We will restore farmers’ dignity as private organization says AFAN President.

As the first elective president of AFAN in the face of repositioning of the association, how would you describe what you met on ground?
Well if you look at the history of AFAN, it has been very difficult for the farmers in this country and leadership of the association to emerge. There had been ad hoc arrangement for the leadership apart from the first person that led AFAN. When he sought for political post, he left the position to some people who also were not really elected.

They also had to leave as we came in as care takers. We were mandated to arrange an election, amend the constitution and arrange to have a General Assembly of Farmers (GAF) where all these would have to be ratified in six months. But because of inherent problem in the association, we are not able to do all these things until after 4-5years. But today, I am happy to say that the first election has  taken place, and we have organized three GAF and all election from the ward levels to national level have been conducted and the people now are duly elected people as they are now mandated by farmers themselves to rule them. Now we are straightening roughening feathers as a lot of things have happened as many people have been offended. We now want people to sheath their sword so as to allow us do meaningful things for farmers who are looking up to us for something reasonable.

It is barely three months we are inaugurated, and all we have been doing is to sensitize our people to come to the reality that Nigeria has got nothing better than Agriculture for the development of her economy and that where we are today. I don’t want to apportion blame to anybody as we are all responsible for whatever has happened in the past. I have always been saying in different functions that Agriculture or farming is beyond gender, religious and race, it has no border like looking at you as Christian, Muslim or pagan farmers. As long as you are adding value to Agriculture, we as association will respect you and recognized you.

What would be your action plan in your tenure?
In the five years we are going to lead the farmers, the cardinal point is to restore that dignity of farmers as an association in the development of agriculture in Nigeria. I have said in several fora that in the 60s and 70s when I was still going to school, there was no oil, and everything that i got like free education, meals in school and scholarship were all from Agriculture. Where are we today? We are left with virtually nothing. We want to wake people up to go back to Agriculture and we can only do this when everybody contributes their widow’s might towards it and it is not my agenda alone, it is Nigerians agenda to get Agriculture back to its dignity.

The conflict in the North East, how is it affecting farmers especially AFAN members?
In the same way that is affecting all facets of the society, if you do not have security, there will be no stability of economy, the farmers need money to farm the parcel of land and they also want their produce to be bought by people as all this can only be possible in peaceful environment and atmosphere which is not present in the North East for now as farmers are suffering like every other persons because we do not want to say farmers are more suffering with youths restiveness due to lack of job. They are afraid to go to farm for the fear of being attacked. So in the North East, we have a sorry state of affairs in every facet of the economy and Agriculture mostly.

How would you access the capacity of your association to a point of effectively performing its role as farmers’ association in the development of Agriculture in the country and for your members?
Fine, I look at farming as an enterprise and we have to do that as farmers in order to develop ourselves from small holders and this requires that we create an enabling environment for the farmers to know what they are doing is good enough for other people to be interested. AFAN has membership of about 60 million in Nigeria. If everybody of this number contributes one hundred naira to be a member of the association, this will mean 100 multiply by 60 million, and which is a lot of money. So if we get our farmers to have interest in this by sensitizing them to know what we are doing for their benefit.

 We will be able to stand on our own and this will make Government to have interest in us therefore if there is anything to be given to farmers, they will see us as a credible channel to farmers, and this why our credibility as an NGO is very crucial for now as we have to be completely dispassionate about everything by drawing a line being an NGO and Government in order to be able to get out of the cob web otherwise it may become impossible. First, we will sensitize the people to appreciate the fact that we choose to be farmers as our own business, and there is no law that says we must be members but rather a choice on our own personal accord. Why we are here is to give good leadership which is what we are already doing as we are here today for a meeting. We are already working to make people come forward as we will give everyone an identity card and a copy of the constitution in the language they understand better as we have constitution in four languages already. We have in English that is already translated to Yoruba, Hausa, Ibo which will be given to farmers at a price. Hitherto you know we used to charge every farmers about N2,000 to get registered and have an Identity card, this concept will be changed to five years and they will only pay for another in case of loses as farmers’   registration will be like about N800 inclusive of the identity card. We are already collating the names of all farmers in the states.

I believe a typical state like Katsina where I come from should have about 1 million farmers that will pay N800, can you tell me how much that amount will be when about N200 is made from the total amount by AFAN as profit on top of the identity card and the constitution, and the constitution is only given once for life except where there are amendment and it is the amendment copy that will be made and given out to members. So we have many things in place to put AFAN on a very strong footing as we do not need anybody for support if we work and put our act together. We do not need government to give us anything. Today, we are going to get approval from our joint committee to constitute six directorates and we are going to employ a Director –General that will work together with the National officers of the association. Today I will introduce my Personal Assistant (P.A), he is somebody I have worked with when I was the National President of the Poultry of Nigeria and he has ability of making minutes and resolutions of every meetings of AFAN available as fast as possible.
 
How do you intend to impact on government policy?
I will look at AFAN as an enterprise like doing comparative crop production. Let us look at where I do yellow corn which I have to look for the inputs without relying on anybody. So I want farmers to look at farming as business they have to do by themselves, but if government facilitates the acquisition of inputs, we will welcome it but basically AFAN should be able to initiate the source of good fertilizer and seeds. This is where our directorate will be the think tank of the association as they will determine what will happen to the NPK somebody brings from China which may not be good for our land due to soil test conduct. Do you think I will accept a seed that is not good by certification? Mind you most of these seeds government has got for farmers are coming from contractors, and some of them may not be as honest as they are expected. Somebody who has to supply about 7,000 tons of improved seeds may buy grains cheaper and package it as seed for farmers.

We must have an in-house group that will determine whether the quality of the seeds and fertilizers are good or not. By the time we are able to harness all these potentials I have mentioned to you, we will have a large chunk of money to even buy fertilizer from the open market for the farmers at a competitive price which the farmers will pay for. After all, is government giving us free? It is subsidized and with the subsidy, who is subsidizing who? Are we getting the impact? Is Nigerians getting the impact of the subsidy? We are not really anxious about government subsidy. If I make bread because I have bakery, do I really need somebody to give me flour or sugar. No, it is my business enterprise, and I should be able to seek flour and sugar in a market to add value to the flour and at the same time employ people at a pay. By doing this, I am already contributing my quota to the gross domestic growth of the nation. Or is it because is Agriculture that we will now rely on somebody to buy fertilizer for us as farmers.

To how many farmers can you really do this? I have just told you we have about 60 million farmers and how much fertilizer would one buy that will be able to go round everyone in Nigeria to become a commercial farmer. Or are you looking at what is happening in the GES where 2 bags of fertilizers are given to farmers with 12.5kg of improved seeds, to what extend can this take us from where we are? Certainly it cannot take us anywhere as no farmer will produce more than his requirement with only two bags of fertilizer and 12.5kg seeds. If you take this and rely on it, you will be a subsistence farmer forever.

Now where and where have you done this GESS? Somebody told me it has been done in Afghanistan, and my question is how does it work there?  Has it not failed? Probably they also did it in Somalia or Malaysia. Is Malayi’s own really functional? In America, do they do this? Is America not a food basket of the world? How many commercial farmers are there in the USA? What is the percentage? It is about 2%. In about 150 years ago, about 70% of the population in America is farmers, but today it is left in the hands of few people who can do it commercially and they are having enough.

Say something about 200 commercial agricultural loan of the CBN?
I benefitted from it. It is Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) commercial Agricultural loan. At inception in 2009, there were two banks participating which are UBA and First Bank. I was the only farmer, who represents farmers in the meeting with the CBN as Soludo could not attend but he was represented by his Deputy, Tunde Lemo and the present Emir of Kano together with Elumelu who was then the Managing Director of UBA and a director of development finance of the CBN. Also one Babadi, a director of Agric in the FMARD was there.

The concept is that farmer will get the loan if he has asset worth one billion naira and as a farmer in the meeting; I told them it will not be possible for any farmer to get an asset of 1 billion. I told them that even President Obasanjo at that time being looked upon as the biggest farmers may not be able to meet up after he might have sold all his chicken in Ota farms .On the strength of the argument with the support of the present Emir of Kano, we all agreed that the collateral should be brought to 200 million. It was accepted and based on that a quite numbers of people were able to benefit but the present insurgency in the North East has affected the performance of this scheme.

What is your position about Bio safety bill?
We need the bill for the purpose of food security and the bio safety bill is what is making people not to come out to say this is our products. We are working with NAFDAC and other stakeholders to ensure the passage of the bill. What is bio safety bill? It is genetic engineering that allows that one can take a gene from a crop and marry it to another like potato so as to give an enhanced viability of the potato for high yield and resistance tolerance.

What is your assessment of GES?
Before now the fertilizer distribution is politicized and farmers do not really get the product but today under the GES at least the two bags get to the intended targets and that is an achievement but what I am saying for our economy to grow with supported Agriculture is that government must do more. The seeds of 12.5kg is okay for small holders’ farmers but to be able to impact on the macro economy of the nation, it is a tall order to the extend I can say. The distributions of the seeds only go to the select few. The ATA of the current government is working, at least waking people up as you here now asking me about Agriculture. If you will remember, we met at the bio technology meeting, and you are here now talking to me about adding value to agriculture. The vehicle we are using is the current ATA but again the implementation is the problem as the idea is good. I cannot begin to tell you what percentage the farmers are benefitting in the ATA because it is so enormous and it is something you did not have all.

What is your take on the government claim of 20 million metric tons of food increase in the recent time?
What farmers are telling me is that their productivity has not increased. They are left with whatever they are able to produce because there no buyers as demand are low based on inability to purchase and that should not be mis construed as availability of the product. If you go out there and see bread loaves been displayed and you cannot buy it, then the bread will be there forever. The chairman of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) from Jigawa state called me the other day and told me he has 1,076 farmers rice farmers but stated there was a great loss due to the price being offered per ton of rice paddy thereby making the paddy becoming unsold. So let us determine availability and ability to buy before we can accept whatever figure of increased production.

Is our economy working in such a way that everybody in Nigeria is able to buy to their satisfaction. Or instead of buying a full bag of rice, they ended up buying a modu because of lack of disposable income. So do we call this a success or failure, so if anybody comes out to say they have added 18 million or 20 million metric tons to food increase, I think it is not empirical as the question is,  what is the bases of the statistics is using and the bench mark?. Is he talking to us, and are we able to give him some ideas so as to be able to translate it or is he sitting down and sending forecast. You have to talk to all of us the farmers and by doing this you will know what the farmers are saying.