It is commendable that the Federal Government has initiated a novel plan that targets creating about five million jobs for farmers through the €995 million agricultural mechanisation programme. The objective of the intervention programme is to boost food production and security in Nigeria. Under the initiative, equipment, comprising tractors and other agricultural machinery, are expected to be leased out to Nigerian farmers for a fee through an in-kind facility for agric mechanisation. The in-kind facility is designed to help Nigeria attain food security, create jobs, 35 million nutritional effects, diversify the economy and make it less dependent on oil. The programme will be privately managed in a competitive manner, according to its Senior Special Assistant, Dr. Andrew Kwasari.
The machines expected from Brazil will render services, ranging from land preparation to harvest and storage and will be provided timely on demand to all farmers as part of the moves to enhance productivity of smallholder farmers that don’t need to own tractors and implements. Besides, about 142 agro processing facilities will be situated across all the senatorial districts in the country for increased farm outputs on the back of the 632 primary production supporting service centres in the respective local government areas in the states.
Also, on job creation, training and technological skill transfer, the programme is said to be tailor-made to cater for the needs of private operators of the service centres, farmers, extension workers, regulatory and research institutions, among others. Overall, it is expected that in three years time, Nigeria is expected to be food secured for the various plant and livestock-related commodities identified to be supported by the programme across the states.
It is good news for Nigeria that this programme is part of the government’s strategic plan to boost farmers’ contribution to the nation’s food supply chain and increase the Gross Domestic Product, which is currently at 1.87 per cent, not enough to ramp up any significant growth. Nonetheless, we urge for effective implementation of the programme. It has come against the backdrop of the recent advise to governments by three global bodies, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to map out measures to ensure border restrictions arising from the C0VID-19 pandemic do not disrupt the food supply chain. The heads of the three world bodies had, in April, in a joint release, said, “when acting to protect the health and well-being of their citizens, countries should ensure that any trade-related measures do not disrupt the food supply chain.”
This advice should be taken very seriously. As the three global bodies cautioned, these disruptions, which include hampering the movement of agricultural and food industry workers and extending border delays for food containers result in the spoilage of perishables and increasing food waste. We agree that now is the time for the federal and state governments to collaborate and enhance food security and improve the general welfare of the people as provided in Section 14(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which places high premium on the welfare and security of the people above others things. Since the pandemic has upended many economies across the globe, government’s response should be unflinching, and should not create unwarranted shortages of essential items that could worsen the already high poverty, unemployment and hunger in the country.
More than ever before, now is the time for government to design programmes that will give priority to the development of agriculture and other plans that will diversify the economy. For this to happen, we advise that budgetary allocations for agriculture and agro-processing industries should be increased substantially. Until now, government had not paid sufficient attention to the issue of food security, healthcare and the diversification of the economy. Our near-total dependence on oil revenue at the detriment of other sources of revenue is hurting the economy terribly with the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, which has seen the crash of oil prices in the international market, resulting in the review of the 2020 budget. Prior to the outbreak of the virus, many Nigerians were already living below $1 per day. The situation is even worse now, as the latest report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that about 82.9 million Nigerians are in the poverty trap. Altogether, government should ensure that the €955m in-kind programme is properly utilised and implemented by ensuring that all senatorial districts in the country benefit from it. It should not end up like previous lofty programmes that showed so much promise but ended up delivering little. If properly implemented, it will be a leap into providing the much-needed solutions to the challenges of unemployment and food insecurity, among other problems. For the farmers who are the target recipients, it will have a multiplier effects on their capacity to play pivotal role in the nation’s food supply chain. We believe that other enablers such as soft loans, tax waivers and other incentives will ensure the success of the programme.