IN THE DEFENCE OF NIGERIA FARMERS

OG Dangote ( Aluta Victoria)

IN DEFENCE OF THE HARD WORKING NIGERIAN FARMERS -1.           Muhammad AliBaba.                                                                  Keen observers of the challenges with the Agricultural sector have been seriously concerned with the downward spiral in the activities of small holder farmers since the abrupt cessation of the Anchor Borrowers programme.  It’s a tendency that smacks of throwing away the baby with the bath water, rather than engaging in a very critical examination of the challenges and proffering lasting solutions that would ensure sustainable financing for the small holder farmers, upon whose fragile shoulders rests the food security of our dear Nation. Ironically, it's the  cessation of that epochal intervention that's largely responsible for the galloping increases in the price of Rice and other essential stables.

We may all fondly recall the impressive spectacle of President Muhammadu Buhari launching 13 Egyptian styled Rice pyramids in Abuja in January, 2022, in a ceremony that received international media attention and elevated Nigeria to the pinnacle of Rice producing countries in Africa. 

The launch was to showcase the successes of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP) driven by the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) and to influence a possible crash in the price of the commodity in the Country - all things being equal. 

While the expected drop in the price of Rice did not occur as envisaged, that is attributable to other exogenous factors outside the control of the indigent and subsistence farmers and the millers that feed the Nation. 

Prior to 2015, about N600bn worth of Rice was being imported each year to close the demand-supply mismatch for milled Rice. With only six operational integrated Rice mills and a national paddy output of roughly 4.5 million metric tons at the time, the Nigerian Rice business was unattractive to both farmers and millers, because imported Rice predominated the Nigerian market.

However, a game-changing scheme, the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), was launched in November, 2015, starting with the financing of smallholder farmers of Rice and Wheat.

Through the provision of inputs in kind, biometric identification of farms and farmers, extension services, secured markets through well-established off take contracts and additional connections to the agro-processors to ensure the transmission of the benefits from primary production to other segments of the value chain, ABP created a dynamic ecosystem among all stakeholders.

As at February, 2022, the CBN had disbursed N975.61bn to 4.52 million smallholder farmers across the country under ABP. 

According to the CBN, 52% of the loans were repaid before the current renewed efforts to recover the outstanding balances, despite the myriad of debilitating challenges, including the devastating floods occasioned by the overwhelming climate change as well as the negative attitude of some beneficiaries towards repayment among others. 

Productivity per hectare increased to an average of four to five metric tons, integrated Rice mills grew astronomically to over 70 in 2022, while cottage and small scale Rice milling business grew astronomically, employing over 45,000 small millers and 650,000 Rice maketers/traders and other stakeholders along the marketing segment. The national Rice output grew to over nine million metric tons per annum providing fertile grounds for the operations of the ever growing milling industry.

Other undeniable benefits spurned by the ABP and other supportive agricultural initiatives, including: 

i.                 Increase in productivity per hectare of major agricultural products financed under the Programme.

ii.               Nigeria became the leading country in the production of rice and maize between 2020 and 2021.

iii.             Land area under crop production increased enormously through the funding of over 5 million smallholder farmers.

iv.             The number of Integrated rice mills increased from about 7 (at pre-ABP) to over 70 in 2023 and installed milling capacity grew by over 2,000%

v.                Number of cottage and small-scale rice mills reached over 45,000 providing employment to well over one million millers, traders, retailers and other stakeholders along the value chain.

vi.             Increase in national productivity of major funded agricultural commodities as the Country coped effectively without food imports in the heart of the Covid-19 pandemic.

vii.           Significant reduction in food import bill over the period 

viii.         Increase in bank’s credit to the agricultural sector from about 3.5% in 2015 to 17% in 2021.

For many Nigerians though, the billions of Naira did not translate to cheap rice; instead, they are spending more to eat Rice. While it is understandable for Nigerians to expect cheaper priced Rice and other food items, they too are not immune from the cost- push inflationary factors that affect every other items of daily need to man.  A lot of the locally produced food are dependent upon imported inputs or their raw materials. The situation is not helped by the exponential growth in demand and consumption of Rice due to an increasing population that was nearly doubling every 25 years, as well as expanding levels of urbanization across the country.

However, and most painfully, for about four seasons now, the ABP has stopped due to the identified challenges, and that is now threatening to reverse the World record successes recorded under the scheme.  It also undermines the goal of doubling the current Rice production by 2030. This untoward turn of events is being exacerbated by vested and unpatriotic interests that are piling pressures on the Government to restore food items onto the list of eligible items for official foreign exchange allocation. 

*Subtle and strident demonization campaign…*

However, while the average Nigerian citizen is buffeted by unabetting inflation and unaffordable food prices, which calls for national consensus to support to every initiative aimed at ramping up food production to stem the threatening tide of hunger and possible restiveness, there appears to be a subtle but concerted efforts to undermine the successful agricultural revolution achieved  by our great nation.

Negative public perception and orchestrated media propaganda seems to have been engineered by some vested commercial interests to demonize  the indigent, hardworking but largely subsistence farmer, on whose frail shoulders squarely the Nation's food security rests. 

However, no matter the orchestrated misgivings over the ABP, according to the former focal person for Rice at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, while speaking on Rice Transformation in the country,  recently  said that by 2018, Nigeria had achieved 70 per cent self-sufficiency.

“No matter what people say, Nigeria has made gigantic progress in the production and processing of rice in Africa. People don’t notice this because we have a very large population. But whatever the case, when our borders were closed, when there was a shutdown of everywhere during the COVID-19 pandemic, the exporters were not exporting, so there was nothing to import, but there was Rice in Nigeria,” she said.

Immediate past Governor of Kebbi State, His Excellency Atiku Bagudu Abubakar, who was the Vice Chairman of the National Food Security Council and also Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Rice and Wheat, also believes a lot has been done: 

He said, “We have done well, there’s no doubt about it, in the Rice sector, the increase in production, the mobilization of private investments, the coming together of financiers,  scientists and  policy makers under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has  produced monumental results above 15 million tons. 

“But that we have done well does not mean we cannot do better, and that again needs to be appreciated.  The goal of doubling rice production by 2030 to 30 million metric tons is even modest. And in terms of the fact that we have seen rapid increases in yield, we have seen revolution at the lowest level, meaning at the farmer level, and most of our farming communities today, you find farmers transiting and willing to embrace improved agronomic practices which, in a while ago, they were very reluctant to embrace. They are now willing to invest in seedlings and or even appreciate the value of adequacy of inputs and so on and so forth. 

“So this transformation is achieving a critical mass which we believe will bring to bear how easy it is for us to go to the next level in terms of achieving that 30 million tons. 

It must be further emphasized that, despite their much applauded performance,   farmers are still battling relative low productivity, high cost of production, poor rural infrastructure, land tenure issues, climatic factors, little access to irrigation services, banditry and insurgency.

These challenges are now exacerbated by the sudden cessation of the impactful ABP for the past 3 seasons, which effect are now manifested in scarcity of paddy, galloping price increases and reduced capacity of processing and value adding enterprises across the Country, with the attendant loss of jobs and income to the affacted workers. Sadly, the public is being fed with half truths and outright falsehoods,  leading to uninformed  demonization campaign against the Nigerian farmer, very back bone of Nigeria's Food Security.

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