As millions of Nigerians remain confined to their homes following lockdown orders and curfews in several states, the availability of food needed to survive even beyond the lockdown period is getting worse as farmers in many parts of Nigeria remain unable to access their farms. President Muhammadu Buhari may have indicated agriculture as an essential service; however, the reality is different as farmers risk arrests if they attempt to visit their farms, making availability of food quite unstable.
Agribusiness Insight monitored a webinar on ‘Assessing the Impact of Covid-19 on National Food Security in Nigeria’ organised by the Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), with participation of key stakeholders and its executive council members, where a common theme was that accessibility to farms/facilities remain the major issues in the ongoing lockdowns.
“There have been reports of extension service workers and farmers being arrested and chased from their fields because of the lockdown,” said Manzo Maigari, director general of NABG. He further explained that across Nigeria, most of the food consumed is not produced in backyard farms.
“Food must come from Kano, Yola, and for cattle Borno or Yobe, now there is a lockdown and they are not being allowed to move freely,” he said.
Kabiru Ibrahim, president, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), had lamented that the current lockdown is making it difficult for farmers to go to their farms, putting food production at risk and uncertainty for food security in the immediate future when the Coronavirus pandemic may be over.
“It is exceedingly difficult for the smallholder farmers to go on their farms because of the complete lockdown across the country,” he said, while noting police checkpoints and others along the roads, many of which do not grant passage to farmers.
Smallholder farmers who are completely left on their own dominate the agriculture landscape in Nigeria, and no one cares what is happening with them because we have taken too much for granted in terms of food security. The population is growing at a much higher rate than even the GDP, but who is feeding Nigeria? It is the smallholder, said Maigari.
“After Covid, the next issue could be hunger and how to survive as a nation,” said Lizzy Igbine, national president, Nigerian Women Agro Allied farmers Association.
The food being eaten today in Nigeria was produced mostly last year and so the country may not see the impact of the lockdown on agriculture until next year. However, as industry players noted, there is an urgent need to work with the realisation that if the country does not give priority to food production, as captured by Maigari, “what we will be dealing with next year will be worse than the Coronavirus”. When the Coronavirus is over, one thing that is expected to become topical globally is food security, and Nigeria may not be an exception unless this is purposively addressed.
“What is necessary now is to position ourselves as a country in such a way that we avert creating new problems in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Ubong Inyang who works with Babban Gona farmer services.
According to him, the driver of food security in Nigeria post-covid will be the ability to continue producing food irrespective of the current situation. Like others, he stressed that it is important exceptions are made for farmers so that they can access their farms.
In terms of logistics supply chains, there have been challenges moving inputs from for instance chemical companies in Lagos or fertiliser from producers in Port Harcourt, as they have been facing restrictions of movement. “If we are not able to get fertiliser to the farm on time, it has already started raining in some places, so we can already imagine it is going to affect productivity generally,” he said.
Suggesting possible ways to avert a food security crisis, Igbine expressed the view that from all the money being donated as Covid-19 relief, government should devote some to inputs if it really wants to support agriculture. She also stated that in the last two years farmers in Gwagwalada and Keffi have been unable to access their farms, and there should be a plan to secure farmers as they return to their farmlands.
Also on funding, Ibrahim, the AFAN president, said it is important for government to realise that “it will be foolhardy to say that you have 34 billion in the foreign reserve and you are hungry.” He further advocated that there should be special windows for all farmers to access their farms, perhaps having special clearance such that at checkpoints when they ascertain they are farmers would be granted passage. If implemented, the country he says may be able to guarantee food production continues.
Maigari, DG of NABG, stressed it was important to have the Presidential Taskforce on Covid-19 make those implementing the lockdown at checkpoints understand that “they are standing there to implement the lockdown because their stomachs are full. If they get hungry they won’t be able to enforce the lockdown.”
Apart from farmers, it was also noted that other players in the value chain such as agro dealers of inputs like seeds, fertilisers and agrochemicals need to be able to move and deliver products that will ensure farmers can continue producing food across the country.
CALEB OJEWALE
