Editorial
One takeaway from the 2020 Wet Season Agricultural Performance Survey Report (APSR) submitted to the Federal Government is the announcement by Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Sabo Nanono, of government’s plan to support farmers with agricultural inputs and zero interest loans, as the dry season farming looms. Designed to mitigate the effect of COVID – 19, and the recent flooding, especially in Kebbi, Jigawa and Kano states, the package, according to the minister, is being pooled together by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial institutions.
Yet again, we see a plan that goes to the heart of the specific need of a sector that is typically ill-served under the nation’s financial architecture; an underlying bold thinking about the need to heavily subsidise a sector on which the nation’s overall well-being has come to largely depend; and the urgent imperative for a more holistic framework for agricultural finance. Whereas the plan merely adds to the bouquet of similar initiatives already in place, almost all of which are promoted by the CBN, it certainly takes nothing away from its soundness and relevance, particularly at a time like this.
Fact is, our farmers need all the help they can get, in quality and affordable inputs, and a sustainable financing framework shorn of the usual bureaucratic strictures, given the seasonal nature of their operations. Moreover, given the abundance of subsidies enjoyed by their counterparts elsewhere, not least some of the most developed countries of Europe, Asia and America, there is even greater case of subsidies to be made for our struggling farmers, whose operations have largely remained at basic subsistence level.
The truth of the matter is that the latest measure is not even nearly enough. Aside the traditional plagues in poor farming practices, the dearth of critical rural infrastructure like access roads and farm storage, both of which are responsible for a huge chunk of post-harvest losses, our farmers have now been forced to contend with such variants of insecurity as terrorism in the Northeast, waves of banditry and kidnapping, as well as incessant clashes between migrant herders and farmers in the Northwest, North-central and the Middle Belt – areas touted as the nation’s food basket.
Of late has been added the ravages of flooding across the nation’s vast floodplains – the consequence of climate change. The APSR aptly captures the elements when it recommends, among others, a definitive action plan to stem insecurity as well as enhance productivity through an effective input subsidisation blueprint; investment in climate-smart agriculture and the development of a strategy to strengthen agricultural extension activities.
We understand that the problem is hardly about the government’s understanding, let alone its appreciation, of the problem. As this newspaper is wont to say, none of the problems being presented is new. Whether it is the problem of access to credit or the humongous cost of it, the terrible state of rural roads which find correlates in the intolerably high post-harvest losses, the abysmally low agro-processing capacity, insecurity or even such natural disasters like flooding; none can be said to be new. The only difference is the magnitude of their manifestation, particularly now that the population is not only growing fast but at a pace which outstrips the rate of agricultural output.
In the circumstance, the latest plan by government comes basically to merely scratching the problems at the surface. What is sorely needed now is a smart, holistic strategy that integrates the disparate measures into a well-knit package that puts the needs of farmers at the main focus. It should seek to take drudgery out of farming while significantly boosting the incomes of the farming population to make the vocation attractive, particularly to youths.
Leave a Reply