The drought that has ravaged Southern Africa since 2018 as well as floods from the Cyclone Idai incident are opportunities for grain-growing Nigerian farmers and exporters, but weak irrigation system and dysfunctional dams have hindered the maximisation of these opportunities.
The widespread flooding and drought have caused crop losses and low production in several Southern African countries including South Africa, the region’s largest maize supplier.
But Nigerian farmers are unable to seize the moment of opportunity because of their over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture and the fact that 96 percent of dams in the country are dysfunctional.
“We are not prepared to leverage the opportunity of exporting grains to Southern African countries to meet their current shortfall despite being the second largest maize producer in Africa,” AfricanFarmer Mogaji, chief executive officer, X-Ray Farms Consulting, told BusinessDay.
“This is because most of our farmers are yet to commence 2019 planting season owing to irregular rainfall we are currently experiencing and the dams that were supposed to be an alternative are not functioning optimally,” Mogaji said.
Apart from the current flooding, South Africa, the continent’s largest maize producer, had in January predicted a decline in its 2019 production as dry conditions hit main growing provinces in the country. Many experts saw that as an opportunity for Nigerian grain farmers, but that has not materialised.
The Nigerian government has repeatedly said it is committed to reviving the agricultural sector, yet 96 percent of dams located across the country are dysfunctional.
Experts say the idea behind construction of dams was in line with the need to boost water supply, provide reservoir for flood control, irrigation farming and hydroelectricity.
But this has not been the case for irrigation farming as most of the dams across the country do not have the needed facilities to irrigate farms as they have since been neglected by various levels of government.
Nigeria has a total of 264 dams with a combined storage capacity of 33 BCM of water for multipurpose uses, of which 210 are owned by the Federal Government, 34 by the states and 20 by private organisations, according to the Federal Ministry of Water Resources.
However, experts say only five of the 264 dams in the country are fully functional.
Nigeria currently has irrigation land potential of about 3.1 million hectares out of which only 150,000 hectares have been developed, according to a document on the Federal Ministry of Water Resources website.
Prince Oyefeso, chief executive officer of Oyefeso Farms, said “the weak irrigation structure and issues with the dams are the reason why farmers still depend on rain-fed agriculture”.
“The few dams that are functional are underutilised. If the government is really serious about reviving agriculture, then it must ensure that all dams across the country are functional and fully utilised,” said Oyefeso.
He stated that the country has been unable to earn more foreign exchange through the sector because of the over-reliance on rainfall for farming activities.
“Lots of traders from neighbouring countries have always come to mop up our grains especially maize. So, with the drought and flood incident we are supposed to have more markets for our grains, especially as one the top-growers in some grains,” said Victor Iyama, president, Federation of Agricultural Commodity of Nigeria (FACAN).
“Nigeria should start looking at boosting its own production to meet local and export demand. It takes only three months to grow most grains and we have both the resources and the weather condition to do that right now,” Iyama said.
JOSEPHINE OKOJIE & BUNMI BAILEY
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