Hopes of eradicating hunger in the country may be delayed much longer. This is because the structures and parameters for expanding food production are not adequate yet, says the Registrar and Chief Executive, Nigeria Institute of Animal Science (NIAS), Prof. Eustace Iyayi. The Institute was established by the National Assembly Act No. 26 of 2007, under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. In this interview with DANIEL ESSIET, Iyayi speaks on issues affecting the agricultural sector in Nigeria.
Are we prepared to feed 250 million people in 2020?
We certainly will have to feed them. But now is the time to prepare for that huge task because 2020 is just three years from now.
Inadequate funding, poor rural infrastructure, neglected agricultural research and adverse effects of climate change have led to the nation experiencing some challenges in exploiting its potential to increase food and agricultural production. Can we end hunger and half poverty by 2020?
Looking at what is on ground, ending hunger and halving poverty by 2020 (only three years from now) does not seem realistic. The structures that we need to expand food production to a level of eliminating hunger are either not there or that the few available are not effectively utilised.
What role does agriculture play in the overall economic development of the country?
Agriculture contributes about 30-40 per cent to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). It generates employment; it is a foreign exchange earner. It is a means of diversifying the nation’s economy. It is a veritable tool for food and nutrition security. Agriculture provides raw materials for the industries.
How is the current economic situation affecting food production?
The current situation is affecting food production through the difficulty in accessing inputs, majority of which are imported. Access to loans from the bank has also become more difficult and the twin problem of interest and limited accessibility to loans have also heightened. Farmers have also had it very rough finding internal markets for some commodities due to the fact that the disposable income of many people has significantly reduced. Poultry farmers for example have been seriously hit. Many of them have not been able to sell their eggs due to artificial glut and inability to find markets across the borders.
At an African Union summit in Malabo in 2014, heads of governments agreed to allocate 10 per cent of their budgets to agriculture. Why has this not been effected? And what do you think can be done about it?
The reason is mainly due to the lack of priority being placed on agriculture. Recall that agriculture before now, was the mainstay of our economy until oil was discovered. As long as oil was there, developing our agriculture was relegated to the background and we took to importation of nearly everything. We are only now just returning to agriculture because of the fall in price of oil in the last couple of years. As long as we think that we have an alternative source of national income, we will not embrace the Maputo and Malabo declarations. We may eventually do so when we have nowhere else to turn to. What to do about it is simply to give agriculture the first place priority. Until we attain food and nutrition security and have enough to export and to feed our industries, economic development will be far-fetched.
The state of our slaughter slabs and abattoirs are appalling. What is your institute doing about it?
Our abattoirs and slaughter slabs are not in good shape. Operations there are not in accordance with best practices for meat processing. The Institute has been doing a lot of advocacy to educate our abattoir operators on the need to adhere to minimum operating procedure. The facilities in them are far from adequate. Some don’t have good water supply. The Institute is currently working on a model to collaborate with our veterinary colleagues and the state governments where the abattoirs and slaughter slabs are located on the provision of facilities, training, capacity building and enforcement of regulations.
How do we address the challenges small holders face in scaling up and commercialising their operations?
The rural infrastructure has to be given much attention. Rural roads have to be created and existing ones maintained for easy evacuation of farm produce. For some commodities, on-farm processing and farm gate off-take have to be expanded. This model was suggested for cassava some years ago for the production of ethanol from cassava, after the Brazilian practice. But it was never pursued to take off. We also need rural electrification. This will help small businesses to grow. Our non-functional dams have to be rehabilitated for all-year food production. Agricultural lending institutions should ensure that increased efficiencies are realised at every step. There should be provision of a system through which small farmers can improve efficiencies in all areas, including accessing inputs, improving yields, marking linkages, infrastructure development and skills transfer. Information needs of farmers is very important as farmers can improve agricultural productivity and ensure food security when up-to-date information is provided, using appropriate languages and formats and delivered through proper communication channels. Extension agents need to intensify their efforts in educating farmers to increase their level of awareness. Of all the existing channels of agricultural communication, farmers rank extension highest in terms of providing credible information and advice, especially on agricultural technology.
Agricultural financing is risk-ladden. There are poor agricultural value chain development, lack of credit worthiness by the smallholder farmers and many more. What model do you suggest to improve agricultural financing in Nigeria?
This claim is no longer so. The value chains for the different agricultural commodities have been developed during the Agricultural Transformation Agenda. This is currently being built upon in the Agricultural Promotion Policy of the present government. Every business comes with risks. And risk is part of entrepreneurship. Agricultural investments come with risks, but they also come with their benefits that transform into income.
What sort of credit products do you think can solve farmers’ access to finance challenges?
Any credit product that will reduce the interest rate
Aside from micro-enterprise and revolving credit facility, what kind of financing framework will enable key players such as agri-input suppliers, post-harvest facility providers and processors, integrators and consolidators, valuable access to financing?
The Bank of Agriculture should be adequately recapitalised and reorganised to function properly. The Bank of Industry should be strengthened to build on its present achievements.
Antibiotics are under increasing criticism and feed additives can play a role in their replacement. What is your take on that?
I agree with this view. Long and uncontrolled use of antibiotics can lead to residual amounts of them in meat, milk and other animal products. When passed to humans through consumption, this can lead to resistance of pathogens to antibiotics administration. There are probiotics, prebiotics and symbiotics, which are not antibiotics, but have the ability to modify the internal environment in animals such that the harmful bacteria, which will eliminate antibiotics with are competitively excluded. That way, the animal is spared the effect of the harmful bacteria without the use of antibiotics. Another way is to use feed-grade organic acid, which are able to attack the bacteria directly and leave no harmful residual compounds in the animal products.
Your institute actively engages in variety of public policy issues that directly affect the sector. What recommendations has the institute made towards strengthening the nation’s agriculture?
We are mainly a regulatory Agency. Our mandate is to regulate activities in the Livestock Industry, higher institutions of learning where Animal Science is offered and our members to ensure that they discharge their duties in a professional manner.
We also engage in social advocacy to let our people know that it is their right to have access to good quality animal protein products. Regulation to ensure standards when adhered to leads to safe and quality products. This leads to sustainability of the business and eventually, expansion. Ensuring that production is done according to international best practices can also lead to access of international markets. This is because products from such systems become internationally compliant and competitive. All these help to sustain production locally, while having a foothold on the global market for foreign exchange earnings.
What brought about your institute and what was the reason for its establishment?
My Institute came into existence by an Act of the National Assembly, Act No 26 of 2007 as Amended in 2015. The Institute is a regulatory agency under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with powers to regulate all issues pertaining to animal husbandry in Nigeria. The Animal Science Association of Nigeria saw the need for the professionalisation of animal science and the greater need to regulate the animal husbandry industry in the country. The Association approached the National Assembly with the Bill and it was passed and enacted into law.
Who are those to benefit from the Institute?
Every Nigerian and eventually the global community. Though we have a national mandate, our activity is gradually spreading to the global sphere.
What lessons have you learnt so far from this effort? What has worked for the institute and what has not?
The lesson I have learnt so far is the necessity of vision for creation. Anything borne out of genuine vision is sustained and benefits mankind. As to what works or does not work, it depends on the boundary you set for yourself and how much you want to be limited. All things good should work.
How has the role of agric businesses changed over the years and where has the greatest adjustments occurred?
Agribusiness has always been there. It thrived in the years before oil was discovered, but almost died because of the discovery of oil. But it is gradually coming back as the government is taking diversification of the economy serious. The consciousness of agriculture as business has woken up in most people. There is the awareness of income generation potential from agricultural commodities along the value chain of any of them.
What role do agric cooperatives play in the modern value chains?
They serve as clusters of entrepreneurs of like passion and same business goal either for input receivables, production and market. They play a major role, especially in accessing finance and extension services. They are stabilising factors in the drive for organised small scale production and in the scale-up of the small scale producers to big time commercial enterprises.
What do you consider as the most significant challenges agricultural cooperatives will face in the future?
Access to finance, sustainable input supply and markets for their products.
Young people are seen as agents of change in the industry what can be done to invest in the youth, who are so uniquely equipped, to turn the industry vision into reality?
All that can be done to encourage the young ones to embrace agribusiness must be done. The future of the country actually is in their hands. They are about one-third of our estimated 180 million, which is about 60 million critical mass of workforce. The country must harness not only the energy, but the intellect in these young ones. By the year 2050 Nigerian population is estimated to hit 450 million. We will be the third most populous country in the world after China and India. Our food need will be more than double. Who will feed this huge population? The system that will feed us in future must be laid down today and the youths of today have a great part to play because they are the ones, who will be around at that future date.
How do we inspire a new generation in agriculture?
We can inspire by making people see the income generating capability from agriculture along the value chain for any of the commodities. When people know that they can derive their livelihood from agriculture and see that what they do contributes to national development, they will be inspired to join and sustain what they do. We can also inspire them by assisting them to build their capacity in their chosen field of agriculture.
How will the development transport infrastructure help Nigeria to become an agricultural exporter?
Among agricultural infrastructure, road plays a very significant role in accelerating agricultural production. Rural roads connectivity is one of the key components for agricultural development, as it promotes access to economic and social services, generating increased agricultural income and productive employment as well as export. Access roads and rail transportation provide the means to bring the rural population to the main stream. A good road and rail network reduce transport cost, accelerates efficient delivery of farm inputs and enhance special agricultural production, distribution and export.
A good network of roads and rail will expand the distribution of agricultural goods as well as open up additional opportunities for agricultural trade. Good road and rail infrastructure lead to expansion of markets, economies of scale and improvement in factor market operations. It also opens up the rural economy to greater competition. This may take the form of cheaper products from lower-cost sources of supply, new or improved products that may displace some locally produced items. Infrastructure investment has a strong impact on rural incomes and especially, on small holders. This helps to drive export on the long run. Improved rail, road and air transportation can enhance entrepreneurship activity.
How do you think Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can help Nigeria move up the livestock value chain?
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is generally believed to propel economic growth in developing countries as it makes significant contributions to the host country’s development process, especially through easing of the constraints of low levels of domestic savings and investment as well as foreign exchange shortages. Furthermore, FDI can increase the GDP and generate a stream of real incomes in the country. The increased productivity in the livestock value chain due to FDI can benefit local income groups through higher wages and expanded employment, lower product prices paid by consumers, rent to local resource owners, and high tax revenue or royalties to the government.
Determined to move in tandem with the urgent dictates of the deplorable state of the nations infrastructural needs, Nigeria plans to attract $600 billion in Foreign Direct Investment by the threshold year of 2020 to deal with the mammoth infrastructure deficit, including those in the livestock sector of the economy. Research shows that Nigeria is not even in the top 10 of FDI destination.
According to Goldman Sachs, the bulk of FDI inflows has gone to the oil and gas sector. The livestock sector with a huge potential to contribute significantly to the nation’s economy can benefit from FDI in the areas of input supply, development of infrastructure, new technologies for production, processing and packaging of livestock products and creation of markets.
Are there any policy challenges?
There are policy challenges not in the lack of it, but in implementation. If successive governments can follow an existing blue print that has been adjudged as workable, the livestock sector will record significant development. Often time, policy changes lead to reduced impact in several ways among the different value chains.
What is the Institute doing in relation to building the capacity of the various value chain actors?
The Institute is building capacity through direct training and re-training of the operators. For example, the Institute is the Secretariat for the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF) of the FAO. The Institute also represents the country at the annual International Feed Regulators’ meeting where issues relating to the Feed Industry are discussed on a global scale. We are the only body mandated by the IFIF to train operators in the Feed Industry on Good Manufacturing Practice and we have done this across the 6 geo-political regions of the country. Through the efforts of the Institute the country has moved from the 51st position to the 40th position in the Altec Global rating of feed producing countries. We plan to improve on this. We are also building the capacity of farm operators. In collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, we have developed Minimum Operating Procedure in the poultry and other livestock value chains. We are in collaboration with the National Board for Technical Education for training as Quality Assurance Assessors for building the capacity of middle level manpower in the livestock production sector. We have working MoU with other bodies, e.g. the OFFER Center in Iwo, Osun State for the training of Youths and Women in livestock production. We carry out advocacy programs to educate abattoir operators. We also regulate the practice of Animal Science in higher Institutions. The goal of our intervention measures and regulatory activities is to ensure that best international practices are adhered to in all operations in livestock production.
What opportunities are there in the livestock sector?
There are several opportunities along all the value chains. For a population of over 180 million gaps still exist in the production of food animals to meet the protein needs of the populace and for export. So there are opportunities in production, in processing, in creating markets (national, regional and international), in logistics, in communication, in supply of inputs, in financing, in training and capacity building.
The formal daily milk sector constitutes only about 5 to 10%, the rest is informal. Have you found this to be attractive to foreign investors? There are a number of European investors coming into the nation’s a
The dairy sector is attractive to foreign investors. Our current milk production stands at 700,000MT while the consumption demand is 1.3 million MT. The huge deficit is bridged by importation, which costs the government about $1.3 billion. The duty on dairy products is only about 10 per cent, which allows for massive importation of dairy products into the country, thereby killing local production. To help local production rise, duty on imported dairy products should be increased to between 55-60 per cent. The Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh announced that 42 foreign investors from European countries were expected in the country last year as a result of a previous visit of President Buhari to Germany and Rome. According to the Honourable Minister, a good number of the investments will be in agriculture and food processing. Friesland Campina WAMCO has been investing in the dairy industry in Nigeria. They have also developed a local content with the help of its DDP scheme across different parts of Oyo State. Promasidor has also made some investments in the sector. But this is not enough. Following bilateral talks with the government of Denmark in 2016, Arla Foods of Denmark was also to invest in the development of the dairy industry in Nigeria. It was announced last year that Alhaji Aliko Dangote plans to invest $800 million in the dairy sector to breed 500,000 cows in 2018, which will produce 500 million litres of milk a year starting from 2019. There is enough room for investment by both foreign and local investors.
