Lack of coordination among various stakeholders in the agricultural sector and improper value chain integration has exposed the limitations of the Federal Government’s agricultural intervention programmes, farmers say.
The farmers, who spoke during a webinar last week at the fourth edition of the BusinessDay’s Annual Agribusiness Summit with the theme ‘Interventions-at-Risk: The Outlook for Smallholder Farmers’ Assistance, Empowerment, and Integration,’ say the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) did not deliver in boosting farmers productivity as the programme terminates later in the year.
They call for synergy between the agriculture ministry, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and farmers to ensure that interventions get to the appropriate players.
“The Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP) did not engage the real farmers because there is no proper stakeholder coordination,” noted Ibrahim Kabiru, national president, All Farmers Association of Nigeria.
“The CBN has shown the world that it is committed to agriculture but it must work closely with stakeholders to achieve results. Farmers do not get the right quality of inputs under government intervention programmes and this hinders productivity,” Kabiru said.
Nigeria had in 2016, launched the APP drafted to drive growth in the sector by boosting farmers’ productivity and attaining food security.
Africa’s most populous country still has one of the lowest yields per hectare when compared with its African peers in major staple crops, despite having agriculture as the main thrust of all its programmes.
Nigeria’s yield per hectare for rice is two, whereas it is three for Ethiopia, 2.8 in South Africa and 4.2 in Kenya, data from the Food and Agricultural Organisation show.
“There is no meter or parameter to gauge the success of intervention programmes if we still cannot feed ourselves,” Nasir Yammama, CEO, Verdant said.
“There is still no proper value chain integration for us to drive our agriculture and boost productivity,” Yammama said.
He called for the involvement of the country’s National Seed Council in the management of key inputs distributed to farmers under intervention programmes.
Sadiq Kassim, general manager- corporate affairs, TGI Group, said there were challenges in intervention programmes but there was still room for expansion and impacting farmers’ livelihood.
The government has made some progress in its intervention programmes, especially in the area of rice production but more focus should be given to other crops in its new proposed policy, Kassim said.
“Our rice processing five years ago was less than a million metric tons but now we have a capacity of above three million metric tons,” he said.
Speaking on the way forward and what the government should improve upon in its new proposed policy that will take over APP, Ikechi Mgbeoji, commissioner for agriculture, Abia State, said concentration of the activities of intervention programmes should be shared evenly across each geopolitical zones.
“We need to stick to existing programmes and interventions instead of insisting on new ones,” said Mgbeoji.
Evaluating the APP, Frank Kudia, director of extension services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, said the policy had impacted significantly on the development of the agricultural sector.
Kudia, who represented Muhammad Sabo Nanono, minister of agriculture, stated that the APP had made quality seeds, chemicals and farm machinery easily accessible to farmers.
“The policy has decreased the volume of imported staple crops by 5 percent and reduces rural unemployment by 2 percent per annum. Increased credit facilities to smallholder farmers as 90 percent of loanable funds in commercial banks are now dedicated to agriculture,” he said.
