Growing insecurity in many parts of Nigeria is causing serious economic disruptions as large amounts of food produced are lost because they cannot find way to the silos or the strategic grains reserves. This is contributing to hunger; just as the crisis reduces income as well as quantity of food produced in the country. DANIEL ESSIET reports.
Worsening insecurity in Nigeria is causing domestic food production to decline sharply. It has also damaged vast farming areas, displaced thousands of farmers and triggered a sharp increase in the cost of agricultural inputs.
In the Northern parts of Nigeria, especially in the huge food production belts, bandits have disrupted farmers’ efforts to carry out irrigation and livestock vaccination. They have also food shut supply routes, leading to increase in food prices. On the other hand, rural parts of the Northwest, usually food baskets for processing activities, have been under attack. The summation, according to analysts, is that insecurity has drastically eroded livelihoods and triggered widespread unemployment.
One of them is agribusiness stakeholder and coordinator, Agribusiness & Youth Empowerment of Community of Agricultural Stakeholders of Nigeria (CASON), Anga Sotonye. Sotonye is a victim of the rampaging activities of herders whose agribusiness venture has suffered losses to the tune of over N20 million. He said insecurity is the biggest threat facing agriculture and the food market, stressing that it could hamper the growing season if the trend goes on.
According to him, the situation has engendered worsening poverty and food insecurity, thus undoing decades of gains in ending hunger. He and other stakeholders are on the campaign for the government to develop a sector-led farming community’s safety plan, as community vigilance is no longer enough to help the situation. They emphasised the need for implementable initiatives to make farming safety a national priority and ensure a future of food security for Nigerians.
The knock-on effect
Ultimately, food security has been eroded due to the impact of banditry and the disruption of farming routes. Farmers, according to Sotonye, are cutting back on visits to farms. “We are having bandits invading our farms and denying farmers access to them. In most cases, farmers are abducted directly on their farms. As a farmer, I cannot visit most of my farms across the country because of insecurity. A lot of farmers are withdrawing from their farms.”
Sotonye stated that farmers have become targets for armed gangs, adding that the fear and terror instilled in them have driven the rural farmers off their land. The result is that the farmers cannot produce more grains such as maize in large quantities to fill silos, especially those located in the North.
Echoing similar concerns, National President of the Federation of Agricultural Commodity Association of Nigeria (FACAN), Dr Victor Iyama, believes the key to food security, sector growth and inclusivity lies in secure access to land. Iyama expressed concern that farmers were unable to defend themselves.
Role of silos
As the government continues to drive its self-sufficiency in food supply strategy, one area government has been working with the private sector to improve is stocking of grains. Standard silos provide grain storage, bagging and distribution services with capacities from 5.000 to 25.000 tonnes. The Chief Executive, Agriculture and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI) Ilorin, Kwara State, Dr. Olufemi Oladunni, told The Nation that protecting the national food stock through grain storage plants is critical if the federal government is to prevent any regression in the sector’s gains.
Since silo complexes were concessioned by the federal government in 2019, the facilities have not been working on full capacities to increase the total tonnes of grains in government’s reserve to 200,000 metric tonnes in the last two years. One of the major sources of worry, according to analysts, is that the country has not been able to meet the minimum 3.5 million tonnes of grains reserves required at any particular time, as stipulated by the United Nations. Observers have also concluded that drawing from the SGRs was an indication that food production challenges subsists in the country, a situation which calls into question the government’s claim of the country’s self-sufficiency in food production and security in recent times.
The Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission said commercialising the silo complex operations to the private sector will unlock N99.3 billion economic value. One time Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, initiated the concession in 2013, who felt the federal government did not have means to manage and maintain the 33 silo complexes.
His words: “Government does not have that kind of money to manage them. We, therefore, want the private sector to lease this huge storage infrastructure to improve their management, efficiency and profitability.”
After he left, his successor, Audu Ogbeh, announced the concession process on September 19, 2018. Ogbeh made the announcement after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval, disclosing that 33 silos with a capacity of 1,360,000 metric tonnes of grains are spread almost evenly through the geo-political zones of the country. Also, he added that the government will earn N6 billion in the 10-year period of the first instance.
The silo complexes, located across the country, included 100,000 Metric Tonnes (MT) capacity facility at Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State; 25,000mt facility in Ogoja, Cross River State; 25,000mt Akure, Ondo State; 25,000mt in Jos, Plateau State; 25,000mt in Sokoto; 25,000mt in Gaya, Kano State; 25,000mt in Bauchi; 25,000mt in Ikenne, Ogun State; 100,000mt in Kwali, Federal Capital Territory, and 100,000mt Bulasa, Kebbi State.
Others are 25,000mt in Igbariam, Anambra State; 25,000mt in Akwa Ibom State; 25,000mt in Ebonyi State; 25,000mt in Jahun, Jigawa State; 25,000mt in Kaduna; 25,000m in Makurdi, Benue State; 25,000mt in Gombe; 25,000mt in Ibadan, Oyo State; and 11,000mt in Lafiagi, Kwara State.
Agro Universal Consortium was awarded eight silos – Ado-Ekiti, Ogoja, Akure, Jos, Sokoto, Gaya, Bauchi and Ikenne; while Matrixville Consortium was awarded five – Kwali, Bulasa, Jahun, Kaduna and Lafiagi. Flour Mills got three – Makurdi, Gombe and Ibadan. Ebony Agro industries Ltd. was awarded Ezilo, Neon Farms Africa Consortium got Uyo, while Coscharis Farms was awarded the silo complex in Igbariam.
Adesina said the government wanted the private sector to manage and operate the silos across the country, as part of the ministry’s storage infrastructure under the Strategic Grains Reserves (SGR). On May 16, 2019, the silos were released to six agro allied companies: Agro Universal Consortium, Matrixville Nigeria Ltd, Flour Mills Limited, Ebony Agro Industries Ltd, Neon Farms Africa Consortium and Coscharis Farms Ltd, which won the bids, for the benefit of farmers and the nation. Flour Mills, Agro Universal Consortium and Matrixville Nigeria Ltd have been active in running silo complexes.
However, on the whole, most of the 33 silos across the country, with a total capacity of 1.3 million metric tonnes of grains, are empty or put into other uses. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the federal government ordered the release of 70,000 metric tonnes of grains from the SGR as a palliative to the vulnerable. What was left was insignificant to enable intervention in other industries that need help. It was far short of the needs of the people during the period. The Director, Strategic Grains Reserve at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Sule Haruna, said out of the 33 silos, the federal government had earmarked six for national reserve, adding that it was from these that the 70,000 metric tons was released to the vulnerable frontline states during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Insecurity impact on silos
Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Muhammad Abubakar, to release 40,000 metric tons of grains from the national Strategic Grains Reserves to be distributed among vulnerable Nigerians. According to the Minister, the President was shaken by the increasing food inflation in the country and sought for a way to cushion the effects on ordinary Nigerians who may not have the means to acquire the costly food items from the market.
But, according to the Director of SGR, the country’s food reserves had been reduced to only about 32,000 metric tonnes after the federal government ordered the release of 70,000 metric tonnes of grains from the SGR as palliatives to vulnerable Nigerians amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. He, however, insisted that the reserves had since been restocked to 90,000 metric tonnes and urged the government to hasten efforts at replenishing the food vault.
Despite massive investment by the federal government in building silos to boost food security, many of the facilities were not in active use. Analysts see this as an alarming consequence of the insecurity with a greater numbers of farmers driven away from the farms. Consequently, Nigeria faces a worsening food crisis as silos are empty of grains. In Ogun, the 45 silos have become moribund. In Oyo State, many of the silos located in farm settlements across the state are not in active, including those in Saki, Monatan, Ogbomoso and Iseyin.
Without safe farming communities, Oladunni noted that Nigeria will continue to see a rapid decline in the number of farmers; while it will also fail to attract new ones.
Without securing the farms and the supply chain, he maintained that there is no way the silos and the national grains reserve will be filled to strengthen the nation’s preparedness and resilience to future shocks. His words: “How can we take from the silos when people are not producing enough? If people cannot access the farms, how can they produce for the government to buy and store in the silos? Usually, government buys from the government to put in the silos.”
With increasing insecurity, former Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ibadan, Prof EmilOlorun Ambrose Aiyelari, reiterated that there was no way the silos will be overflowing with grains, expressing concerns about food shortages driving up prices. He maintained that most of the silos in the country are empty of grains caused by herders’ attack on farmers and low food production. “A month to harvest these people will just drive in their cows. Sometimes, they bring in 20 to 100 cows to walk over your farm. So it is a problem for farmers now. The silos will continue to be empty. The silos in Ibadan have been given to Flour Mills. They are using it to store their products. I don’t know how they are getting their grains.”
Aiyelari, a professor of Agriculture Engineering at the University of Ibadan, was of the opinion that the nation’s SGR was underperforming not only to prevent food shortages, but would also check inflationary pressures. One of the major effects of insecurity would be an incremental and growing dependence on imports of basic foodstuffs. But Iyama would not want this kind of situation. However, the situation has brought about sharply contrasting farming landscapes for farmers in the North and South. There are now a few farming areas in the North considered as safe havens. This means only a few states where there is semblance of security are where farming activities can take place; unlike in the past where virtually all the states were conducive for farming. To reduce the soaring food prices, Iyama urged the government to use areas considered as safe for farming. He suggested: “There are still some areas where insecurity is not so rife. We should encourage more people to go into farming in states where there is less threat of insecurity.”