COVID-19 is one of the biggest health challenges the world has witnessed in a generation and economic experts are still evaluating the impact that the pandemic will have on food security as global economies reel from the hardship triggered by it.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that both lives and livelihoods are at risk from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the global community is confronted with the threat of global food emergency that could have lasting impacts on hundreds of millions of people. Of particular concern is developing economies that FAO notes would experience “increasing food production issue,” in addition to the problem of food access and worsening food insecurity. The pandemic has aggravated humanitarian problems with about 132 million people suffering from acute food insecurity and 100 million people projected by the World Bank to slide into extreme poverty. Interestingly, in Nigeria, this situation has re-echoed the critical role of the agricultural sector to the economy.
In spite of the pandemic, the agricultural sector, unlike several other sectors of the economy, which experienced negative growth, remained vibrant posting a positive growth despite experiencing a minimal contraction. The sector’s contribution in Q3 remarkably improved to 30.77 percent from 24.65 percent in Q2 2020, at a time the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) dipped to -6.10 percent and -3.62 percent in Q2 2020 and Q3 2020 respectively.
However, there are serious concerns about smallholder farmers in Nigeria who are the vulnerable group in the agriculture sector, in spite of the critical role they play in food security. Significantly, they account for 70 percent food production as most Nigerians still heavily depend on them for their daily meal.
It is in the light of this that the efforts of the private sector groups that provide support for smallholder farmers are well acknowledged. Notable among them are food and agro-allied companies that do not only partner with but also provide support to farmers, particularly smallholder farmers, across the value chains, namely OLAM Nigeria, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Stallion Group, Seedco Nigeria Limited, Dangote Group and BUA Group, etc.
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It is also worthy of mention the digital agriculture revolution being spearheaded by some tech startups in the country, including FarmCrowdy, ThriveAgric, Verdant Agric Tech, Agromall, among others. For example, FarmCrowdy connects smallholder farmers with investors. The investor’s funds are then used to hire farmers, lease lands, and provide inputs such as fertilizer. Agromall promotes effective interaction between smallholder farmers and other agricultural actors as well as provides digital solutions to optimise best agricultural practices.
Remarkably, another member of the private sector that has kept faith with its mandate of supporting smallholder farmers across the agriculture value chains is the British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation (BATNF).
The Foundation has continued in its strides by helping farmers face the challenges posed by the pandemic as well as donating relief materials to the government-led COVID-19 relief initiatives in a bid to cushion the direct consequences of the pandemic and fight against the spread of the virus.
As part of its commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – goal 10 to reduce inequalities –the Foundation supports vulnerable population like rural smallholder farmers to transit from subsistence to commercial agriculture. In doing this, it provides grants to farmers to subsidize the cost for this transition and the skills needed to improve their livelihoods.
Hence, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation, in partnership with Abia State Fadama, distributed certified rice seeds to 500 smallholder farmers in the state thereby prioritizing the development of sustainable agricultural enterprises.
Similarly, through the climate-smart agricultural intervention to support dry season farming, the British American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation has helped alleviate the challenges faced by smallholder farmers who largely practise rain-fed agriculture. This includes the drilling of 100 tube wells on 100 hectares of land and the donation of water pumps to preselected farmers.
The impact of this intervention was felt by smallholder farmers in Damanagawa, Jigawa State who, for the past two consecutive seasons, have struggled to have a successful wet farming season due to the challenges of climate change which has limited the growth of their financial capacity and ability to increase their farm size for cultivation.
Instead, they resorted to harvesting crops prematurely and using them for fodder as a result of floods on the farmlands. Remarkably, this intervention resulted in the farmers achieving an average yield of about 4.5 metric tonnes per hectare; and at the end of the project, 352.9 metric tonnes (4,706 bags) were sold out to aggregators and other off-takers. There were also no worries over post-harvest losses as all farm produce were sold off apart from those set aside for personal consumption.
Sabo Dede, one of the beneficiaries, couldn’t hold back his excitement after recording an outstanding yield. “When I was doing wet season farming, floods always destroyed my farmland leaving me heavily indebted, but with this support from BATN Foundation, I was able to farm in the dry season. Now, I am delighted that I have sold my paddy and settled all my debts. I was also able to sew clothes for my family during the 2020 Sallah (Eid El Kabir) celebration,” he said.
It is hoped that the interventions of more private sector players in turning around the fortunes of smallholder farmers will help boost Nigeria’s agriculture sector and ultimately put the nation’s economy back on the path of recovery.
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