Is it time to embrace commercial agriculture?

With the escalating cost of food items in the country and the threat of hunger and starvation, it seems time has come for Nigerians to embrace commercial agriculture as a way out of the looming uncertainty, writes ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK.

 According to the United Nation, three African countries including Nigeria are facing serious food crisis with nearly 16 million people in the affected countries being at the risk of dying of hunger within few months. The other two countries in similar situation are Somalia and South Sudan.

Nigeria is endowed with vast land for agricultural production which readily supports the cultivation of a wide variety of food crops in almost all parts of the country.  Its weather condition is also favourable and the application of irrigation in sections of the country has been practised for years. Sadly, though, the country has not been able to provide enough food for its citizens and the threats of food crises and chronic food shortages are quite alarming.

Since every cloud has a silver lining, it seems the increase in the price of  food items in  some parts of the country and the commencement of yam exports by farmers in the middle belt, have brought to the fore the question if it is not time to embrace commercial agriculture as a way out.

Though the country may not have witnessed famine where thousands would be dying of hunger and starvation but the gravity of food shortages in the country has been felt in many parts.

Apart from severe hunger and malnutrition in the North Eastern part of the country due to the activities of insurgents, getting enough food to feed millions of Nigerians across the country has become a major challenge.

Thought it might be safe to assume that hunger and famine might not be felt in some parts of the country other than those  areas  affected by Boko Haram  this is not the case  in many other sections of the country as  grains like rice and beans sold in southern part of the country usually come from the northern part.

According to analysts, as the farmers are displaced, they abandon farming activities and the impact is felt across the country.

A recent survey of food prices has it that garri, the most widely available staple for many people in the southern part of the country has witnessed an astronomical increase in its price such that it is no longer affordable by many households. Prices of other food items like rice and beans are also not very friendly.

The irony of it all is that though the country is endowed with rich arable land, it has not yet been able to feed its people.

In Akwa Ibom State which depends mostly on its food needs from supplies by other states, any crisis of sort in the supplier states often results in disruption of food items and the effect is often severe food shortages.

For instance, whenever an issue of bad road between Akwa Ibom and any of its neighbouring states particularly Cross River State crops up, it does usually tell on the food prices.  Same is also the case when there is a communal crisis and boundary disputes between the states. In the case of bad roads, it occurs most often during the rainy season while dispute of farm lands are most prevalent during planting seasons. As it has been observed, the periods often record increase in food prices.

According to Governor Udom Emmanuel,  it is sad that Akwa Ibom should be experiencing high cost of food items due mainly as a result of issues that occur in other states, pointing out that the advantages of good roads being built by the state government is to assist communities evacuate food items from the rural areas to the urban centres.

Speaking at the inauguration of a new road in Nsit Atai Local Government Area, a community noted for its rich agricultural land and farming potentials, he expressed the optimism that with the inauguration of the road, it would pave the way for the people to be actively engaged in farming activities and be able to reap the benefit of the good roads.

“Now that this community has good roads,  it will enable the people to evacuate their food produce with ease to the urban centres for buyers, it is sad that Akwa Ibom should witness food crisis whenever  there are issues in neighbouring states,’’ Governor Emmanuel said.

Experts however, believe that achieving food sufficiency goes beyond the provision of good roads, saying that the method of farming and agriculture should be improved. According to them, one way of doing this is to embrace large scale farming and mechanised agriculture rather than subsistence farming which has been the norm for centuries in some states of the federation.

According to Uduak Ekene, managing director and chief executive officer of Kanak farms with specialty in fingerlings production, farming should be seen as a profession and not a part time business, adding that if it is seen as a profession and one’s livelihood depending on it, other things would come into play and one would be able to pay one’s bills conveniently.

Suggesting that rich people should go into large scale farming to feed the poor, he maintained that government should have no business in agriculture except to provide the enabling environment as well as providing grants to farmers.

“Commercial agriculture or organised agriculture is the only way you can pay your bill without sweat. If you know what you are doing and bring technology into it, you will be able to make your way.  Everybody cannot be a farmer, it is not everybody that can do commercial farming; commercial farming needs one to go for training, mentorship and one needs to have a know-how on how to apply knowledge as a well as a good knowledge in financial management,” he said.

Ekene, who is a member of Board of Trustees of cat fish farmers association in Nigeria and secretary of the Akwa Ibom branch as well as a mechanised fish farming consultant explained: “The fish farming that I am into at the moment is elitist and not for the poor. A bag of fish feed is N10, 000 and for you to feed 100 fish from juvenile stage to table size, you need eight bags of it; this simply means that if you want to feed 1000 fishes, you need  eighty bags and not many can afford this.

“You can give a cassava farmer N50,000 and he makes his way but you cannot give a fish farmer such  amount. To build a fish pond that can accommodate 1000 fish, you need about N470,000,” he said.

“The problem of farming is this, if you establish a farm, it must take care of itself,  this means that the salary paid to the workers must be generated by the farm. Why government cannot succeed in this regard is that once it sets up any venture, the wage bill will become too enormous. As you know, everybody will be talking about salary and if your salary depends on what you produce, you will put more effort to make sure that it works.  That is why government has no business in business. All they can do is to provide enabling environment and provide grants,” he said.

Giving an insight into the high returns on investment in commercial agriculture, he said being a farmer should be a passion because of the benefits it brings, saying he has found joy and happiness as a farmer.

“I did pineapple farming for three years, the first year, I leased the plot of land and planted over 4,000 suckers of pineapples and the average amount of money I put in was N30 per sucker. I bought sucker at the rate of N10 each and N20 for fertiliser for each sucker. After 18 months of proper care, I sold the pineapple N150 each and I made a profit of over 200 percent, no bank in the country can give a  loan that would yield such a profit,” he further said.

Indeed, commercial agriculture or large scale farming seems to be the way out of the country’s inability to feed its citizens and can provide a lasting solution to the ever-rising prices of basic food commodities in the country.