasted in Katsina state because there was tomato glut in Katsina,” said Eric Umeofia, founder and CEO, Erisco Foods Limited, in Lagos.
This year’s food production will either consolidate or mar government’s efforts to boost supply, which improved by 20 million metric tons from 2011 to 2015 and has seen the country’s food import bill drop by more than half, to $5 billion from $11 billion two years earlier.
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) notes that traditional smallholders, who use simple techniques of production and the bush-fallow system of cultivation, account for around two-thirds of Nigeria’s total agricultural production.
The number of state farms is relatively small, and of decreasing importance. Subsistence food crops (mainly sorghum, maize, taro, yams, cassava, rice and millet) are grown in the central and western areas of Nigeria, and are traded largely outside the cash economy. Cash crops (mainly palm kernels, cotton, cocoa, rubber and groundnuts) are grown in the east, west, mid-west and northern states of the country.
“We have our own plans because we take maize as our own business, so, whether government exists or not, we will still do our own for the association, but we cannot totally use that (to make projections) because you don’t know what government is planning,” said Olatunji Adenola, president, Maize Association of Nigeria.
Bambo Ademiluyi, CEO of Quaint Agencies Limited, which cultivates farmlands in Ife, Osun state, still believes that policy is key in agriculture.
Ademiluyi said farmers have yet to get a clear sense of direction from the present administration on its agenda for agriculture. This he says, coupled with poor administration of the previous agricultural schemes, especially the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme, make it difficult for farmers to adequately take advantage of opportunities in the Agric sector.
According to Nev Tekura, DG, Benue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, there should now be a new paradigm targeting public-private partnership, if Nigeria is to make any headway in agricuture.
Caleb Ojewale
