Prospects and challenges in the Progressive Intervention of the Government in Agriculture – Ogunpaimo Olaiwola

Few weeks ago, I wrote an article on how government investments in agriculture can create jobs for the youth and other opportunities for the government.

The article was published in the mainstream media between 27th June 2023 and 3rd July 2023. Comments, feedbacks and criticisms that the article generated were overwhelmingly positive. Surprisingly, the government declared a state of emergency on food security, food pricing and sustainability two days ago. Unknown to many people that this decision has saved 25.3 million Nigerians from acute food insecurity.

Nonetheless, the proposed intervention strategies, if well coordinated and properly monitored, will provide a great opportunity for all the people at all times to have continued access to sufficient, safe and balanced diet that meet the dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle.

Apart from that, it will also increase the level of trust Nigerians have in the present administration. However, only strategies 2, 3 and 8 that possibly suggests that livestock production, forestry and aquaculture were fathomed into the plan, it appears that crop production was the only major concern as little or nothing was
explicitly stated in the government intervention plan.

In Netherlands for example, the food security policy was divided into four pillars and where possible, Netherlands embassies in partner countries were also involved. The government of the country ensure that specific results indicators were set for each objective. This type of approach can also be adopted by Nigerian
government to ensure effectiveness and to accurately measure the progress of the intervention strategies.

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While some of the strategies remain unambiguous to implement, I think the government should be mindful of
the fact that some parts of that proposal need further consultation before implementation. Take for instance,
paragraph 6(B), which states that “the government will also collaborate with mechanisation companies to clear
more forest and make them available for farming”. With highest regards to wildlife management and forest practices, this may jeopardize the good intentions of the government because of the criticisms this may generate.

There is presently more than 70 million hectares of land in Nigeria and with the initial 500, 000 land that the government is aiming at, there may be no need to mechanize forest to plant arable crops.
Further to this, Italy also declared state of emergency on agriculture in five of their regions due to low rainfall and high temperature in 2022 and part of the immediate intervention strategies that the government adopted was the approval of 34. 5 million euro fund to help those affected.

Few months ago, Quelea birds ravaged
almost 75, 000 (Seventy Five Thousand) hectares of dry season rice plantation in Kebbi state and over 100 farmers lost their crops to the the birds in the Argungu Local government area of the state. To date, it is not clear whether affected farmers have been compensated. It is noteworthy to mention that some of the affected farmers have decided to diversify into other activities because of this particular disaster.

Without mincing words, government should include training, research and the use of technology as part of the
strategies if the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu intends to achieve the best results within a
short period. In this regards, I think it is expedient to involve specialized tertiary institutions in this intervention
programme to assist in research, data management, training, use of technology among others.

Finally, I use this opportunity to urge the President to subject some of the proposed objectives to further consultation to accommodate all the necessary concerns required to achieve the stated objectives.

Ogunpaimo Olaiwola is a Public Affairs Analyst and Commentator