Dr. Samira Amellal

In a year when the World Food Programme has been rightfully recognised in receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, the state of global food security is in the spotlight this World Food Day more than ever. For Africa and Asia in particular, the critical needs and challenges driving this renewed awareness are sadly only growing.

As if 2020 hadn’t delivered enough heartbreak and grief, a barrel-full more made its way to Africa and Asia in July – and marked a troubling ‘tipping point’ for the two continents’ collective efforts to deliver a safe, affordable and nutritious supply of food to those who need it most.

This particular unwelcomed arrival came in the form of new data detailing each region’s food supply resiliency (or lack thereof) and toll taken on the populations of both. While the two continents regularly rank “1” and “2” globally in all the wrong categories on this front, the recently released United Nations (UN) annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World only reaffirmed that positioning.

According to the report, the largest number of undernourished people (381 million) resides in Asia. However, Africa is actually growing in this category at the fastest rate and currently ranked second with 250 million.

The impact of COVID-19 has only exacerbated the larger landscape and challenges for the two. The UN estimates that an unimaginable three billion people cannot afford a healthy diet – and in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, this holds true for more than half of the population.

Tragically, the youth of the two regions are suffering in particular. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently noted that an additional 6.7 million children under the age of five could suffer from wasting (a form of malnutrition) resulting from socio-economic fallout attributable to the pandemic. Among these young children, 80% would be from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Beyond the ‘red flag’ metrics, it’s also been a tough year on the ground for the men and women who grow the nutritious food on which both continents’ populations depend. Africa and Asia’s smallholder farmers have had to contend with unprecedented swarms of locusts that have laid waste to tens of thousands of hectares of crops and vegetation. East Africa has felt the brunt of this, while growers in India and Pakistan continue to do their best to cope as well.

The locust swarms are only the latest invasive pests that farmers in Africa and Asia have faced in the field. The Fall Armyworm has had and continues to have a devastating effect on crop production in both parts of the world since first entering Africa in 2016 and then Asia two years later. According to 2018 estimates, Africa is losing over 17 million tons of corn annually due to this particular invasive pest. Meanwhile, over US$880 million in annual losses are being realized by Southeast Asia farmers and through related corn import costs alone.

Adding insult to injury, impact from climate change, including an increased prevalence of droughts and floods in both regions, is wreaking havoc with farmers’ ability to grow food – and in turn, their livelihood. As challenging as these weather events are, there’s strong evidence they’re only going to worsen. A McKinsey report released just last month noted that Asia is particularly vulnerable and suggested the region could experience labor shortages resulting in mind-boggling economic losses of up to US$4.7 trillion annually.

Posing further threats to Africa and Asia food production are ongoing trade-restrictive developments taking place beyond the borders and control of both regions entirely.

Particularly worrisome is a movement within the European Parliament promoting the idea that no other country’s farmers should use pesticides that are restricted or banned in the European Union – and using this idea to object to trade-facilitating Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) set by the UN’s World Health Organization / Food and Agriculture Organization (WHO/FAO) Codex Alimentarius for pesticides not available in Europe. This would effectively close off the European market to millions of farmers in Africa and Asia, threaten their livelihood, and make an already challenging task for these growers driving food security in the two continents that much tougher.

By objecting to these international standards, it threatens to take effective and regulated pesticides out of the hands of African and Asian farmers. Pesticides, along with quality seeds and fertilizers, are critically important agricultural inputs which these growers depend on to grow a variety of crops. In addition to driving trade, the crops grown in the two regions help provide the critical supply of affordable, nutritious food that is already in great peril. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), smallholder farmers produce up to 80% of the food consumed in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

The reality is that pesticides and plant biotechnology have a role to play in enabling and empowering farmers in Africa, Asia and around the world to grow more food and realize better lives. Biotech crops are developed with improved traits such as increased yield, improved resistance to pests, and enhanced nutrition, among others. Meanwhile, pesticides are helping farmers produce more food on less land. Without pesticides, an estimated 40% of global rice and corn harvests could be lost every year while losses for fruits and vegetables could be as high as 50-90%.

While these plant science technologies are crucially important, they’re only part of the shared solution needed. In the midst of these challenging times and indeed a food security ‘tipping point’ for Africa and Asia, it’s important to remember: only a collaborative effort among stakeholders across the food value chain will turn the tide in addressing hunger, malnutrition, undernutrition, wasting and a host of other unacceptable outcomes that are plaguing the populations of the two continents.

In that spirit, an encouraging step forward was realized earlier this month when the leads for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and CropLife International, the global voice for the crop protection and plant biotechnology industry, jointly signed a Letter of Intent to explore new partnerships.

This will allow the two to consider how best to work together in promoting rural development and transforming agri-food systems – and at a time when we desperately need more collaboration among the private, public and civil society sectors, this sends a strong signal that it’s completely possible.

For Africa and Asia, this World Food Day presents an opportunity for groups up and down the food value chains of the two continents to recommit to engaging in impactful partnerships that help strengthen food supply resiliency, and working together with regional governments to provide sustainable and shared solutions. The stakes are simply too high to not act now.

The food security ‘tipping point’ for the two continents is at hand. While 2020 will be remembered for a slew of reasons we’d like to forget, let’s work to ensure it’s also the year food and agriculture stakeholders in Africa and Asia came together like never before in a collaborative spirit for a common cause.

Amellal is Director General / CEO Executive Director CropLife Africa Middle East CropLife Asia

Chief Executive Officer, Titan Multibusiness Investment Limited (Parent company of Titan Farms that processes Titan Rice), Gbenga Eyiolawi, speaks with Omolara Akintoye on how agro business has thrived with despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the risks involved in the business and how government can assist agro farmers. Excerpts:

What has changed about Agro business with COVID-19 ?

Agro-commodity and Agro business has thrived well during and with the presence of the pandemic as every human must eat to stay alive.

During the pandemic, people could do without school, religious centres, entertainment but food? No way! Even when all other sectors were closed, food markets still opened occasionally because closing that would be worse than COVID itself.

As a tech- based business, we are able to work efficiently during the pandemic by coordinating distribution via a digital outlet straight to the doors of our customers by working together with logistics companies. This synergy and collaboration is made possible due to the presence of COVID which made us and agro allied businesses realize that we cannot work in solitary.

What does agro business entails?

When we talk of agribusiness, it has to do with everything involved in the production, processing and distribution of farm supplies. In summary, from seedling up till the point where the final consumer buys them is referred to as agribusiness. Our area of specialisation is basically rice processing and distribution. This involves the steps from the paddy purchase through processing, transportation and then distribution to wholesalers and retailers.

What gives you an edge over other competitors?

One of our major edge is the quality of rice we produce is 100% organic with no chemical input and outstanding in terms of taste and neatness (stone free), not sticky and rises so well. Titan rice is easily affordable and available in the locations we have covered so far.

What are your plans for consumers as the Yuletide draws near?

Our plans are basically to reward our existing customers with discounts and incentives in form of products depending on the volume they have purchased from us and to encourage new customers to patronize more.

This is also dependent on the volume they purchase from us. We also have our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects where we intend to bring together the less privileged during the festive period. This way, we can ensure more people are covered under our adopted feeding program for orphanages and adult homes.

What are the risks involved in agro business and how do you intend overcoming the challenges involved?

Like every other business, we take risks every day. But, as much as possible, we take calculated risks but even at that, we mitigate our risks as all our aspects of our business is insured by a reputable insurance company.

By breaking monopolies, most of those in rice production business in large scales before us met favourable government incentives like tax relief, provision of land and funding of machineries. For new entrants, this is a challenge as we are still looking forward to the government to open more opportunities to us.

How can government assist agro farmers?

To be fair, the ban on importation on rice is a big boost to all of us in the industry as that is what brought most of us into the industry, I would say a big thank you to President Muhammad Buhari. In addition, there is a paddy aggregation scheme funding opportunity by the CBN for rice processing and trading companies. So, I will say they have done super well to encourage us to push even harder. That is not to say everything is perfect.

Our government can do better by ensuring the security agencies on the road understand the difference between local rice and foreign Rice and not clamp unnecessarily on innocent Nigerian rice traders moving their merchandise from one part of the country to another, hence leading to delays in the transport of goods.

Government can also help by providing more resources to farmers so they can expand and increase their output gradually.

There is also need for state governments to work more on promoting the growth of rice especially in the south so we can have rice at good prices around the country, not just by going to the North.

Some state governments in the south set up rice processing plants but the question is where are the farms in that state supplying them paddy? Little wonder some of these plants are redundant or at best, have low production output. The way forward on this is for us to have massive rice farms across the country, in places where the land can grow rice.

Government should also help by ensuring it is easy for good processed foods to get export licenses. Presently, it is a tough one. Even when your product is good, it is not easy.

Another challenge is NAFDAC registration. This is a major problem for most agribusiness as the process is too slow and we all know no supermarket will buy or display products that do not have NAFDAC number, neither can such products be exported.

What are your reasons for venturing into agro farming?

Growing up, one thing made the house dull and that is my mum’s mood. She is a hardworking woman who does everything to make her children comfortable. There is only one thing that can switch her mood to the off mode and that is when we are almost out of foodstuff, especially rice.

Even if we have other foodstuff and we are almost of out stock for rice, she would react as though there is no food at all at home. I bet this is applicable to most homes. Even when paying school fees was very hard, she ensured food was always available.

At some point in her life she ventured into food processing and made a name for herself. All the while, I was in real estate trying to make a name for myself.

One day at a family gathering my brothers and I with our mom started telling our wives our growing up story. Our wives shared similar stories of theirs that same happened with them. Then it clicked in me that this is it! Something people would never do without even if they have nothing.

But the challenge remains how can I make life better for the people than it was for us, growing up? That was when I started my research about rice processing and trading and how I can cut costs to ensure my products are of very high quality, yet affordable.

That journey cost me close to 12 months of research and development. Today, I can boldly say Titan Rice is the most affordable rice of its quality in the market. So we give premium products at affordable prices that the masses can afford.

The formula is simple: can someone on the minimum wage afford any size of our product without regretting the effect of the purchase on his/her purse?

Today, we have achieved that to the point where people ask where we get our paddy that we are able to sell our products this low, yet retain the quality.

What is your advice for youths interested in agro farming?

For youths interested in agri-business, I would tell them to sit down and think back so as to discover a product they can work on with passion, not just for the money.

Then they can go for trainings in all aspect of agriculture business like supply chain, processing, marketing and distribution. However, this takes time and effort and cannot be achieved in a short period of time so if they intend to do agribusiness, patience is key.

Today, Titan Farms started from a passionate story of my childhood experience with food and today I use that same experience to produce and market my products.

That drive, training and experience is what keeps me going even when there is a challenge in the market or with my partners or partner plants. Let your dream, passion and drive align!

What has been the role of agribusiness in developing countries, and how do they fit in their agricultural production processes and development?

No country can survive without agriculture, either imported or locally produced so agriculture helped by being a source of affordable food supply because citizens of these countries who cannot afford imported foods can now buy within their purse or even farm on their own and sell to their immediate community. They can farm or trade based on their purse, no limits!

It is also a major source of employment directly and indirectly. Directly for people working on the farms and trading and indirectly for people working in the factories that use farm or herbal produce as raw materials. People also work in the packaging and transportation of these raw and finished products.

We should not forget that this sector is a major drive of foreign exchange that even the government cannot disregard. Agribusinesses now export finished produced in Nigeria goods to Europe, UK, USA and other parts of the world.

By Juliana Agbo

To create access to finance for smallholder farmers in Nigeria, Solidaridad has initiated Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) to beneficiaries under its programmes in Nigeria.

The scheme is a contributory and loan initiative among farmer groups in communities where Solidaridad is implementing its programmes.

Presently, over 20,000 smallholder oil palm farmers have been digitally profiled to benefit from the National Initiatives for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Oil Palm Smallholders (NISCOPS) and another 4000 has been reached under its Sustainable Development Goal Project 1 (SDGP1).

Both projects are supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Speaking at the Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop in Ikom, Cross Rivers State, Solidaridad Senior Climate Specialist for Africa and Country Technical Lead for Nigeria, Dr. Samuel S. Ogallah stated that “the VSLA(+) is one out of the many initiatives of Solidaridad in empowering smallholder farmers.

Ogallah added that Solidaridad through its creativity and innovation has taken the conventional VSLA practices to the next level which is dubbed Solidaridad VSLA Plus (VSLA+).

Read Also: WOFAN begins distribution of rice threshers, reapers to farmers

He said the participants drawn from Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers, Enugu, Kogi, Kaduna and Kano States will further step-down the training to communities under Solidaridad programmes in Nigeria.

He noted that Solidaridad has facilitated the formation of over 200 farmer groups in different project communities.

This provides opportunity for inclusivity, innovation and impacts among project beneficiaries to create that change that matters”, says Dr. Ogallah.

“With NISCOPS and SDGP1, Solidaridad is increasing the productivity of oil palm, and transforming the fruits and vegetable sector in Nigeria particularly in the project implementing states through best management practices, climate-smart agriculture, and sustainable land-use.

“The projects are improving income and livelihood of smallholder farmers in the project implementing states while enhancing national food security and job creation at large”, he said.

Also, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Cross River State,  Okon Owuna, said the VSLA initiatives will create access to finance for smallholder farmers, especially in the rural areas of Nigeria where access to finance is almost impossible.

Owuna who was represented by the director of Agricultural Services, Gabriel Ufono,  further said the initiative  will turnaround the agricultural sector in the country.

“With this, Solidaridad has shown the commitment to improve income and the livelihood of smallholder farmers. This will support the effort of the Government of Cross River State in building an agriculture-based economy,” Ufono said.