Impacting National Agric Show On Farmers

Alhaji Adamu Damali is a small-scale rice farmer whose farmland is located in the fertile Kura Valley in Kano State.

Like most small-holder farmers in the country, Damali had faced several challenges, which hampered his dream of improving his rice production to earn increased income.

The farmers’ constraints included limited access to farming inputs, credit facilities and markets, inadequate storage facilities, uncontrolled rice importation as well as lack of processing facilities.

For farmers, who could not cope with the challenges, they abandoned rice farming in preference to other forms of businesses, in order to make ends meet.

For Damali, however, quitting the farm was not an option and so, he availed himself of the privilege of attending the annual National Agricultural Show (NAS), organised by the National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria (NAFN).

“For the past three years, I have been coming to Tudun Wada in Nasarawa State to participate in the show.

“Walahi, I have not regretted my decision to attend the shows; it has afforded me the opportunity to meet and interact with other rice farmers and processors across the country.

“Through NAS, I have now been able to procure de-husking and milling machines, which have helped me to improve rice production,’’ Damali says.

Not a few farmers in the country have expressed delight at the benefits derived from NAS, which the organizers say is an avenue to showcase the country’s rich and abundant agricultural potential.

Coordinator, NAFN, Dr Samuel Negedu, expatiated on the objectives of NAS.

“It is aimed at attracting global interest and investment in the development of Nigeria’s agricultural potential and opportunities.

“It will also promote public-private-partnership (PPP) in the agric sector, as well as encourage and attract the youth to the farms.”

Since the nation’s oil boom era of the 1970s, the agricultural sector of the economy has suffered a decline, to the extent that cash crops as rubber, cocoa, groundnut, cotton, palm oil, among others, which earned huge revenues for the country in the 1960s, have virtually vanished.

The neglect of the sector notwithstanding, economists say that agriculture still held a strong potential to become a major revenue earner for the country, provided that the required measures were put in place.

They point out that despite the fact that agriculture was practised mostly at the subsistence level in the country, it still managed to meet the staple food requirements of the nation’s population of over 140 million.

Official statistics indicate that the agricultural sector on its own provides employment to about 70 per cent of the nation’s active labour force, while also contributing about 40 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

For now, however, the sector accounts for only about six per cent of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina insists that Nigeria loses a whopping N1.6 trillion annually from the non-export of the agricultural produce Nigeria is noted for.

In his agricultural blueprint to the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Adesina said that if the old glory of agriculture was restored, such a lose could turn to the nation’s gain.

He bemoaned Nigeria’s annual import of one trillion naira worth of wheat, rice, sugar and fish, emphasizing that the country’s food imports grew at an unsustainable rate of 11 per cent annually.

“Nigeria is importing what it can produce,’’ he pointed out, warning that continued dependence on importation was detrimental to local farmers interests, just as it created unemployment.

“Import dependency is hurting Nigerian farmers, displacing local production and creating rising unemployment. It is not acceptable or sustainable fiscally, economically or politically,’’ he said

He further warned that any shock in the global markets would put Nigeria’s national security at risk.

Against this backdrop, it is salutary that government’s efforts are being complemented by private sector initiatives, such as NAS, to redress the unfortunate decline in the nation’s agriculture.

The 5th edition of NAS, which held between Oct. 12 and 15, therefore, afforded agricultural stakeholders the opportunity of exploring ways to further boost the nation’s agriculture.

With the theme — “Towards a Sustainable Agricultural Transformation” – the show held at Km 28, Abuja-Keffi road, Tudun Wada, Karu LGA, Nasarawa State.

President Goodluck Jonathan, in an address read on his behalf by Alhaji Bukar Tijani, Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, said his agenda on agriculture would boost the sector and ensure food security.

Specifically, he said that his government’s newly unveiled Agricultural Transformation Action Plan (ATAP) aimed to reduce poverty and ensure job and wealth creation.

He said that it was expected that in the next four years, 3.5 million new jobs would be created and an additional 300 billion naira income availed Nigerian farmers, besides expected savings of over 60 billion naira from high quality cassava flour substitution.

Jonathan said that an additional 20 million tonnes of food would also be available from the increased production of rice – two million tonnes; cassava – 17 million tonnes and sorghum – one million tonnes.

The president explained that ATAP would focus more on the value chains of prioritised commodities, to provide more incomes for farmers, processors and marketers.

Asuquo, writes for News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

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Archibong Asuquo