Investigations by Agro Insight, a special report of the Mass Communication Department, Crescent University, located in Abeokuta, Ogun State, show that the Southwest is, arguably, compared to other regions, better positioned to feed the country, in terms of the resources, weather, landmass and labour. Despite the region’s comparative advantages over others in agriculture, it is, however, unfortunate that, with the largest agric-based and agric-related institutes, there’s no food to show for it, the report claims
The Southwest, once considered as the home of farming, was the worst hit in February 2021, when northern traders, under the aegis of the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuffs and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AUFCDN), embarked on what was generally termed food blockage into the region. The blockage exposed its inadequacies, especially in the production of staple food items. Tomato, pepper, onion, beans and others, which are usually supplied from the North, became scarce and very expensive at the time. This led to an astronomical rise in the cost of foodstuffs.
Institutes everywhere, no food
Findings by Crescent University, after a special investigation indicated that though the development appears an eye-opener on the region’s deficiencies, which depends largely on the North for staple foods, livestock and others, it raised a question on why and how a region considered as first among equals in the area of agriculture suddenly lost its vibe.
According to the report, the Southwest is arguably in the best position compared to other regions to feed the country, in terms of the resources, weather, landmass and labour. The region is also the largest location of agric-based and agric-related institutes, which gives it the upper hand to produce food all-year-round. It lamented that the region has little food to show for its positive position.
The report claims that for instance, the region can boast of having the Ogun/Osun River Basin Authority (OORBA), Alabata, Abeokuta; the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB); Faculty of Agriculture, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ayetoro Campus; Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ibadan, Oyo State; Institute of Agricultural Research & Training, Moore Plantation, Ibadan; International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Oyo State; Nigeria Institute of Agriculture Research, Ibadan; and the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Ibadan, Oyo State.
Others are the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO), Lagos; Odeda Farm Settlement, Odeda, Ogun State; Igbogila Farm Settlement, Ayetoro, Ogun State; Imeko Farm Settlement, Imeko, Ogun State; and Coker Farm Settlement, Coker, Ifo, Ogun State, among others.
But despite this array of institutions, the university’s report indicated that the Southwest is still food-insufficient and solely dependent on the North and other parts of the country for survival.
“This has been largely attributed to lack of will-power by governors from the region, and misplaced priority on the part of the institutions.
“Many had expected the institutions to maximise the multiplier effects of the late sage and Premier, Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s agricultural transformation initiatives on the economy of the region, but contrary was the case because their impact was minimal in ensuring food sufficiency in the region.
“It was learnt that several efforts were made in the past by the Economic Project Performance Unit (EPPU), the fore-runner of Odua Investment Company Limited, which developed commercialisation plans in 1976 for all the large scale agricultural projects in the region and constituted them into limited liability companies.
“When the region was dissolved into Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and Osun states, the Okitipupa Oil Palm Limited, among other agricultural projects, was bequeathed to Ondo State, while Western Livestock Company, among other agricultural projects, was bequeathed to Oyo State.
“Ogun State inherited Apoje and Lomiro oil palm, as well as Ilushin and Ikenne rubber plantations, among other agricultural projects,” according to the report.
Agriculturist laments
An agriculturist, Prof. Bisi Ogunfowora, said the projects, all of which are still proudly regarded as Chief Awolowo’s memorable agro-economic legacies in Ogun State, used to be some of the largest and most productive agricultural plantations in Nigeria.
“They served as laboratories for practical exercises in Agri-business courses in tertiary institutions; and they also provided employment and consumer goods to citizens, raw materials to agro-industries, and income to government,” Ogunfowora asserted.
In the 1960s, the late sage, Awolowo created several farm estates in the region for the purpose of enhancing agricultural practice. They include Ipapo, Ilora, Eruwa, Ogbomoso, Iresaadu, Ijaiye, Akufo and Lalupon, all in Oyo State, while Owowo Farm Estate, Coker, Ikenne, Ijebu Igbo, Ipokia and Isaga-Orile, among others, and were located in Ogun State.
It was learnt in the investigation that sadly, these farm settlements are rotting away. While some have turned to residential areas, others have lost their appeal.
“A visit to the Coker Farm Estate, Ifo, in Ifo Local Government, reveals a sorry state of affairs. It was gathered that the occupants of the over 3000-hectare farm settlement are living in fear due to the incessant invasion and destruction of their plantations, which serves as their source of livelihood, without prior notice, to pave way for construction works.
“Agro Insight observed that several plots of land have been carved out of the settlement in the last few years and sold to developers for housing development and other construction activities, as the settlement has become a target for encroachment not only by other communities, but also individuals, including traditional rulers and families,” the report claimed.
Grabbers disturbing farm settlement owners
The Secretary General, Coker Farm Settlement Association, Mr. Kazeem Adediran, revealed during the visit that their former chairman, died in the struggle, as he was inflicted with machete cuts by land grabbers for disturbing them.
“There are two phases – the residential and the allotted phases. No fewer than 124 houses were built in the residential phase, with an average of a family of five living in each of the houses, while the rest is for farmland…,” the report claimed.
Adediran lamented that for over 10 years, the entire estate has been living in darkness as the only transformer was vandalised.
“Many graduates are on the farm, but most of the facilities here were provided through self-help. The government has neglected the farm. Most of the subventions are not provided,” Adediran submitted.
It was gathered that this is the same scenario in other farm settlements across the region, where settlers are crying of encroachment and abandonment that have actually scared prospective farmers away from the estates.
Agric institutes in sorry state
During a trip to some of the institutes, the sorry state of some of them, as observed by Agro Insight, was mind-boggling, reeking of neglect, lack of funding and total abandonment. In others, their interventions are just limited to the four corners of the institutions.
During a visit to OORBA, though the Managing Director/Chief Executive Director, Engr. Chukwuemeka Woke, was not around, but a top official, who craved anonymity, told Agro Insight that the major problem facing the agency is funding.
“Inadequate funding is the major problem facing this organisation, the budgets are not adequate. For instance, in a situation where we present a budget of N10 billion, but it is cut to N3 billion, at times it may even be lower, what can we do?
“OORBA covers five states – Oyo, Ogun, Osun and Lagos, we have farmlands in these states, we have one at Itoikin, Lagos State, we have in Iseyin – middle Ogun irrigation project, we have in Osun State, and we also have in Mokolokin, Ogun State. In all these places mentioned, we have farmers who come to us for farming; our lands are made available to them for farming with the guidance and support needed to ensure effective farming.
“In fact, a six-month programme is currently ongoing, where we teach interested farmers and members of the public all that is required to know about farming, we do programmes on piggery, cash crops and lots more after which we fund this set of people financially to go and start practising what they have learnt from us,” the source said.
When asked why people in the region still depend solely on rain-fed agriculture practice despite its establishment, our source said inadequate information or lack of awareness on the part of the farmers is the major problem.
One area where stakeholders are expressing concern is the lack of synergy between the agency and FUNAAB; they noted that despite their proximity to each other and similar mandates, which focuses on improving agric sector in the region, there is no collaboration between them.
The official said: “FUNAAB is a research and educational institution, although there is a slight difference in our mandates respectively, yet we collaborate to achieve our goals, you know without water, there is no agriculture.”
FUNAAB: funding our major challenge
In FUNAAB, the university librarian, who is an Associate Professor, Owolabi Kehinde Abayomi, said the institution’s three core mandates are research, teaching and community engagement. Abayomi identified funding as a major challenge hampering the activities of the school.
“FUNAAB was established to teach students to become agriculturists, entrepreneurs and scientists. Another core mandate of FUNAAB is research. Our research has led us to the discovery of a goat we call the Kalawad goat. It is a high-breed of the Kalahari goat from South Africa with West African dwarf. This is a kind of goat that is short, heavy and can give milk like a normal cow.
Also through research, FUNAAB has been able to come up with a type of chicken called FUNAAB Alpha Chicken; the alpha chicken is a combination of local chicken and the agric chicken. It is more resistant to African diseases. It can out-perform other breeds in the rural and semi-rural environment. This alpha chicken research project was sponsored by Bill Gates.
“Talking about community engagement, FUNAAB has its extension officers around Alabata and Odeda. These officers are there to educate and train farmers and organise lectures for local farmers. I would say FUNAAB has not failed, but instead, it has achieved the mandate for which it was established.”
But contrary to OORBA’s position, Prof. Kehinde attributed the lack of synergy to ego and funding.
He noted that despite FUNAAB’s mandates and achievements, there are minor impact in food sufficiency in the region, because “many people don’t want to do farming; they are after white collar jobs. Another factor is insecurity, people no longer go to farm out of fear of being killed by herders. Lack of equipgment is also another factor why people don’t venture into farming.
“Governments should put incentives in place to make youths have interest in farming, loans should be made available, provide basic amenities and infrastructure like good roads to ensure easy transporting of farm produce, let me also add that the first professional occupation created by God is farming.”
NCRI: A shadow of itself
Agro Insight also visited the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI), Ibadan, an institute saddled with the responsibility of conducting research into the production, cultivation and genetic improvement of some key strategic food crops in Nigeria.
The old agricultural research and production centre stands as a testament to a long-gone era. Stepping into the premises of the institute, the silence was palpable, punctuated only by the occasional creak of old wooden beams and the soft rustle of papers, or perhaps occasional sound of passers-by. It’s more like a deserted area. Few people could be seen around; and even the few look like those taking shelter in the facility.
The inner office, a master class in elegance, boasts of polished mahogany panels and gleaming chrome accents. The outer office displays recent renovations despite the dusty files piled up on a table.
The desk displays cereals and agricultural products. Rows of glass jars, filled with an array of grains, seeds, and pulses, glint in the soft light, their labels worn but still visible.
Despite the silence, the office exudes a sense of quiet purpose; maybe an attestation to the fact that despite the quietness and still atmosphere, work goes on.
The Director of the institute, Dr. Danbaba Nehemiah, said it has been using science-based methodologies to improve on the production of cereal crops and even oil seeds, crops to develop complimentary technologies – technologies for good agronomics practices to be able to produce the crop to its optimal potential.
“Over the years, we have been doing that through some strategies that are adopted for research. What we do first at the research end of it is to carry out what we described as genetic improvement, which is to look at the key genetic materials of a specific commodity, its value chain and improve it to increase its yield; improve its resistance to diseases and pests and also improve its quality in terms of food or feed quality. For instance, if the food is going to be used for human feed, we’ll improve its nutritional quality to sustain the end users,” he said.
When asked the challenges faced by the institute in actualising its mandates in the region, Danbaba said one of the threatening challenges to farmers is the global warming, coupled with insecurity.
An analyst’s view
An analyst based in Lagos, Dr. Solomon Ekundayo, who regretted this development, said the Southwest has become slaves to the Northern Farmers and slaves to the Igbo Traders. “We keep buying and buying and only selling our lands and properties in return. Our excuse of insecurity is flimsy. There is more insecurity in the North, yet they still manage to produce food that they send to us.
“What is the technology behind tomatoes and pepper planting, as if we were not planting them as children in the past? All our governors are so fixated on federal allocation, forgetting that they can get more funds in agriculture than what they are getting from Abuja. It is a big shame on us in the Southwest,” he said.
He said the region, which used to plant cash crop for exports in the past, is now finding it extremely difficult to plant tomatoes and pepper. “What a shame and the elders are looking at us. N750m worth of pepper and tomatoes are bought in Lagos on a daily basis by the residents, in one month, the people in Lagos spend N22.5 billion only on tomatoes and pepper.
“The farmers in the North will not mind the distance and bring these items covering over 700 kilometres to Lagos and go back with billions of naira. Yet, the five states that surround Lagos will fold their hands and watch helplessly.
“There is no state in the Southwest that will not be making more than N30 billion monthly as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), if they can leverage on their proximity to Lagos. We will sit down and be generating all manner of excuses.
“We are sitting on millions of hectares of arable land, fertile land and yet we are hungry. Nonsense! 10,000 cows are killed in Lagos every day. Let us use N400,000 as a benchmark, that is N4b daily and N120 billion monthly, what is the rocket science in ranching that we cannot do in the Southwest to take advantage of this and many more.
“Garri is expensive. Apart from Lagos, my state – Ekiti – is the smallest in the Southwest. We have 300,000 hectares of arable land, Oyo State is more than five times our size. To achieve 100 percent supply of annual demand does not require more than three percent of our arable land. We are sitting down doing nothing. It is a big shame.”
He said without counting Lagos, the landmass of the remaining five Southwest states put together is above 74,000-kilometre square. “Remember Israel is 22-kilometre Square. At this time, these five states put together have three million hectares of arable land.
“A hectare of land is about the size of 15 plots of land or about 2.5 acres. One hectare will give you 50 bags of rice; one hectare will give you 100 bags of garri. We can imagine the quantities of tomatoes and pepper we can get from just one hectare. Yet, we have three million hectares.
“All the states in the Southwest geo-political zone in total have 137 local government areas. Apart from Kano State, Oyo State has the highest number of local government areas in the whole of Nigeria next to Kano.
“The local government areas are the third tier of government and they have responsibilities to the people as the lowest level of government. They also receive allocations from the centre apart from the IGR. Let us use N300 million as the average allocation per month. What the 137 of them are collecting cumulatively is about N41 billion.
“The duties of the local governments, according to the fourth Schedule of the 1999, include food production and agricultural development. Imagine them putting 15 percent of their income into agricultural development, cumulatively we are going to have about N6 billion monthly and about N72b
“If the local government in the Southwest can invest N72b into food production in just one year, will the food inflation be like these? Will there not be massive creation of direct and indirect jobs, MSME development, industrial growth and development and others?
“We will sit down and be making flimsy excuses, expecting the President to start growing tomatoes inside Aso Rock and sharing it to our homes. You ask about the location of Yoruba in the economy of Nigeria? We are at the base of the ladder. We are not doing anything apart from selling of properties and land,” he lamented.
