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Govemor.4.bdullalahAhmed of Kwom Slate (left), presenting sotlrvenirlo the Cllie/Technical Adviser-to the Minister oi Agricullure. Dr Marthl Fregene during a courtesy call on tire governor by the Federal Govemmenl's Team all Cassava Transfomration Programme at Gol'emmelll HOllse, Ilonn .. yesterday

Agricultural transformation, the clear road map

By JIMOH BABATUNDE

~eDe l't!lr be lallis

abo ut agricultural issues, th e CEO

Swiss Bioslild Nigeria , AIr. Emlllafl Ajay/ , is alwilYs pius}oflale He is an ilgriculture economIst with vast ezperienc:e In ezt eDslon services ilad Illilnilgemenl. III

. this Interview, he lalla iJboullhe Agrlcu/turill 1Talls!oTlDiltion Action Plan uove/led by the Allllisier of Agriculture, Dr. A.klnlVurul Adeslnil ilS well as the n eed fa bi1l't~ private sector Invo/I'ed lu iertillzer proC'ureruenl and distribution aQlolJg olhers.

H ere Is aD e¥cerpl

On Ihe Agricultural TranslormalioD Acllo n P la n unveiled Ily the Mlnls ler of Agriculture

I will want 10 thank Vanguard newspapers, as their narue suggests, tht:y are always in the vanguard of driving topical issues in Nigeria and very prolessional in their approach.

On the issue of agriculture in Nigeria, I must S<lY, this is the first time in the history of this country we are having a square peg in a square hole. By this, I mean lor many years, we now have a great prolessional, an erudi te scholar, a great in lernalional figure in agriculture, who has worked in research and deveiopmeul economics and having a brunch in practical agriculture now at the helms 01 affair driving our agricultu.re as minister.

At several fora he has made i[ clear thai he does nOI wanl to be minbter for hunger, and when you look at his Transformational Agenda on the agricultural sector which he presented to the President , the economic learn and the private sector, you will agree with me that he is coming lrom a different dimension.

On your question, it is true that we have had different policies. not just in agricu lture but in different sectors , lout the diffe rence I could see here is that it dS an dll inclusive policy, it is totalitarian and expansive in ill! design.

The Transfonnationa l Action Plan took a c riti ca l look at where we are coming from and it h as a clear road map of wh ere we are going and bow we are going to get there. If you look at the policy, it targetli five crops, it teUs you what employment we are going to generate, which he putli conservatively at a total of 3.5 million jobs to be created within four years, this to some of us is conservative as we know the potential of th e sector in tenns of job creation .

It a lso tells you what It en tails at each of the turning point in [he policy, the policy has measurement entrenched in it .11 is not policy per ser. It also looked at the land use ac t which is inimical to agriculture. the role of the state and the local governments since agriculture is in concurrent lists of our constitution

It also looked at some 01 the policy th a t wi ll requ ire legislative act to back them . So, you can see that tbis is not a policy in isolation.

Again, it took. agriculture not as developmental agenda, but a business wbich will have the support 01 the government, but driven by the private sector. So, to me It is completely different looking a t it from the cover and the pages.

O n the five c rops Iden lllled by Ihe aclion plan

If you look a t the policy, it is constructed along valu e chain; on each of the value chain there is an Inbuilt mechanism th at will drive production, storage and marketing.

I was part of the cassava initiative, If you remember, we were going to several

towns driving cassava production In Nigeria aher (WO

years I remember being driven away from a village when they said you asked us to plant CilSsava now we produced and can not sell.

The Minister 01 Agriculture is aware of this and that is why

the issue of marketing as part of the value chain is well tackled an d a lso the Issue of import substitution tha t will use up the produced crops as WeU as the issue 01 backward integration in which ca$e some of th e companies or manufacturing firms that are using agriculturaJ raw materia ls wi ll hav e to stop importing their raw materials and use what we produce locally.

We have al50 seen the minister asking the flour millers to indude 10 percent of cassava in their flour for breading making; you can see thaI he was not unaware of the gluts. So they are well captured in this policy as well.

And for the use 0110 percent in the usage of cassava in flour making, be Is also thinking 01 puning up a legislative act to back it up !hat will ensu.re we are nol only looking at the fou r years framework, but there is co nsi s tenc y in the policy, because tiJat has been a critical draw back in our polides . They were always short-lived, most of them where short term policies and projects driven and $0 they bave no survival mechanism built in them.

I think this new action plan bas been taken care of In this and that is why most 01 us are

happy about this new policy On the need for lhe prlvale

seclorlnvolvementtn fe rtilize r procurement, dis tribution

You see the issue of lertilizer has been unnecessarily politicized like the Issue of petrol subsidy. Whatthe minister is saying is as simply ilS ABC. Fertilizer is not the only input in agriculture. When we talk of agricultural inputs, we are talking of seeds which is very primary, we are tallnng 01 crop

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production products like fungi cide, herbicide which II laken away from agric you can loose about 40% of your yields , we are talking of fertilizer, fingerlings.

Thosewho are into fishing buy their own fingerlings , those in poultry buy their own feeds and they are not complaining.

Let me give you an example, in cocoa if you do not apply fungicide you can expect 100 percent yield loss and yet government ha s never been concerned, and the farmers have been able to get their fungicide rl!quirements to protect their c rops. We can go on and on fOI

each 01 the crops. Today. we believe that crop

prot ection products used in Nigeria agriculture is in the region 01 40% vis a vis the total requirement and because it is private sector driven the fanners have been able to access and use it and get more used to it and been able to pay lor it and so the growth of farmers protection products have been increasing frOID one year to another.

Tllis Is not so with fertilizers uecduse the {<lnners are waiting fo l' government to buy and once the government buys the middle men double cross the fatmers. The question I asked people Is how much the famler pays lor ler tili.zer.

From my research . It has been revealed that the fa.rmer is actually paying more than he is expected to pay for fertilizer. The government involvement is a llecting the private secror participation in procurement, sales and dl!;trlbution 01 fertili zer in Nigeria.

The involvement of government In ferlilizer is h ampering the growth of fertili zer usage in Nigelia, it is <lffecting the spn!<ld of the use of fertilizer, and its involvement is encouraging co rrupt ion in fertili zer procurement and distribution at each of the valu e chain.

The minister is very righ t III Ius approacb, what he is sll.ying is that in the interim, the govemm .. lit will not just walch his hands off, the government

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will 100.10: al the way that uy this year the ;!ovemment wiU buy, the distribution will be by the private (ompiinies based on the voucher system and this has worked very well else ",,'here and I thinkil will workweU here too.

It Is Just a bridge for a full blown privatization and for us <It the pI ivate sector we are just waiting, r(;ady and willing. A compar y like us is already involve,j with disnibution of folio fer t lilzer, bio fertilizer without any government involveuent and we are making a succ!!!s of it.

NumiJer 01 private firms has the facilities, the infrastructure to do ferdlizer procurement and distrilmlion. I am sure if this has been let. in the hands of plivate comp,lnles by today we would have h.sd a lot of fenilizer compames in this country, but the government has been its greatest enemy in the ISsue 01 fertilize ;:.

On Il.e country Ile llig able to leed IISo.! Ii

I knOH the World Food Day has bee(.me an annual ritual, but it is good [0 still remind ourselvLs Ihat food still remains the baSIC need for mankind to I.lve. I am aiso very sad Ihat every day I go to bed that from aVailable statIStics that IIIlllly Nigeriil.lS are going to bed that night w,thout food .

As all agricultunst I leel bad and as .. Nigerian I look at all the resou rces that God has eodowe.:::l with that people still go bed without food.

What can we doJ Government needs loJ have strong political will to d...ive agriculture, beyond policie. there is need for politict.1 will. I want to see govenu<lent pursue Agricu lture the saillt: way they pursue electioneering campalgn.

The thallEnges facing the smail fa.IDlers are enonnous and they are not what we cannot deal with . They h ave no proper governmEnt $UppOrlS, availability of proceeds, good elttension supports, sustalnibiHty of government poticie .. to guild them as to where the governmenl is going.

MIRACLE in Malawi I ITA has olficially launched

i ts MIRACLE (Making Agricultural Innovations

Work for Smallholder Farmers A llecled by HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa) project in Malawi th at will make available agriculture-based innovations to improve the livelihoods of some 62,500 people living with AIDS (PtA; in the country. The project is part 01 coordinated efforts by IITA . and partners to reduce the impact 01 HIV/AlDS on peoplE: dependent on agriculture. which is a source of livelihoods lor ove! 80% of the population in Malawi. MIRACLE ~Malawi was

launched during a cerelilOny hetd at the Crossroads Hotel in lilongwe on 19 September by Humphrey MdYEtseni, Deputy Director responSible for Planning and Research in the Department of Nutrition Cind HIV/AlDS. He represented Dr. Mary Shawa, I'rindpal Secretary of the Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS of the Office of the President and the ClIbinet.

In hIS keynote addres5 , Mdyelscn! cited that the project, w hich will con tinuously en co ur age PLA farmers to produce and consume traditiollal nutritious vegetables like pu.upkln leaves, cassava leav~, :;weel potato leaves, aml similar o ther c rops, will complement rhe government's efforts toJ mitigate tbe effects 01 [ile deb.dly disease on man) Malawians.

"IITA and its partners have stlcces:'l lully coordinated proiect~ that have increased agriculrural productivity <lnd reduced poverty through Improvlllg food and nutritional security in the country, and the government 01 Malawi is convin( ed that the MIRACLE Project will be one 01 the projects th at W I I! gil a 10llg way In

supporting the government achiev ~ the Millennium Development Goals," said r-,'Idyell;cni.

Hailu Tefera, UTA Country Repres entative for Malllwi , called (on all palnlers for tlieir total cOlfunitment to ensure the success oi the project.