Category: Agriculture

There was hardly a time in history when developing countries, particularly those in Africa, needed the (CGIAR) Consultative Group of Institutes of Agricultural Research which is about food security more than they do now. By the time global population stabilizes in the 2050s, and the Africa we want as enshrined in the African Union’s Agenda 2063, Africa will need 60% more food than is produced now, on a land base that is rapidly approaching its ecological limits. Much of the additional global food will be needed in Africa because the continent leads the pack with a population that is growing the fastest.

Aggravating this grim demographic scenario is the growing scourge of climate change – a brunt visited on Africa mainly due to activities from other continents. More than being fed, food and nutrition security entails the production and utilization of food with nutrients in the right balance.

But the challenge is not only about food and nutrition security. The agriculture sector must contribute much more to sustainable economic growth and development, and serve as a means of much more gainful employment. The size of the population in Africa is currently under 1.4 billion and 60% of these are under 25 years. However, the industrial and service sectors where the demand is for more knowledge rather than labor intensive workers, will not absorb most of Africa’s youth. Agriculture must do much, much more than it does now.

This is the cohort of research institutions that make up the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). In order to attain efficiency, the CGIAR has reinvented itself during many years of reform – trying to do better, what they do best. As the collective voice for research and development on the continent, in principle, FARA is delighted at the idea of the current reform which also implies the coalition of research centres in the context of the One CGIAR. Indeed, over the last couple of years, most of the Advance Research Institutes within the CGIAR cohort had celebrated their golden jubilee – singularly or collectively. These are over 50 years of meaningful contribution to livelihoods and national economies. These institutions very rapidly became the bastion of high-end agricultural research and innovation achievements on the continent as the results of the research generated from them helped to liberate people from the pangs of hunger, malnutrition and poverty.

Innovations around rice, cassava, aquaculture, ruminant livestock and poultry, fodder agronomy, pulses, dryland cereals, general agricultural practices, bioengineering and biofortification etc are some of the visible footprints of the CGIAR. These solutions would have been otherwise impossible in Africa without the support of these institutions conducting upstream science in agricultural research.

The outcome of these scientific interventions in the human development indices have been phenomenal.

In terms of human capital development and as a firsthand beneficiary of the CGIAR human capacity development plans myself, I was able to conduct high end research in four countries in the course of my doctoral studies. I had benefitted from the CGIAR at a time when significant emphasis was placed on developing the capacities of Africa and Africans to conduct the Africa-oriented science, and we did just that! That was almost three decades ago and still counting. There are certainly hundreds like me who have greater and better stories to tell and are making their strides courtesy of the benevolence of the CGIAR Training Programs for Africans. Let me be very clear here, that the CGIAR means well and very well at that, for Africa.

There has however been same misinformation conceptions and contraptions of the reform.
As the global dynamics within the economic topsy-turvy began to hit all spheres of the common man, the donor-dependent research and innovation in agriculture was bound to feel the heat. The thinking to rationalize the Centres with a view to optimizing resources was no longer farfetched as donor support was dwindling and the concept of ‘donor fatigue’ became alter ego. The donors dictate the pace, the show, and the reform!

Consequently, in the past two years, there has been a lot of discussion on sustainable models to support the much-taunted agricultural transformation on the continent. The investments in time and energy devoted to the good intentions behind the One CGIAR was enormous. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with reforms in themselves. They are the second chance to fix the odds. Therefore, for all the strong and good reasons, the reform was heralded with a lot of excitement.

Reactions to this change were as diverse as the interests that the various centres served, varying from outright withdrawal to aloofness, to wait-and-see and outright acceptance. It then appeared as though we have a lopsided game even as intentions were most sincere and noble. For example, in the grand scheme of thing, the Global South, by omission or commission is struggling to be seen. It should have been the case that the continent that deserves the highest attention of the outcomes of the One CGIAR should have been rigorously engaged on the methodology, processes and outcomes of the reform. This would have meant that all stakeholders are properly placed and paced as the reform unfolds the pathway and challenges en route are fully anticipated, leaving no one behind. In our opinion, the current call for a proper articulation for an African common position is non-negotiable and a pointer to the fact that there are issues demanding immediate answers. Judging by the optics and body language of the key actors, I believe that the intention to resolve the impasse is also there.

For the avoidance of doubt, an inclusive One CGIAR for Africa must change the game plan from One-CGIAR that consolidates all powers in the centre only to dole out governance instruments from the core, to one that must now empower African member institutions in all boldness, to confront the social ills of hunger, malnutrition and poverty on the continent.

It is time we got our acts together and take calculated steps. Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia and Cote d’Ivoire (host countries for IITA, ILRI, ICRAF and Africa Rice respectively) must now make themselves heard in no unmistaken terms, take the bull by the horn and push for the Equitable Vison of One CGIAR – one that is intrinsically inclusive with a bottom-up approach.

The succession plans in these institutions should not be the degrading of the governance mechanism that has been built over the past decades. For example, the replacement of the Boards of Trustees/Directors with defanged Centre Managers taking instructions and resources from outside Africa must now be revisited in the best interest of Africa! Africa deserves strong institutions – if the reform will not build, it should not break!
We have come of age in Africa. We have the capacity for institutional governance, human resource management and fiduciary matters. It will no longer be worthwhile for African institutions to be governed from Washington, Rome or Montpellier. The strong message is: Make African Institutions resilient by systematically strengthening them. This is the Equitable Vision for Africa.

Dr Yemi Akinbamijo, Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) based in Accra Ghana.

Though agriculture is a key economic activity, the sector is marked by food insecurity and few storage facilities. Experts say solving the problems will boost exports, DANIEL ESSIET reports.

GLOBALLY, a dynamic food production is a tool for sustainable economic development. It also helps to enhance access to food and nutrition products and services.

But this is not the case in Nigeria where about 40 per cent of food output, according to analysts, is wasted due to inadequate post-harvest facilities such as pack houses and refrigerated vans.

For example, avocados. Though the European market for avocados has continued to grow, the good’s export from Nigeria has continued to reduce. In 2020, according to the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI), the main suppliers from Africa – South Africa, Kenya and Morocco, East Africa – exported 148 million euros worth of avocados to Europe.

Painfully, while the aforementioned countries are smiling to the banks, Nigeria’s export of avocados, according to analysts, is yet to gather speed. No thanks to poor storage facilities. As a result, Nigeria is not among the suppliers to Europe. Over the years, its farmers have continued to record post-harvest losses.

The President, the Organisation for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa (OTACCWA), Alexander Isong, said the absence of cold chain infrastructure was a big challenge to exporters. Despite avocados belonging to the hottest categories in fresh produce and consumption growing worldwide, Isong agreed that Nigeria is facing supply chain challenges which contribute to driving up the farming costs.

Innovations, experts said, help avocados’ demand and that with high pressure processing (HPP)/cold pasteurisation, the fresh taste, which consumers, seek is retained.

Besides avocados, Isong said, banana farmers had not been able to increase their productivity and reduce wastage.This makes it difficult for them to gain the confidence to export. According to him, Nigeria has not been able to explore cold the chain market estimated at $300 billion because of the absence of well-developedw logistics, to stabilise fresh produce at source and increase quality throughout the supply chain.

The lack of the facilities, he explained, was the reason Nigeria was not doing well in the banana and avocado exports, in addition to the failure to comply with the top food handling standards for dispatch.

While the production and processing of perishable goods have increased, the cold chain sector potential, he noted,  has remained untapped due to lack of infrastructure and lapses in service by storage and transportation providers, thereby leading to inferior goods.

Since the food processing industry is critical, Isong stressed that focus should be on boosting cold chain infrastructure, which would, in turn, reduce wastages in the supply chain.

According to him, improving cold chain capacity would be a game-changer in boosting food processing investments, agri-exports, farmers’ incomes and building brands for the global market. This, he maintained, would help to create more jobs and ensure the availability of more value-added products.

For him, a dynamic cold chain structure that supports smooth transportation of temperature-sensitive products along a supply chain, through refrigerated packaging methods and logistical planning that protects the integrity of shipments, would boost growth.

He explained that the measure controls the temperature of the produce to avoid deterioration or decay.

Isong attributed over 50 per cent of post-harvest losses of perishable produce such as tomatoes, pepper, and onions to poor storage, transportation and handling.

He reiterated that access to cold chain was key to agribusinesses, stating that farmers should take advantage of the growing demand for fresh produce in domestic and international markets that require consistent quality, large volumes and high levels of food safety.

To develop Africa’s food value chain, he said Fairtrade Messe, an international exhibition specialist, in collaboration with OTACCWA, would host stakeholders in food production from Germany, and some African countries.

The seventh agro-food and plastprintpack exhibition and conference is scheduled for between March 22 and 24 at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Isong said: “The partnership with Fairtrade is a synergy of purpose because preservation, transportation and storage go hand in hand with agro-food and packaging, especially in an environment like Nigeria with large post-harvest losses.”

The Managing Director, Fairtrade Messe, Paul Maerz, wants to see more Nigerian export produce such as avocados and mangoes at European and Asian markets. To achieve this, he believes cold storage facilities should exist where export crops are grown. This is because such fresh produce has to be stored in the facility before they are released to the market.

According to Maerz, cold storage has become the most-sought after demand driver as the food industry positions itself as the game-changer.

Indeed, the food processing industry, he noted, is a large sub-sector in terms of production, growth, consumption, and export. But the cold chain sector, he added, would need to be upgraded to sustain increasing scale of production and processing. He emphasised  that Nigeria wasted a lot of its fruits and vegetables yearly due to weak cold chain infrastructure.

Of recent, many farmers and producers of crops for export have embraced the facilities and pack houses as demanded by the international market.

Maerz noted: “With 390 million euro in 2020, Nigeria is the second largest investor in food and packaging technology in Africa, behind Egypt, but well ahead of South Africa, Algeria, Morocco and other African countries.”

This is because Nigeria knows the importance of storing export crops in cold rooms to curb post-harvest losses, including avocados, mangoes, and various vegetables and herbs.

With Nigeria’s population growth forecast to rise from 206 million this year to 411 million in 2050, Maerz maintained that there was the need for sustainable investments in the agro food industry and urged many global cooling and logistics firms to step up their operations in the cold chain sector, given the government’s plan to boost the potential in agriculture through massive production of grains, vegetables, and fruits.

With the growing preference for healthy food and functional foods, he noted that manufacturers were expected to adopt new equipment to meet the demand for healthy functional foods and beverages.

Maerz identified packaging as key to addressing post-harvest losses.

”If you start packaging foods close to the farms, distribute same over the country or export them, they will not be wasted after harvest. It will translate to more food in the market, higher revenue for the farmers and more healthy food to the consumers,” he said.

To put the agric economy back on track, stakeholders have invested heavily to strengthen the food system, support production, improve processing, distribution and aggregation, and market opportunities.

Last year, agritech startup Releaf secured $4.2million to scale its food processing technology. Founded by Ikenna Nzewi and Uzoma Ayogu, Releaf focuses on value chains where smaller factories are set up near smallholder farmers. This allows them to get better processing yields and lesser logistics costs.

Recently, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) got 11 global innovators to partner 15 Nigerian firms to pilot cost-effective and climate-smart technologies to strengthen the country’s temperature-controlled logistics supply chain.

It was part of IFC’s award-winning TechEmerge programme, in partnership with African digital logistics platform Kobo360.

The Sustainable Cooling Innovation programme in Nigeria is funded by the United Kingdom Government’s International Climate Finance and offers a pool of $1 million in grants to support field-testing.The programme also provides advisory support to help innovators mitigate financial and operational risks, reduce adoption risks for local firms, and facilitate market-entry and tech transfer.

The innovators, which include four Nigerian firms, were selected by IFC, Kobo360, and TechEmerge’s independent advisory panel of cooling experts.The partners are from the agriculture, food and beverage, retail, refrigeration, engineering, and logistics sectors.

“Kobo360’s business mission is driven by ingenuity and innovation, and we are proud to be partnering these new TechEmerge participants to prove that temperature-controlled logistics can be affordable, energy-efficient and environmental-friendly too, while growing vital sectors of the economy and opening up new business opportunities across Africa,” said Kobo360’s founding partner/Head of Value Added Services, Ike Abiakam.

“Temperature-controlled logistics are vital to delivering perishable goods to markets and protecting sensitive vaccines and other pharmaceuticals. However, conventional technologies are often expensive, inefficient, and emit high amounts of greenhouse gas emissions,” said IFC’s Regional Director for Southern Africa and Nigeria, Kevin Njiraini.

“By supporting innovative private sector pilots, we can help pave the way for climate-smart cooling systems to be more accessible to the logistics sector in Nigeria and the region more broadly,” he added.

DANIEL ESSIET writes on efforts to mobilise private sector investment to boost agriculture.

The global food system, including Nigeria’s, would need to produce more to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and meet the Paris Agreement, according to the World Bank and other international agencies.

They estimate that the global population would hit nine billion by 2050, increasing the demand for food by 70 per cent and requiring at least $80 billion in yearly investments to meet this demand. In addition, global watchers maintain that an estimated 270 million smallholders across regions require $188 billion yearly to cover their agricultural needs, such as input or investments in mechanisation and $50 billion yearly to cover non-agricultural household-related expenses.

However, analysts still consider agriculture as one of the riskiest sectors for banks, which leads to insufficient allocation of capital to finance agricultural business models.

Consequently, this has resulted in increasing finance gap considering the additional capital required for the transition to more sustainable practices.

Since public funding alone is not enough to achieve SDGs goals by 2030, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is calling for a combination of public and private sector funding known as blended finance. The FAO Investment Centre is working with its partners in promoting private sector investment and seeing how blended finance can help small-scale farmers and agribusinesses.

To de-risk investments, donors are supporting commercial funders to assist local agricultural SMEs with goals that align with gender inclusion, food security, nutrition, and/or climate resilience goals in driving food production. Under a blended finance vehicle approach, they are investing in agricultural production and businesses along the agricultural supply chain.

Generally, blended finance combines public and private sector funds to achieve a specific social or environmental impact. In recent years, public and private investors have launched blended funds and facilities to finance – via debt or equity – private sector projects that deliver sustainable development impacts while also providing a positive return on investment.

Project Lead, Impact Investors’ Foundation (IIF),Maria Etemore Glover believes impact investment funds are fast becoming the vehicle of choice for governments and donors looking to invest in agriculture. She sees  development agencies and private sector investors working together to plug a stubborn agrifinance gap by investing in agricultural investment funds.

For analysts, blending public funding with private sector resources to de-risk some of these challenges is the best solution to finance sustainable agriculture at scale. For Nigeria agriculture to witness change, analysts believe the sector would require private sector and concessional funding.

As part of a plan to help increase investments in rural areas and the private sector overcome the challenges of investing in small-scale agriculture, donors and financial institutions are working to support rural small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which they believe, constitute an untapped business opportunity. Organisations such as IFAD fund private sector entities and invest in funds targeting rural SMEs and small-scale producers’ cooperatives. This enables them to fund many projects increasing poor rural peoples’ productive capacities, improving their benefits from market participation and promoting the use of climate-smart practices.

IFAD inaugurated the Agri-Business Capital (ABC) Fund to assist SMEs in developing countries. With a target of EUR200 million, it has announced a $60 million fund to de-risk investments of small loans in agriculture value chains in Africa. The IFAD investment was made possible with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) to mobilise about $240 million in private capital.

The ABC Fund is backed by investments from the European Union, the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), the Luxembourg Government, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and IFAD.

Launched in 2019, it is managed by Bamboo Capital Partners, in collaboration with Injaro and Agriterra, the fund’s mission is to provide capital and technical assistance to underserved agribusiness segments, while promoting sustainable and climate-resilient practices. The ABC Fund’s primary impact goal is to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in local agriculture and agribusiness value chains – particularly women and youths – while supporting the development of sustainable agricultural practices.

Since its founding, IFAD has been tasked with investing in rural people and helping them improves food security and nutrition while increasing their incomes. In the past decade, the international financial institution has repeatedly run into the same problem: a lack of financing to build the types of businesses that will help rural communities process their crops and link them to markets.

The ABC Fund, which will be managed independently, will provide loans of between $25,000 and $1 million to small businesses to address the “missing middle” of finance between microfinance and commercial loans. While IFAD’s mandate does not allow them to provide funding to the private sector, it is using its experience and other programmes to help identify a pipeline of investments and is funding a facility associated with the fund that will provide technical assistance or support to the small businesses to help them succeed. As part of its broader efforts to address rising hunger and poverty levels in the world’s poorest countries,

IFAD established its Private Sector Financing Programme to spearhead an increase in much-needed private investment in small and medium-sized enterprises, farmers’ organisations and financial intermediaries.

As part of its launch, the PFSP announced its first loan of US$5 million to a social impact enterprise, Babban Gona, working in Kaduna and other areas of the North.

Babban Gona is an agricultural enterprise co-owned by smallholder farmers. Its services include education and training in sustainable farming practices, provision of high quality affordable agricultural inputs, provision of storage facilities, as well as marketing and distribution support.

The loan will help Babban Gona support 377,000 small-scale rice and maize producers in the North with a package of training, quality input, and marketing. Babban Gona will also store and sell the harvest for its farmers when prices are higher. They aim to create up to 65,000 jobs for women and 66,500 jobs for youths by 2025.

By committing these funds, the PSFP aims to stimulate larger contributions from other investors and help Babban Gona meet its target to raise $150 million to reach millions of small producers.

Also, EDFI AgriFI, the EU-funded Agriculture Financing Initiative, has committed EUR 5 million to Babban Gona. Its investment is expected to bring in an additional EUR 15 million, put towards creating sustainable employment in agriculture for one million individuals by 2025.

The Babban Gona innovative business model has offered some 70,000 smallholder farmers to optimise their yields.

Through its support, AgriFI will contribute to the recruitment of 12,000 farmers; the cultivation of 10,000 additional ha, and the production of some 40,000 MT of maize yearly.

“We are very proud to back Babban Gona’s social business. Not only does the company support subsistence to commercial transition in rural Nigeria, it also seeks to leverage agribusiness to tackle insecurity in the country, rooted in entrenched levels of youth unemployment. AgriFI’s financing will support the expansion of Babban Gona’s innovative farmer service model that has proven to increase smallholders’ yield up to two times, and their income up to 2.5 times the national average,” explained EDFI AgriFI Manager Dimitry Van Raemdonck.

With EDFI AgriFI’s support, we can expand our reach to empower more individuals at the bottom of the pyramid and protect the legacy of future generations. We drive towards impact, hand-in-hand with EDFI AgriFI,” explained Babban Gona Managing Director, Kola Masha. Another organisation driving blended finance is AFEX, a commodity market.

Similarly, AFEX has launched a $100 million 10-year bond called the Food Security Fund (FSF) to produce three million metric tonnes of food yearly in Africa.

The fund will help to finance 250,000 hectares of land for commercial and smallholder farming across Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Ogun, Cross River and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Expectedly, a chunk of the funds will be allocated to constructing warehouses as Nigeria, according to the release, has the capacity to store only four per cent of its yearly grain production. It added that the restricted production has led to a 300,000 metric tonnes gap between demand and supply of seeds in addition to a 10 million metric tonnes gap in demand and supply of grains, thereby increasing food import costs, and declining capacity utilisation of processing plants.

The Chief Executive, AFEX, Ayodeji Balogun, said the launch of the FSF is another milestone as the commodity market charts its journey into building the infrastructure for the continent’s commodity sector.

He said: “Finance will always be a key component of that infrastructure and so we’re very excited to roll out this bond to deliver what will eventually be a decade’s worth of impact. One of our core missions is to help the continent feed itself and we deliberately aligned our company goals with the United Nations SDGs from the outset, in particular the first and second goals to end hunger and eliminate poverty.”

Also, the AFEX bond is expected to boost food security in Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.

Last month, AgDevCo, the specialist investor in early-stage African agribusinesses, announced a $90million funding from the CDC Group, Norfund and DFC which will allow firm to grow its investments in agriculture across Sub-Saharan Africa. This is in addition to its supplementary funding of about $5.4million from CDC, Norfund and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for its technical assistance facility.    Established in 2009, AgDevCo’s vision is a thriving commercial African agriculture sector that benefits people, economies, and the environment. The organisation contributes to this goal by providing investment capital and technical assistance to grow sustainable and impactful businesses across the agricultural value chain. In doing so, it aims to promote resilience, gender equality and the production of better-quality, more nutritious food.

The new funding builds on the original endowment funding provided by the UK government, which helped establish AgDevCo over the past decade.This endowment has provided capital to agribusinesses that have created or sustained more than 15,000 jobs and to work with 750,000 smallholder farmers to help increase their income and improve their resilience to climate change. It has also allowed AgDevCo to build a capability and track record to the point where it can secure external investment capital.

In welcoming the investment, AgDevCo’s founder and Chairman, Keith Palmer said: “Securing investment from CDC, Norfund and DFC is a major milestone in AgDevCo’s history. It is a strong endorsement of AgDevCo’s team and our strategy. We are excited that our vision is shared by our new funders, who recognise the important contribution that AgDevCo investments can make to productivity, sustainability, and inclusivity in Africa.Their funding marks the beginning of a partnership in which AgDevCo will use its sector specialism, drawing on our new funders’ networks and resources, to increase the number of impactful investments in African agriculture.”

United Kingdom Minister for Africa, Vicky Ford, said: “I am proud to see how AgDevCo’s investment has boosted sustainable agriculture across Sub-Saharan Africa over the past 10 years, including deepening impact on smallholder farmers and SMEs. This new investment will bring continued growth, by enabling agribusiness SMEs to expand, improve farmer incomes, create new jobs and strengthen climate resilience across Africa.’’

CDC Managing Director for Africa, Tenbite Ermias, said: “This investment reinforces our long-term commitment to investing in key sectors in Africa including agriculture, which is critical for creating jobs, promoting gender equality and supporting people to build a better life for themselves and their families. Furthermore, it reflects our continued focus on climate finance which is central to our new strategy over the next five-year period, to support emerging economies that are most vulnerable to the impacts of the climate emergency.”

Executive Vice President, Scalable Enterprises in Norfund, Ellen Cathrine Rasmussen, said:

“Norfund is very pleased to partner with AgDevCo to deliver on our joint mission: to create jobs and improve lives by investing in businesses that drive sustainable development. A thriving commercial African agriculture sector is vital for economic growth and job creation. More than half of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population work in agriculture, yet Africa does not produce enough food to feed the continent. The investment in AgDevCo will create jobs, increase food production, improve climate change resilience, and promote gender equality. The AgDevCo team’s skills, networks and achievements are impressive – and we look forward to working with them.”

DFC’s Vice President of External Affairs and Head of Global Gender Equity Initiatives, Algene Sajery, said: “DFC is thrilled to support AgDevCo with a $20 million loan to bring additional capital to smallholder farmers and agricultural businesses in Africa, promoting food security for lower-income communities across the continent. DFC’s loan, alongside financing from our partner DFIs, will enable AgDevCo to link more farmers to markets and create jobs for underserved populations, with a focus on women farmers.”

Aceli Africa, a market incentive facility is working to catalyse lending to agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Through its work, its hopes to address the region’s $65 billion yearly financing gap for agricultural SMEs. Aceli Africa’s goal is to improve the financial attractiveness of lending to agricultural SMEs by increasing the capital supply, providing technical assistance and generate data and learnings for policy changes benefitting agricultural SMEs. To de-risk investments, Aceli Africa assists local agricultural SME lenders by providing two to eight per cent of the qualifying loan amount ($25,000 to $1.5 million; aligned with gender inclusion, food security, nutrition, and/or climate resilience goals) into a reserve account, which can be drawn on to cover first losses of any qualifying loans across the local lender’s portfolio. Another blended finance vehicle is Africa Agriculture and Trade Investment Fund (AATIF, which through its investments, aims to increase food security, strengthen income among people employed in the agricultural sector, and strengthen the competitiveness of local agriculture businesses.

The fund, managed by DWS, provides direct financing to commercial farms, processing companies and cooperatives, and indirect investments to local financial institutions and large agricultural intermediaries on-lending to small and medium companies. The fund provides financing in the form of debt, mezzanine or equity to companies or financial institutions. A $6 million technical assistance facility provides technical support to beneficiaries, including for due diligence impact assessment and accounting.

Since its inception in 2011, the fund has disbursed $300 million to 19 investees and indirectly supported over 250 agri-businesses in 16 countries.

DANIEL ESSIET writes on the training anchored by the National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research (NIFFR) where other players in the sector also called for the revitalisation of the aquaculture industry.

There are increased efforts to reposition Nigeria as the regional hub of food production, agri-tech innovation and entrepreneurship development.

Agriculture stakeholders are discussing concerns as well as solutions to contribute the development of the country’s agriculture sector.

One of these is a partnership  among scientists, legislators, the fish farming community and entrepreneurs to further develop the  sector.

For the National Institute for Freshwater Fisheries Research (NIFFR), New Bussa, Niger State, aquaculture is  an area that should not be overlooked.

NIFFR has taken a lead role in implementing many initiatives, to expand aquaculture into an industry producing large volumes of products for export and home consumption.

For it, investment will be a vital contributor to the progress of the aquaculture industry and meeting the dietary needs of Nigerians.

It sees great potential for the development of modern fish farming.

To the institute, the rate of unemployment among Nigerians could be mitigated through fisheries and other aquatic resources. In furtherance of this, NIFFR is working on increasing fish production through the raising of fish in farms, creating a robust industry, including new jobs.

Consequently, the institute’s management supported by its Governing Board Chairman, Chief Mutiu Lawal-Are, organised seven sensitisation/empowerment programmes, a code of conduct training for fisheries in some states. It  also involved the re-stocking of four major water bodies with fish fingerlings.

One thousand Nigerians benefited. They include women, youths and fisheries officials and various communities in Kogi, Ogun and Lagos states. The goal was to unlock the potential of aquaculture  scienctifically and grow food security for the nation.

The major  facilitators  of the programme included  Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila; Chairman, Committee on Finance, House of Representatives, James Abiodun.

Faleke and Member Representing Lagos Island Federal Constituency II, House of Representatives,  Prince Moshood Kayode Akiolu.

Participants were exposed to training on best management practices, such as pond preparation and fish health management, to help ensure high survival rate and best quality produce.

The Speaker was represented by his senior legislative aide, Mr. Fuad Kayode Laguda, while  the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu,  was represented  by his Chief of Staff, Mr. Tayo Ayinde Akinmade.

Gbajabiamila charged the participants to make good use of what they learnt to reduce fish importation.

Are urged farmers to transform the freshwater fisheries sector.

Are, who was represented by the Acting Executive Director, NIFFR, Dr.  Stella Ovie, said the training was aimed at re-invigorating the sector to meet international standards.

The participants passed praised the agricultural support and job-creation policies of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, particularly the APPEALS initiative, stressing the need for the effective implementation of policies for the betterment of the unemployed citizens.

Similarly, participants and functionaries lauded the institute’s initiative in restocking rivers and water bodies with huge volumes of fish fingerlings, to rejuvenate and revive the comatose fisheries industries.

There were dignitaries and the facilitators from the National Assembly.

Participants were advised to develop entrepreneurship skills and utilise their starter packs as seed to key into the numerous aquaculture value chain business opportunities to start their own businesses as sources of sustainable income, personal employment and,  ultimately, employment for other Nigerians.

The Lagos State government is taking steps to increase students’ participation in agriculture to enhance agri-entrepreneurship, develop future agricultural leaders and boost job creation. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

THE outlook for the food and agriculture industry will be more important over the next 20 years as Lagos State shifts further into a more productive economy, thus making the involvement of youths in the sector with a twist of modern technology more imminent than ever.

Consequently, agriculture will have to expand and innovate along with the evolvement of consumer demands.

Under its Agropreneurs Programme, some programmes are being implemented to attract more youths into agriculture and a dedicated strategy and initiatives on smart farming has been introduced to help propel growth.

The state Commissioner for Agriculture, Ms Abisola Olusanya, said changing the narrative that the agriculture sector is a dirty industry is very important and it starts by exposing children to farming and gardening from a young age.To achieve this, there is a ground-breaking partnership with the private sector to revamp the agriculture curriculum and transform schools into assembling lines that can produce high-performing graduates and food producers.

In line with this, the government is connecting players, learning institutions, agriculture communities and the private sector to connect knowledge needed to boost the sector.

Speaking at a sensitisation meeting on the Lagos Agricultural Scholars’ Programme (LASP), Ms  Olusanya noted that young farmers were the future of the state agriculture and that the government recognises that their fresh ideas and approaches would help build a stronger, more innovative sector to meet future needs.

As the government works to build the talent pipeline for agricultural science, she noted that the government was determined to reach young people while they are in high school and to support teachers to develop skills necessary for integrating food and agricultural science into their classes and help guide the next generation of agricultural scientists and leaders.

To this effect, the commissioner, who was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr Hakeem Adeniji, said LASP was part of the programmes to develop and implement youth-in-agriculture initiatives and  improve employment opportunities in the sector.

Under LSAP, she explained that 158 agricultural projects comprising poultry, piggery, aquaculture and vegetable production were established in 150 public secondary schools, Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCOPED), Noforija, Epe, as well as in the Girls’ Correctional Centre, Idi-Araba, Surulere.

She added: “It is pertinent to inform this gathering that due to the skyrocketing cost of agricultural input for poultry, piggery and fish feed by 170 per cent was the major reason for focusing on new enterprise under the rebranded LASP programme.”

She continued that the approval of the governor had enabled the ministry to embark on new projects such as snailery, rabbitry, grasscutter and goat rearing enterprise under LASP.

The commissioner said the ministry has established 32 projects in more correction centres and selected public secondary schools located within education districts 1, 11 and VI.The projects, according to her, would be implemented as phase 1 in the early part of this year.

Other key activities, she mentioned, were training for Education Districts Desk Officers, Agricultural Science Teachers and Correction Centre instructors.

She said the Eko Schools Agricultural Comic, which was produced in collaboration with Corporate Farmers International (CFI) Limited, is a way of stimulating teaching of pupils and students in public primary and secondary schools.

The Director, Agricultural Services, Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs. Abiola Ayoade, explained that the programme was designed to enhance student learning outcomes.

She said the programme would students with experience in agriculture that could prepare them for their future careers.

As ageing farmers gradually exit the workforce, she noted that there was an urgent need to capture the interest of youths in agriculture to secure the future.

She said the state was determined to provide primary and secondary schools with agricultural input, train and empower students to change their mindset towards agriculture as a business and as an opportunity for job creation.

According to her, there have been series of engagements in supporting youth employment in agriculture initiatives.

Co-founder, Corporate Farmers International, Mr. Akin Alabi, said the partnership, was designed to provide students with relevant information about agriculture, its value chain and also to expose opportunities across the sector in the country.

He explained that the firm was providing a comic book series for children in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture.

He said a dedicated strategy as well as initiatives on smart farming has to be introduced to help attract and retain young farmers.

As farming shifts to technology, he said the sector must be revamped to attract the younger generation.

Eunisell Limited, West Africa’s largest company in speciality chemical and oil and gas solutions, said it remains committed to providing unique water treatment solutions that boost industrial productivity and growth.

It noted that through its consistent provision of water chemicals and services that meet precise customer specifications, deliver results and are backed with experienced technical capacity, Eunisell aids businesses and industries to thrive since 1996.

The company added that as a leading water inspection, verification, testing and solutions company, it helps manufacturing companies to reduce operational risks and redundancies, maximise efficiency and aid faster growth through its complete one-stop solutions including solvents and adequate technical support.

In a statement, the Managing Director, Chika Ikenga, said: “Various industries require unique water treatment solutions and expertise in different dimensions and Eunisell’s goal and approach is to enhance productivity and maximise efficiencies for all including in medical, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food and beverage processing, breweries and other industrial areas by offering unique solutions to each.

“Eunisell has been providing practical water treatment and other cleaning and hygiene solutions, including clarification, treatment, water process and wastewater. Our experts aid industries achieve cost-effective, efficient water treatment results.

READ ALSO: Buhari to launch Zobe water treatment plant

“Our focus is to support industries in developing a truly sustainable water management plan, not just an end-of-pipe solution.

“We have the technical expertise to provide effective mitigating strategies and innovative, practical solutions that reduce the environmental impact of operations, “he remarked.

According to him, Eunisell has developed a reputation as an organization with an exceptional understanding of water treatment, providing innovative and practical treatment solutions to mineral processing and industrial facilities.

“For over 27 years, our water treatment solutions range offer chemicals, solvents and services that are critical inputs in the manufacturing and production processes across industries. We are indeed regional leaders in water testing and solutions,” Ikenga noted.

Ikenga highlighted that Eunisell water treatment solutions also lead to the provision of clean and reusable water, environmental protection, disease control and a strengthened economy.

The Eunisell boss added that the firm’s experts rigorously conduct necessary procedures to ensure water treatment project is completed efficiently and affordably, including plant or site audit and recommendations, laboratory testing, pilot-scale testing, design and engineering of water treatment solutions, construction management and other technical support.

He explained that Eunisell’s approach was to continue with customers during and after project start-up to ensure operational excellence and provide modifications and calibrations as required.

The cocoa value chain is a multimillion-dollar industry. The demand for chocolate is encouraging countries to expand cocoa bean production.

However, the local cocoa industry has witnessed the decline in production in recent years. Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA), a six-year research programme of the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) funded by the UK government, has been working with researchers from University of Ibadan to enhance cocoa productivity, improve food security and farmers’ livelihoods. DANIEL ESSIET reports.

Cocoa is one of the most important cash crops in world. It has  an essential role in food security and sufficiency.

The demand for chocolate has grown rapidly, encouraging countries to expand and improve cocoa bean production.

The International Cocoa Organisation(ICCO) predicted that global could  reach five million metric tonnes by last year due to increased use of bean.

However, a one  million metric tonnes (MT) global cocoa shortage   was also predicted by Solidaridad, an international civil society, fostering sustainable supply chains. This is on the back of concerns about future supplies.

While this is good news for other producers such as Ghana and Ivory Coast, the situation in Nigeria remains of particular concern.

According to several data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS),cocoa production has dropped due to inadequate financing, lowyield per hectarage among others.

Nigeria once had a thriving cocoa sector. But over the years,other crops have taken over  its place as a main source of agricultural products.

Currently, the country’s current involvement in the cocoa-chocolate is limited despite many competitive advantages.

Apart from finance, Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA), a six-year research programme  study  on  the cocoa  production situation funded by the  UK government revealed   that production  was   limited due to low quality seedlings, inefficient farm-level processing techniques and limited access to  training for farmers.

The  cocoa producing states areCross River,Delta,Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Nassarawa, araba, Zamfara, wKogi,Benue,Ogun,Oyo,Ondo and Osun.

The study zeroed on the South West, specifically, Ondo, Ogun and Osun  considered the epicenter of the cocoa industry. It aims to generate high-quality evidence and policy-relevant insights on the pathways to cocoa commercialisation.

Over the  last  five years, APRA‘s Nigeria Work Stream 2 (WS2) team, has been working on  measures to  boost cocoa commercialisation. and raise farmers income through  research and policies advocacies.

In November,  the team gathered together in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, stakeholders in the cocoa value chain.

They included representatives of governmental agencies,  researchers,  discuss and receive feedback on their research.

Presenters included: the Principal Investigator/Country lead, APRA, Dr Adeola Olajide, Dr Kehinde Thomas and Dr Seun Olutayo.

In contrast to reported boom in demand, the researchers noted that there have been concern surrounding dwindling cocoa production  in the region, giving the outlook for the fundamental supply.

While the demand for cocoa was growing ,the team noted that the conditions and costs of producing cocoa in the Southwest make it not competitive compared to other countries that produce it.

Dr Adeola Olajide and her colleagues from University of Ibadan detailed their concerns in the study.

The  researchers noted  that the  cocoa sector would  have to be  revamped  in the face of  the  need for yield improvements and modernisation, if the crop is to  maintain  its role as a sustainable lifeline for a considerable portion of the  farming population across the region.

In her presentation, The Cocoa Commercialisation in Nigeria: Issues and Prospects, during the Dissemination Workshop in Ibadan,Dr  Olajide noted that the  farmers  were facing substantial  challenges  which  were affecting domestic production.

She  added that  in most communities visited  by the team in Ondo and Osun states,there were  no land for investors to  establish fresh cocoa plantations.

The study recorded  an interview about  the situation in Ile-Oluji town, Ondo State: “In the olden days, forest land was quite available for new entrants into cocoa farming, but nowadays all the land has been cultivated, at best what is possible here is the maintenance of already established cocoa farms and replanting of old trees. Land for fresh cocoa plantation now can only be found in forest reserves. “

The other issue, the visit revealed,  were increasing  number of  aging cocoa trees and soil fertility depletion reported in both states.

She noted that there remained a considerable work to be done in tackling issues driving  farners to  diversify from cocoa enterprises into activities such as palm oil processing, kolanut processing, logging, provision store sales, food vending and other petty trade activities.

Her words: “This shift is gradually displacing cocoa production in spite of the economic potentials the crop is known for over the years.”

Many of the farmers, she added, were in a downward spiral of poverty, with some ready to give up growing cocoa.

Urging the government to give serious attention towards galvanising the industry,  she posited   that the challenges of the farmers have not received enough responses as they continue to face setbacks,including supply of inputs.

She maintained that the development of the industry was of considerable importance to respond to the demand for high quality cocoa beans and derived products.

According to her, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), Key Informant Interview (KII), life story and diet diversity survey were adopted as data collection methods.

Information were collected  from all stakeholders,  including  producers, processors, marketers, input dealers, extension practitioners and researchers in Osun and Ondo states, due to their historical relevance in the cocoa sector.

A total of 72 FGD sessions were conducted for cocoa producers made up of adult males, adult females and youths across 24 communities.

As a globally strategic crop, a member of the team, Dr Kehinde Thomas,    noted that cocoa should be   a key target for expansion, modernisation and diversification .  This is because of the government plan to up non-oil contribution to economic growth.

According to Thomas,who is of the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, University of Ibadan, cocoa has an important part to play in achieving this and represent vast potential for growth.

He recalled   that the  cocoa value chain  progress took a downward trend since the era of crude oil discovery. Hence, Nigeria dropping  to the fourth position among cocoa producing nations of the world following lack of enough attention.

Thomas, who is Social Specialist Consultant,Ogun State Economic Transformation Project, noted that  inefficient agricultural operations have undermined productivity of the sector.

His words: “Some of the challenges serving as causal factors for the setback in the sector are ageing cocoa trees, reduced soil fertility, lack of credit and improved implements, reduction in forest frontier, illegal gold mining and logging among others.”

For him, the growing global demand in the cocoa-chocolate represents an opportunity for Nigeria to expand its presence in the industry.

Most of the study focused on the critical issues that needed to be addressed for cocoa farming families to thrive and be sustainable.  One of them was labour  which remains a crucial issue in the region.

Speaking on the impact of ‘strangers’ on cocoa production in  Osun, Ogun & Ondo states, Dr Seun Olutayo, who is of the Department of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Oyo State, posited that  the commercialisation of the crop  attracted migrants from neighbouring countries  such as Republic of Benin  and Togo.  She described migrants as the backbone of the cocoa economy in the Southwest.

“Many farm settlements have been playing home to these migrants. This is because many farm owners are old and their children are not interested and work demand on the farms is enormous.”

Since the children of the farmers were not interested in cocoa production, Dr Olutayo noted there were farm settlements with just strangers.

Her words: “Factually, most of the farm settlements have few native youths living on the farm. Youth populations working on numerous cocoa farm lands are migrants.”

Because of this, she added that migrants have become core part of the cocoa production chain in many farm in the South west. She said: “The older natives complained that the youth no longer cultivate cocoa and feared migrants might take their farmlands soon. A close observation at Olatiri revealed that there is no native on the farm settlement. The fear of the natives that strangers might take their lands has necessitated the policy of not selling farmland to strangers in many settlements.”  While migrants continue to contribute to the production of cocoa in south west they find it difficult to out rightly purchase land in many farm settlements.”

An issue she pointed out was the custom that forbids foreigners from owning farmlands.   “In Osun State, lands are not sold to migrants. Lands are leased to would-be users and an agreed royalty is paid at the end of the year, which could be in kind or cash. They are not allowed to own farm lands because they are ‘strangers’. It is difficult and impossible for ‘strangers ‘to own farmland even with money. They rather work as yearly labourers or share crops. The restraints in the local land law forbid strangers especially non-Yoruba to acquire land on the settlement.”

The case was however different in Ogun State. “In Ogun state, they are allowed to own farm lands and grown cocoa.  In Ondo State, they can   also own farm lands having worked for quite a number of years.

The Dean Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ibadan, Prof Stella Olusola Odebode said the study was critical to help draw investments in the cocoa industry.

She said, aside from infrastructure, there was need to cater to the postharvest and processing needs of farmers.

Strategic business in Nigeria often begins in the fields, where productivity is high, but predictability is low. Agricultural Supply Chains in Nigeria: From Farm to Market Efficiency by supply chain entrepreneur Jumoke Raji-Ayoola offers an unfiltered look into the structural breakdowns that keep agriculture underperforming. This book is not a theoretical abstraction or a donor-driven assessment. It is a clear, experience-backed playbook for solving one of Nigeria’s most critical economic puzzles: how food moves.

Where policy papers and donor report often stop at surface diagnosis, she goes further, exposing the hidden layers of disconnection that separate farms from markets, and producers from real income. From unreliable storage systems to inconsistent demand cycles, and poor infrastructure to chaotic middlemen networks, she paints a detailed picture of why agricultural wealth creation in Nigeria remains limited, and what must be done to shift the tide.

With a background that spans private sector logistics, field coordination, and value chain optimization, she writes from lived reality. She frames agriculture not as a romantic return to tradition, but as an enterprise in urgent need of structure. The tone is clear, the insight deep, and the solutions grounded in practice. This is not a book of complaints. It is a manual for change.

Rather than adopt imported models that don’t fit the Nigerian landscape, she builds a supply chain architecture rooted in the realities of local actors, informal traders, market women, community aggregators, and low-capacity cooperatives. She explores what it means to build systems where cold chains are rare, road networks are unstable, and market data is largely informal. Her framework includes route planning that adapts to seasonal disruptions, pricing strategies that reflect real-time logistics costs, and inventory models tailored to highly perishable produce.

She also takes on harder questions, how can we trust supply systems when institutions fail? How do you enforce quality without marginalizing smallholders? What does efficiency mean in a country where survival often takes precedence over scale?

This book is layered with practical tools, industry-specific breakdowns, and operational templates. It serves traders and technocrats alike. Whether you’re a logistics startup founder, state program manager, cooperative leader, or agricultural extension officer, the insights here aren’t just informative, they are usable.

She addresses the cultural and structural nuances that shape supply behavior. Nigeria’s food system is more than trucks and warehouses; it is a network built on relationships, perceptions, and longstanding trade customs. She didn’t ignore this; instead, she shows how those very dynamics can be reframed and restructured to support, rather than stall, progress.

“Supply chains are the silent infrastructure of development,” she writes. “If they don’t work, nothing else can.”

This work is already shaping how state governments think about agri-logistics hubs. It’s being used in boardrooms to assess last-mile delivery challenges, and in rural cooperatives to design aggregation models that don’t collapse under pressure. It has become part of the toolkit for those serious about food security, market access, and inclusive economic growth.

She doesn’t just tell us where the system fails, she shows how to rebuild it with clarity, equity, and efficiency at the core. Agricultural Supply Chains in Nigeria: From Farm to Market Efficiency is more than a book. It’s a logistics strategy, an economic intervention, and a leadership guide for Nigeria’s next generation of agricultural thinkers.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s exclusive interview with Channels Television means different things to different groups of people across the world. In the interview, the President revealed so many things that have a deepening impact on the country. While the politicians concentrated on Buhari’s take on his successor, the Igbo about Nnamdi Kanu, National Assembly members about new electoral law, the governors’ state police, my take as an ordinary Nigerian was the president’s take on the economy and agriculture in particular.

Many Nigerians were appalled by Buhari’s bold, blunt and no-barrel insistence that agriculture is the magic wand that will catapult the country to the dreamland – and Nigerians must go back to the farm to make that a reality. He added that his administration in the last six years has invested trillions into agriculture financing. And Nigerians must key into the project for the country to stand tall as an emerging world power.

Many think that the president is too obsessed with agriculture, that is he is herding everyone to the farm. The president wondered why only 2.5 percent of Nigeria’s arable land is being used for agricultural purposes. He told the Channels crew, “If we invest more in agriculture, people won’t be shouting of unemployment.”

He explained that “Now in Nigeria, we produce the rice we need and we even export,” adding that, “we have to exploit our capacities.”

President Buhari never hides his plans to make Nigeria self-sufficient in food production. On August 7, 2015, a few months into his administration, he reiterated this stance during a meeting with the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr Kanayo Nwanze, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The president said, “It’s time to go back to the land. We must face the reality that the petroleum we had depended on for so long will no longer suffice. We campaigned heavily on agriculture, and we are ready to assist as many want to go into agricultural ventures.”

It is an open secret that the president fulfilled that promise by investing hugely in agriculture through the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), superintended by Chief Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

What many Nigerians failed to do was to check how other countries with similar demographics as Nigeria’s are doing. For a start, it is an incontrovertible fact that the most populous nations on earth invest heavily in agriculture and deploy a larger percentage of their population to agriculture. Buhari is not saying anything new.

About 35 percent of China’s 1.41 billion population are directly involved in agriculture. This means that 490 million Chinese are involved in agriculture. The figure is higher for India, another superpower in terms of population. Over 58 percent of 1.39 billion Indians are directly involved in agriculture. By this, 738 million Indians are into farming.

We shouldn’t crucify Buhari when he repeatedly said: “But as I said, look at the vastness of Nigeria, only 2.4 percent of the arable land is being used. We realized it rather too late. We have to go back to the land.”

Many of the president’s critics are oblivious of the demographic projections which show that the Nigerian population might experience a constant increase in the next decades. By 2050, it is forecast that the population in Nigeria will double compared to 2019, reaching over 400 million people, according to the World Bank. Who will feed these huge numbers if we don’t go back to land as Buhari is advocating?

Even the most developed nations like America are engaging more of their citizens in agriculture. The percentage of Americans involved directly in agriculture was just 1.3 percent in 2020, but another 8-9 percent was involved in the value chain of agriculture. Even a world power with all the technology is engaging at least 10 percent of its population in agriculture, why should Nigeria fold its arms and watch?

Unlike his predecessors, Buhari’s obsession with agriculture is real, not rhetoric. The president matched his words with actions as can be seen from the unprecedented investments he has been doing in the last six years through the CBN’s ABP. These investments are bearing fruits as evidenced by the millions of poverty-stricken peasants who have now been economically empowered.

As part of the agricultural revolution, President Buhari would on Tuesday, January 18, 2022, unveil the world’s largest rice pyramid in Abuja. This is no small feat to the country.

Through ABP, the president had invested billions on ABP through the CBN on over 15 agriculture commodities. These commodities include maize, sorghum, millet, cassava, cocoa, rice, cotton, groundnuts, sugarcane, tree crops, legumes, tomato, to mention a few.

Before Buhari’s election in 2015, it was an open secret that Nigeria’s local rice (the country’s staple food) production was 1.5 mts /hectare. Courtesy of ABP now, the local rice production has soared to 5 mts/hectare.

The impact of these soaring figures of rice production can be seen from the number of large-scale integrated rice mills which had increased from less than 10 in 2015 to nearly 100, 400 medium-sized mills and over 200,000 small-scale mills across the country, providing millions of direct and indirect jobs.

In terms of farming alone, there were about 1.5 million rice farmers six years ago, but the number has snowballed into over 20 million now – all thanks to Buhari’s ABP.

In fiscal terms, before Buhari’s coming, the federal government spent huge money to stop rural-urban migration. Now ABP makes urban-rural migration cost-free.

ABP’s beneficiaries are traceable and verifiable. All the millions of farmers that benefitted from ABP can be traced through their genuine house addresses, NIN-registered mobile phone numbers, BVN, photographs, transaction history, among other incontrovertible data.

Before the introduction of ABP, the CBN was spending about $1.8 billion forex on rice import alone every year. This translates to about N747 billion in today’s official exchange rate of N415/$. By this, the CBN, courtesy ABP, is saving the trillions of naira that were hitherto expended as import bill. This is a breakthrough that even Buhari’s bitterest enemies are saluting him.

By foregoing, if not for anything, Nigeria was saved from the challenge of sourcing forex or devaluing our currency to finance this monstrous import bill.

Official data indicate that the ABP has added six million metric tons to rice supply in the country and created nearly six million direct jobs in a year; at the same time, about two million indirect jobs are created in a cropping season. Nigeria now has three cropping seasons in a year, all of them fully funded by the ABP loans.

These jobs are restricted to only the production side of the rice value chain and do not include millions of other jobs created in the processing, packaging, transportation, marketing sectors of the rice ecosystem. Not the least of which is the jobs and wealth created in the input supplies segment.

On the international scene, Buhari’s agricultural revolution has burnished the country’s image more than any diplomatic adventure so far. It was a source of pride for all Nigerians that in 2021 our country topped South Africa and Egypt – as Africa’s number One Rice producer, and emerged 29th on the list of Top 50 biggest contributors to the global GDP, leaving UAE, Norway, Israel, others behind.

Buhari’s obsession with agriculture saved Nigeria from food calamity, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic that shut the entire world. There would have been mass starvation and numerous deaths. Many experts were worried when the unprecedented horror of the COVID -19 pandemic permeated all contours of the world, leaving mass fatalities, which necessitated lockdown of borders and cessation of shipment of commodities and goods.

With Buhari’s foresight and political goodwill, however, Nigeria like other nations shut down its borders and banned rice importation. It was on record that despite the global lockdown, Nigeria was still feeding itself with the food produced by its farmers and even exporting to other African countries.

This is a milestone that Nigeria must sustain and improve upon. Imagine if we had relied on food imports, where would the 200 million Nigerians get food from when the entire world was on lockdown for nearly a year?

Through ABP, the CBN, also funded the supply of farm inputs that include fertilizer, herbicide, seeds, pesticides, among others.

As a result of the agricultural revolution championed by ABP, the farm inputs sub-sector in Nigeria has witnessed unprecedented growth. For instance, in fertilizer manufacturing alone, Nigeria has since achieved self-sufficiency.

From a mere three comatose blending plants in 2016, Nigeria now boasts of over 47 state-of-the-art fertilizer blending plants across the country. Fertilizer importation is now ancient history.

In the area of herbicides, Nigeria is better off now compared to 2015 before the ABP’s regime. The country has indigenous mega herbicide manufacturing companies that include Wacot, Candel, Jubaili, Saro, Marshal, among dozens of others.

Consequent to this major breakthrough is the creation of millions of herbicide distributors spread across the 36 states and 774 local governments of the federation and the FCT, serving farmers and creating wealth.

This brings to the fore the reasons why Nigerians must embrace President Buhari’s clarion call to embrace agriculture and return to the farm.

Abande wrote from Kano via aasiia@yahoo.com

Leading fast food outlets on the Island, Foodies has unveiled plans to open more outlets on the Island to reach out to their teeming customers as their patronage has swelled over the last few months.

The manager of the food brand located in Lekki, Lagos, Dele Adeniji made the revelation when the outlet hosted some journalists recently.

According to him, their patronage has increased tremendously over the last few months and thus necessitated expansion.

He said more and more people who have enjoyed their food and service have put in popular demands to open more stores across various prime locations on the Island.

According to him: “The brain behind our expansion effective this January, our Managing Director through the management has spoken and we are going to establish more outlets in spectacular places in Lagos.

“Aside from the fact that we have two outlets on Admiralty Way, in this 2022, we intend to have like two along Ajah Road, we are also planning to go to Ikoyi in Awolowo Road, and of course to the Mainland by opening a branch in G.R.A, Ikeja.

“Presently, we have our presence in Dubai, we have places we want to open in Abuja and that is one of the reasons the MD is still in Abuja now. We spoke yesterday and day before on branches coming up in Abuja, so the expansion rate is going to be massive. It is going to be impressive for Foodies this year as we are poised to be known in every nook and cranny of Lagos.”

When asked if their focus is basically on the Island, Adeniji posited that being on the Island has not prevented their brand from traveling to the Mainland as they have had various orders from the Mainland.

He explained: “People call from Ikorodu, some even call to ask for the address and we are on Admiralty Way, Lekki. I have one old woman who would always ask me to send moimoi to her in Festac and the cost of moimoi is just N400 minding the extra cost to transport it through Bolt to Festac.”

The manager also revealed they presently have two outlets on Admiralty Way in Lekki, Lagos, two in Dubai, UAE, while one is fully operational, the other is set to take off soon.

Speaking about the uniqueness of the Food Brand, the manager said Foodies is founded on the concept of healthy living rather than just food.

“Foodies is one of the most recent fast food places that is taking care of people in terms of meals they eat. We don’t only handle meals, we basically deal and we are more conscious about meals people consume these days, you know, these days it is not just to eat but eating rightly at the right time.

“Most of the meals that we prepare are meals that are good for the body not meals that will be an issue to your body after consuming it, and aside from the fact that we take care of meals you can see the environment, the environment is wow! Foodies is like a home away from home.

“We tend to give a wow experience to people that come around us. We do local, we do continental and intercontinental. When you talk about the local, people tend to come in and eat what they eat at home, it’s as if you are eating from your house,” he added.