BY CHUKWUDI ABIANDU
The value of agriculture as the most important sector of
Nigeria’s economy has been acknowledged almost by all. The significance can be
seen in what experts have listed as major roles that this sector plays in
economic development, to wit: “Helping to provide food supply for domestic
consumption; the release of labour for industrial output; helping to increase
the supply of domestic savings, and the inherent ability to earn foreign
exchange, thereby opening the country up to international trade.”
Despite this recognition, it would appear that the sector
has remained comatose, especially in the area of funding, making the sector
really not to achieve much, even in the desperate need to shore up the sector
by providing financial assistance to farmers, who are constrained mainly by
lack of access to funds. Yet, experts agree that access to agricultural credit
has become a strong force if the sector is to improve.
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| Gov. Okowa at flag off of PPSP in Asaba |
Delta state Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa seemed to have come
to the crucial understanding that agriculture must be rejuvenated, and given
its pride of place with focus put on the farmer, who is, first, the very fount
of the food produced by the sector, and the other attendant benefits accruable
to the nation and the people as a veritable source of economic diversification,
income generation, and employment of the teeming jobless youths. For him,
Nigerian banks must now begin to take cognizance of this fact, and take the initiative
by doing the crucially needful, which is developing a template to seriously
finance agriculture in a way that farmers will have little or no problem with
approaching banks for finance.
It is therefore, understood why he gave agriculture a prominent
place in his administration’s five-point SMART agenda. Under SMART, (a
programme the governor designed to create jobs, generate and sustain
businesses, and stabilize families and communities within a framework of
equity, fairness, and justice), he pledged to undertake agricultural reforms
and accelerated industrialization. At his inauguration as governor of Delta
state on Friday, May 29, 2015, Okowa said: “It is our earnest desire to
encourage and create the enabling environment for commercial farming to thrive
through the private sector and public/private partnership. Delta State has vast
potentials and capacity in the production of rubber, oil palm, rice, yam,
cassava, maize, potato, plantain, tomato, and fish. We shall forge and sustain
a structured relationship with the farming population with a view to enhancing
production, storage, and marketing of all farm products.”
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| Okowa, Commissioning the tractors for PPSP |
About six months into his administration, Governor Okowa has
taken very profound initiatives to breathe life into his SMART agenda, of
creating the enabling environment for more employment opportunities, a
flourishing agriculture and agri-business sector. Specifically on October 7,
2015, he inaugurated the Production and Processing Support Programme (PPSP),
designed to facilitate the flow of inputs, equipment, technologies, micro-credit
and technical assistance to farmers, agro-processors and agricultural value
chain operators. The Chief Job Creation Officer, Prof. Eric Eboh explained that
the aim of PPSP is to increase productivity and incomes, thereby creating jobs
and wealth, towards prosperity for all Deltans. “The PPSP plan includes a total
of 1,000 producers and 1,600 agro-processors (individuals and groups) from now
through the end of the year,” Eboh said. It is significant to hear from Prof.
Eboh that a major milestone has been recorded under PPSP with the creation of a
data base on farmers in the state. “Today, we have a fairly comprehensive data
base for crops, livestock and fishery farmers. The data base ware houses information
about the farmers including contact telephone numbers, residential address,
type of enterprise, size of enterprise and location of enterprise, Eboh said,
pointing out that the data base is in line with the know-your-Farmer principle,
which is an international best practice in agricultural sector programming.
“Today in Delta state, we now know who the farmers are, where the farms are and
can now target them accurately. In addition, the data base provides the state
government with handy facts and figures about agricultural production, with
which it can readily and confidently engage with private sector investors and
partners for job and wealth creation projects such as large-scale farming,
development of out-growers and development of agro-processing clusters. As a
living document, the data base will be updated as information becomes
available, Prof. Eboh declared.
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| Gov. Okowa test driving a tractor at the PPSP flag-off |
Of course, he is also right in celebrating this ground
breaking achievement with the highly colourful, splendid, and stately
ceremonies witnessed on October 7, 2015 at the Commissioners’ quarters, Asaba.
Governor Okowa acknowledged this when he underscored the significance of the
formal inauguration of PPSP. He said: “First, it is the fulfillment of the
promise I made after my inauguration as Governor. On that day I said: ‘The need
to diversify our economy and reduce undue dependence on the proceeds from oil
has become quite urgent, and this is one agenda that this administration shall
give great attention to. We are committed to the building and consolidation of
a state in which there shall be more employment opportunities, a flourishing
agriculture and agri-business sector.
‘Secondly, it heralds an innovative approach to policy
formulation and implementation of strategies for effective economic
diversification and self-reliance.’ Okowa’s judgment is that Delta State, although
blessed with abundant natural resources, very favourable climatic conditions,
vast arable and fertile soils, unfortunately, either by omission or commission,
the state, like most other states in the federation, is yet to maximize her
potential in agricultural production for economic growth, employment creation,
import substitution and sustainable development. He advanced reasons for the
obvious national malaise to include the prevalence of subsistence farming,
non-prioritisation of agriculture and agri-business at different levels of
governance, poor storage facilities and the absence of a sustainable value
chain. Each of these factors has impacted negatively on the development of
agriculture in the country.
He is utterly unsettled that agriculture suffered its worst
reversal of fortune with the discovery of crude oil as a major revenue earner
for the country, a situation that made agriculture to become an exhausting,
boring, unpleasant work, and therefore, unattractive for millions of productive
men and women, especially the youth, who abandoned the farms in search of white
collar jobs in the cities. “It was the beginning of the rural-urban migration,
which led to decades of neglect of the agricultural sector,” Okowa said,
pointing out that the PPSP and other policy initiatives of his administration
are designed to turn the situation around. “They are not only envisioned to
engender improved processes, better output and profitability for the existing
farmers, but to also make farming attractive and appealing to our young men and
women once again,” he declared.
Even as the government is making committed effort through
the PPSP, Okowa said that his administration hopes to transform the
agricultural sector and thereby stimulate development in all directions.
Despite this, he is not under the illusion that it is something which the state
government alone can achieve exclusively. “We obviously cannot do it alone,” he
acknowledged. And for the way out, he said: “To restore agriculture to its
pride of place in the Nigerian economy, we must address the issue of financing
for the agricultural sector.”
His poser is that despite the acknowledgement that
agriculture plays a critical role in driving economic development, inadequate
funding has curiously, continued to recur. He explains, for instance, that
available statistics indicate that the bulk of the nation’s small-scale farmers,
regrettably, have no access to credit finance, and, are therefore unable to
invest in basic farming inputs such as implements, seedlings and fertilizers.
The result is that farm yields have remained abysmally low, leading to wide
spread poverty and stunted economic growth. It is towards helping to ease the
difficulty faced by farmers in getting funds, as well as overcoming poor
technology and infrastructure shortfall that Governor Okowa’s administration
conceived the idea of PPSP.
To effectively overcome the challenge of financial scarcity
faced by farmers, he declared: “There is no gainsaying the fact that our
financial institutions must rise up to the challenge of agricultural financing
if we are serious about economic diversification and self reliance. I
therefore, call on the banking sector to come up with robust credit policies in
agriculture that will address credit turnaround time, the recruitment and
training of specialist bankers who understand the dynamics of agriculture and
agri-business, especially the fact that they are time and season bound.” This,
indeed, is the ultimate truth. And Governor Okowa must be commended for the
nerve in declaring what is in the heart of every right thinking member of
society, and their hush misgivings about the operations of Nigeria’s banking
industry in relation to funding of farmers and the farming business.
Those who care to know in this country understand that there
is a gargantuan problem with the financing of agriculture in the country. It is
the problem that has made many farmers, most of who are getting quite old now
to have remained stuck at the peasant level, and are therefore, poor, indigent
and destitute. This is the direct opposite of what obtains in advanced
countries where farmers are rich and prosperous. Reason being that farmers in
those countries are quite recognized as important, and the sector recognized as
significant for the survival and well-being of the country. These countries,
recognized and showed through deliberate but liberal policies and actions that
agricultural development, and truly that agricultural credit clearly is a
strong force for further improvement.
Through liberal policies, banks, as major stakeholders in a
country’s development were seriously prevailed upon to make broad-minded
designs for farmers to take advantage of in the overall interest of farmers,
such that they will not have to go through very cumbersome and difficult bank
demands to raise funds for farm input needs and agri-business. In Nigeria, what
obtains is that banks exist and spend billions for advert placement in the media,
most of which are less than genuine, but mere stunts and facades that give
false impression that they have policies to fund agriculture. They are just
deceptive appearances placed to hoodwink the government that they are engaged
in financing the agricultural sector. Truth is, banks in Nigeria are not fairly
disposed to grow the agricultural sector. Otherwise, how does one explain the
inability of even peasant farmers to access as little as N50,000 from Nigerian
banks?
It is this difficulty that has made the sector unattractive
to young people and school leavers, including those whose degrees are in
agriculture. Nigerian banks make impossible demands on farmers. They need to
renew their minds towards genuinely helping the agric sector to grow and
flourish. And one way to do this is to do what Governor Okowa of Delta state is
urging them to do, and this is what one is echoing in this write-up, a call “on
the banking sector to come up with robust credit policies in agriculture that
will address credit turnaround” for farmers so they can have access to credit
finance.
Nigeria’s financial institutions, nay banks must realize and
be concerned that the dwindling fortune in agriculture in Nigeria is without
doubt a problem they helped to create because of their indifference to the
plight of farmers. And one way to ease the problem is to taking up the Okowa
challenge and treat it with the seriousness it deserves.
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Chukwudi Abiandu, journalist and fish farmer
is publisher of Banner Media Network, an on-line news medium.
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