By Steve Agbota
BEFORE the invasion of Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State by Fulani herdsmen early this year, Ndayakoh Ahmadu Alechenu, was one of the leading farmers in his community. Working with his three wives and 14 children over the years, he has been able to build a five-bedroom bungalow in his native home of Agatu where he lived with his family. Before the tragedy that befell him came, five of his children have also passed out of secondary school, while Ahmedu his second son and Aminatu, the third daughter, graduated from the university last year.
Since he was not educated, he had set the target of training all his children wishing to acquire higher education with his farming business.
Alechenu, 57, through diligence and commitment to his vast farmland where he grew yams, sweet potatoes, oranges and other cash crops sold to merchants from cities across the country, was highly respected in his community.
But early this year, however, things turned awry when in the dead of the night, while he and his family were sleeping after a hard day’s toil at the farm, a band of Fulani herdsmen invaded his community and burnt his house, his Toyota Hilux pickup van and other valuables he had laboured for over the years.
Worst still, three of his younger children were among over 300 killed by the rampaging herdsmen although he, his wives and other children were lucky to escape alive. But the problem now is that Alechenu’s family like other Agatu farming households do not feel safe again in their homes and farm for fear the attackers may return some day.
Today they are also numbered among the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the country and the hope of contributing to Nigeria’s food safety initiative is gone for now.
Alechenu’s story is similar to what had befallen most farmers in the North East, South East and the North Central states where Boko Haram insurgents and Fulani herdsmen are dislodging, raping and killing farm hands and in the process threatening the nation’s food safety programmes.
Food is by all means the most important need of man. The lack of it or threats to its availability has also been at the root of social conflict, strife and social disharmony. For Nigerian, the threat to food security had never been so pronounced and worrisome at any other time than now when insurgency, militancy and diseases are staring farmers in the face.
But those at home with Nigeria’s economic history from independence in 1960 are blaming successive governments for neglecting the agricultural sector despite its huge potentials. It therefore came as a relief last year when the Muhammadu Buhari administration announced it would tackle the menace headlong through appropriate policies. Hopes were raised that at least, the Maputo declaration would be implemented in Buhari’s first annual budget. That declaration by Heads of African governments in 2003 was that, at least, 10 percent of annual budgets should be deployed to agricultural investments to boost food production.
But a cursory look at countries’ compliance with Maputo declaration of 2003 shows that Nigeria has only attained 1.66 percent, Ethiopia 10 percent, Niger 10 percent, Mali 10 percent, Malawi 10 percent, Burkina Faso 10 percent, Senegal 10 percent, and Guinea 10 percent.
But despite his promises, the threat of food insecurity still haunts the country’s teeming populace. At present, Nigeria’s food inflation appears to be the highest contributor to headline figures announced by the National Bureau of Statistics. Many also believe the current food challenges seem to have been further compounded by the negligence of government, the adoption of neo-liberal economic policies such as trade liberalisation, naira devaluation and withdrawal of government from economic activities, ethnic and religious conflicts, disasters, as well as pests like the recent Tuta Absoluta known as Tomato Ebola ravaging tomato and other farm produce, climate change and lack of irrigation.
Only last week, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) warned that the prevailing extreme weather conditions in the country could worsen food supplies in the months ahead unless the Federal Government stepped up efforts at implementing right climatic and economic policies to mitigate the foreseen danger.
For the first time in over three decades, Nigeria is going through the worst food crisis with most staple or essential foods and fruits suddenly becoming scarce. Some of the affected foods badly affected and whose prices have now become exhorbitant are; tomatoes, rice, beans, garri, wheat, onions, pepper, oranges, carrots.
Director General of Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Dr. Anthony Anuforom, warned at a lecture at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, where he spoke on, “The Impact of Extreme Weather Events on Food Security in Nigeria”, that extreme weather conditions in the country, especially drought, heat waves, and flood were posing a serious threat to food security at both the household, community, regional and national levels.
He said the threat was the result of the high vulnerability of agricultural production to weather variabilities, while regretting that man’s quest for food security has continued to be hampered by extreme weather events.
“The good news, however, is that the impact of extreme weather events on food security in Nigeria can be managed through climate change adaptation policies and appropriate economic framework by government,” Anuforom added. But the question many have been asking is whether Nigerian authorities are taking the right steps beyond the usual rhythmics.
Beyond government’s recent acknowledgement that the menace of Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram insurgency and sometimes flooding and drought have contributed to food insecurity in Nigeria, threat to the attainment of food security also comes from the unresolved issue of the safety of genetically modified foods made possible through agricultural biotechnology. Biotechnology represents a scientific advance in agriculture with far reaching potentials for increasing food production in an environmentally sustainable manner.
Agricultural biotechnology includes using genetics to modify crops and plants to produce more nutritious foods, cloning of livestock, tissue culture technique and genetic engineering. Besides its potential to produce higher yields, biotechnology gives shorter gestation and maturity periods to crops, plants and livestock as well as will continue to use biotechnology to produce genetically modified foods.
Nigeria has immense agricultural potential with 84 million hectares of arable land with 40 per cent currently being cultivated. It also has 263 billion cubic meters of water with two of the largest rivers in Africa. But despite having a cheap labour force that supports agricultural diversification, Nigeria still spends a whopping $20 billion on food imports, when it should be the food basket for other nations.
Furthermore, the country’s failure to invest in agro processing infrastructure has worsened its food crisis leading to massive import of grains and processed commodities.
Sadly today, a basket of tomato now sells for N11,000 as against N3,600 as three states in the North, Kaduna, Kano and Kastina lost N5 billion between February and May 2016 due to Tomato Ebola. So far, prices of pepper, beans, vegetable, onions, melon, wheat and fish have continued to soar and a bag of rice, which sold for N9,000, now sells for 19,000 in the market.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, in a live TV programme accused the dreaded insurgent group, Boko Haram, for the ongoing scarcity of tomato in the country. He said farmers producing the commodity have been forced to quit the North East due to the high level of insecurity in the region, stressing that the price of tomato today is a direct result of the fact that Nigeria has lost two years’ harvest to Boko Haram insurgency.
But some stakeholders have disagreed with the Minister’s claims, pointing out that the problem cannot be attributed to Boko Haram alone. They argued that the present administration should take part of the blame with its lack of plans and focus on this menace and its inability to support farmers as well, which has been responsible for food drought in the country. Others agreed with the Minister that people that are supposed to be in the farm have now been displaced by Boko Haram and are now refugees at various camps across the country.
Meanwhile, the onslaught of Fulani herdsmen attacking farmers and destroying farmlands in Enugu, Ekiti, Oyo, Ondo, Benue and Taraba states, where many farmers were killed and raped, has been described as a deadly threat to food security in the country.
Speaking with Daily Sun recently, Director of Arog Bio Allied Agro Services Limited, Dr. Aroge Temitope, whose farm was destroyed by Fulani herdsmen in Ekiti State, noted that in addressing food insecurity, government intervention programme should go as planned and that the delayed national budget should not be an excuse to delay intervention in agricultural sector.
He explained that agriculture sector is weather dependent since rain and sun as natural phenomena would not know if government passed its budget in April or May.
He insists government’s intervention should realise these phenomena and try to isolate agricultural spending and intervention so that the country will not just be stuck because budget was not passed.
Besides the rampaging herdsmen, he said in the North, there is aggressive threat with the Sahara Desert encroachment, which is pushing Fulani herdsmen down to the South because the cattle prefer to have locations with water and grass, adding that cattle rustling by Boko Haram and other criminals both within the Hausas and Nigerians together with the unfavourable weather conditions are moving cattle down to the South resulting in continuous fight between farmers in the South and cattle herdsmen.
He added: “As a farmer in the South, the cattle herdsmen keep on invading my farm on regular basis and destroying my crops worth millions of naira. They destroyed and ate up our cassava, maize and everything in sight and anytime they are caught, they will only say sorry and come back to the farm again.
He said farmers expect the Federal Government and respective state governments to be more proactive in respect of response to farmers’ plight and destruction of farm produce like what is happening in the tomato sub-sector.