Edo State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources Abdul Oroh speaks with Femi Macaulay on a wide range of issues on agricultural development.
What are the major issues in the sector, particularly concerning Edo State?
We believe in Edo State that Nigeria’s system is better secured if we are able to feed our population. But if we are dependent on foreign imports, as we have now, especially as it affects those major crops that we can grow conveniently and cheaper in the country, we believe the present situation of dependence on foreign imports is not sustainable. We have a huge population, but we are also blessed with abundant fertile land, arable land all over the country, with a lot of river bodies, good vegetation, good weather and good ecological landscape that there is definitely no excuse for us to spend one trillion annually importing foods. If you talk about rice, we spend one billion naira daily importing rice; Nigeria is the second largest importer of wheat next to China.
What is your ministry’s role, and how much has been achieved, in creating and sustaining an enabling environment for agricultural production and investment?
We realised that Edo State is well-endowed in terms of good climatic conditions with various ecological conditions that are favourable. We have almost nine months of rainfall in the southern part of the state and we can grow virtually any crop. So, we felt we are in a very good position to focus on agriculture as the main driver of the economy. We also realised that if the federal government is dependent on import and a policy has been adopted in Abuja which we think is designed to change all that fundamentally and create the environment for agriculture to become a major for the purpose of growing the economy, then surely we have to focus on agriculture, working with the federal government.
Our strategic plan is to ensure that we meet 25 percent of our local needs in some of the key areas where we have comparative advantage; we talk about rice, about cassava, talk about oil palm produce and then cocoa and rubber. And then, of course, we also look at fruits and vegetables, horticulture, grains; maize, soya beans and others. Edo State has three types of ecological zones; in the south we have the rain forest, in the central a little rain forest and savannah, and in the north savannah and rain forest but more of savannah.
In the past, Edo State was directly and heavily involved in agriculture; we owned farm reserves, farm settlements, communal farms, and so on. But now we decided that we don’t want to be involved on such a scale, that the best approach is to create an environment for the private sector, even the small holders to improve on their holdings, set it up to produce more, earn more income and also to work towards developing the value chain of what they produce. For instance, if you are producing cassava and all you get out of it is garri, then you are only getting a fraction of what you could get out of it. And then also you grow rice, for instance, and you are unable to process and a quarter of it is lost through harvest inadequacy; then you are not getting the best from your investment. So, we looked at all that and then we are working with the Federal Government through the Group Enhancement Support to register our farmers.
How many farmers have been registered?
So far, Edo State has registered about 245,000 farmers. And we are giving them inputs like seeds free of charge, and then fertiliser and other chemicals for tree crops like cocoa and others subsidised at 50 per cent with the other half borne by the Federal Government. We are also working with the federal government to apply new technology, new seedling, new varieties that are disease-resistant, high-yielding and water-resistant. Even if you are a small holder and you apply it well and use the best method, definitely you will get a good result. All that we are looking at, while we are trying to bring in new investors, which we believe will have a multiplier effect. If we give you 10,000 acres of land and you are able develop it efficiently using the best technology, using modern equipment and working with the local population, then the population will be inspired to develop agriculture along these new best practices.
What are the major challenges?
We realised that the main problem of doing that is availability of land; so we had to do a land bank by going round the whole state and identified lands that were lying fallow in various communities. We tried to study the soil to know what is good in a particular area which will put us in a position to advise an investor that is coming for land and also to make the land available quickly on short notice. As we are doing all these, we also follow the process of what we call free, prior and informed consent of the community. We try to get the people to be at the heart of the process; to be part owners of the process ab initio. We don’t want another ‘Niger Delta’ in our hands, so, now we say, if you desire this project, bring the people in who will work with you. They will voice their opinions, give suggestions and share their experiences and then you know how to take it from there.
Once you have an agreement and understanding of the people, you can now with their consent and the government with their consent acquire the land and leave it to the investor, thus creating an Edo State government-investor relationship. Now we are looking at the possibility of giving out about 200,000 to 300,000 hectares of land in the next two years. And we believe if we are able to open up new crop production to that level, it will be a major achievement. It will be something that has never been done or seen in Nigeria before. So, we are preparing for that in Edo State and we hope that some of these investors that have approached us will deliver on their promises. Even if it’s 20 percent of the investment plan that we think can materialise in the next two years that materialises, we will still be happy that something and something important has happened.
What is the picture like now?
It’s not easy to raise the money, to convince your bankers and some financiers that you want to go into agro business. And some of the federal government policies in respect of lending, this free lending by the central bank and commercial banks, have not worked in a way that has met my expectation. We are confident that if we are able to do all these we have set out to do, Edo State, five or six years down the road, will be one of the richest states in Nigeria.
Comparatively, how would you rate Edo State on agricultural development?
We have done our home work; we have a good strategy, we have a good plan. We have a conducive, peaceful environment. We have a population that is open to investors, that is ready to embrace investment. We have a fairly well-educated population, fairly well-developed people; we have all the advantages you can think of. As I said, we have a good weather and good environment. But we also realised that Nigeria is a huge market and if you come in to invest in agriculture you cannot lose. This was said recently by Dangote; that he is not going into it because of charity, but he is going into it because he’s going to be bigger than cement and it will bring self-confidence to our people. Just removing rice alone from our import list or reducing it to like five percent will be substantial, and Edo State is ready to be part of that process. That is why it’s not so difficult for a person like Adams Oshiomole, out of the 150,000 hectares that is required to develop nationally in six states, it was easy for him to put Edo State first and also to give 50,000 out of that 150,000 as stake in Edo State agriculture. So, you can see that we have an advantage and we believe that’s the way to go; Edo State is the place to come to.
What more do you think could be done towards the realisation of the so-called Green Revolution?
Let’s focus on growing those things that we need most as a people. Let’s us satisfy the internal market, because if we keep importing all the rice that we need, we are killing our farmers; we are killing our economy. So, let’s focus on rice as a priority because every day our people eat rice and every day we spend a lot importing it. So, why can’t we produce it locally? If we are not serious as a people, if you cannot produce enough for your population, then you are not a secured nation. But if you can provide enough food for your population, even in times of war there will be food for soldiers, there will be food for civilians, there will be food for internally displaced persons; so, there will be food for everybody. Food priority is part of national interest.
What about the areas of innovation and research?
Clearly, we cannot continue to work the old way. Right now, there are nine varieties of cocoa beans developed by experts at the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria and Nigerian scientists. What is going to be the yield is unbelievable; they are more disease-resistant, they can produce more and they can last more, and they have higher content for industrial processing. If you want to process it to cocoa powder, starch and other variables that you use cocoa for, they are all available.
Could you elaborate on the state’s natural resources and their socio-economic value?
We have oil and gas, which is an advantage. We have good vegetation and our land is fertile; we can grow almost anything in Edo State and the population is about four million. If we were to look inwards, I think we can feed our population reasonably well. But we have to look at the broad picture – Nigeria. We have to look at the overall economy; that’s the situation.
Is it wishful thinking to imagine that one day agriculture may become a major revenue earner for the country?
No, it’s not wishful thinking; I think it’s a reality. We are heading towards that direction. As I said, it’s no longer sustainable for us to keep importing food on the scale that we are doing now, because the money we are using to import food will finish, it’s depleting. So, we have to face agriculture.
