With Nigeria ranked 110 out of 127 countries on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) in 2024 after it ranked 119 amongst 125 countries in 2023 and also placed 6th out of 11 nations in terms of food insecurity there is indeed cause for serious concern. And more importantly actions to be taken to remedy the scary situation. But good enough, there is one governor taking the right steps and lessons have to be learnt from his actions taken so far. He is none other than Mohammed Umar Bago of Niger state. But what really has he done for others to learn from? That is the million-naira question.
The piece of interesting news is that the state has secret a huge grant of $280,000 from the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in partnership with the state Ministry of Agriculture, with its own$27,000 to supply the implementation of the policies on increasing food security across the value change. According to the AGRA Coordinator in Niger state, Godswill Aguiyi the objectives include the strengthening of agric policies which are on ground in the state. It is also meant to enhance data management. Under the new initiate the agric section into four subsections.
It should be noted that so far, the Bago-led administration has allocated 250,000 hectres of land out of the 76,373 square kilometers of land available in the state to boost sugar cane farming. The well-articulated master plan encapsulates the production, processing, preservation, packaging as well as marketing and export. In addition, another 1.2 million hectares of land has been made available for pasture production, ranching and livestock farming. Beyond the fact that Niger state currently boasts of the country ‘s largest livestock population the forward -looking governor has amplified the vision with the partnership with the Brazil based JBS Project on livestock production.
Notably, with these modern framing practices in place the “Farmer Governor” will achieve the feat of creating a million new jobs, build 100, 000 new homes in the farm estates in addition to developing 100 agric facilities. That perhaps, explains why the House of Representatives has praised these remarkable achievements through one of the members, Babajimi Benson (APC, Lagos State). That came through a motion moved by him on November 26, 2024. According to him he was inspired by the call he had from a military general from Cameroon studying at Harvard University, with commendations for Governor Bago for the notable projects embarked upon which will definitely bear positive impact on food security in the state. This is one good example to remind us about the huge agric potentials Nigeria boasts of but which was more effective during the First Republic back then in the ’60s.
It would be recalled that between 1960 and 1970 agriculture was responsible for 63% of the export earnings and 55.8% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but it fell to as low as 28.4% on the average between 1971 and 1980 mainly due to the discovery of crude oil. The attendant negligence of the sector with mass rural -urban migration of the agile youths, leaving antiquated and rustic farming practices to the old men and women was definitely responsible for that.
What it all means is that this moment calls for a return to our farmlands with modern technologies to boost production, harvesting, processing, preservation, packaging, marketing and export with focus on organic farming. The states should be allowed to have full control of their God-given agric potentials through holistic restructuring as it was during the First Republic. Such opportunity was what it possible for the then Northern Region to boast of massive production of hides and skin, cotton, sorghum, maize and of course, the popular groundnut pyramids. Similarly, the old Western Region was engaged in the mass production of cocoa, coffee, cassava and yams while the Eastern Region was well known for the production of rubber, oil palm and the root crops.
Going forward we have to go back to the reliable and well-articulated blue- print on agricultural revolution as highlighted by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina President of the African Development Bank AfDB when he was the Minister of Agriculture during the President Goodluck Jonathan – led administration. He was able to identify the areas of the core competence of each of the states and geopolitical zones. If done, Nigeria will become the food production hub of the African continent which he predicted has the huge potential of reaching $1 trillion by the year 2030.
Now us therefore, the best of times for each of the state governors to borrow a fresh green leaf from the hands of Bago, identify the areas of core competence and unleash such potentials through pragmatic, purposeful and productive partnerships with the international donor agencies, waiting in the wings to breathe life into such potentially vibrant visions.
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