There Won’t Be Food Scarcity In 2016 – AFAN

Kabir Ibrahim

The president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Mr Kabir Ibrahim, in this interview with  Ruth Tene Natsa, assures that Nigeria will not experience food scarcity in 2016, but rather is on its way to self-sufficiency in food production.


2016 and Nigerian farmers
With what I have seen on the pronouncements the budget is ready to fund, there is every hope for Nigerian farmers, the only thing is that the farmer must treat what he does as a business to be able to harness what he does, because I do not think anybody will get anything on a platter of gold, nobody is going to spoon-feed, you because you are a farmer.So I will encourage the government to at least be sure that whatever is earmarked in the budged is expended for what it is targeting .Unlike before when you will say the budget is 27 per cent, once the budget is not fully expended, all these things will not come into play. So they must implement this budget first and foremost and apply the resources judiciously wherever they ought to be and get very honest people, because if you remove corruption from the implementation of the budget, the Nigerian farmer will smile.
Food Scarcity in 2016?
Those are just pessimists speaking; the rains in some part of Nigeria were late in coming but were also enough for the products that are normally produced in Nigeria. Rather than hunger, I believe there will be enough food and prosperity for the nation. Also the privilege of indirectly importing food used as staples is no longer tenable, such as corn , before a tonne from Brazil cost about 300 dollars, today in Nigeria, a tonne is not even up to 200 dollars, so it is not profitable to import from Brazil anymore, so Nigeria is on its way to being self-sufficient. Some people are agitating for the devaluation of the Naira; it is not tenable and realistic, because if you produce your food locally and cannot buy from foreign lands, then you will make do with what you have. In the 60s, Nigeria produced all its food locally, the culture of consuming what you do not produce is what leads to high foreign exchange, it is people who want to import luxury items or to Dubai to holiday that want the devaluation of the naira and I believe the dignity of Nigerians is to consume what we produce locally.

Your take on GES
Truth is as President of AFAN, we were never involved in GES, in fact let me tell you what happened, most beneficiaries of the GES were party stalwarts and not farmers, as such the GES had no real impact. GES would only be beneficial to people if it is modified. For instance the FG said it had registered 14.5 million farmers, that is far from the farmers in this country, because the farmers in this country are more than 4 times that number, so if only 14.5 are registered and getting subsidise, then it has no real impact. In fact GES to me connotes subsistence farming, if there was any value GES added, modifying it will add more value by making sure the actual farmers are giving the necessary and needed inputs and not dole out hand outs, because if I have to hectares of land and I need 11-12 bags of fertilizers and you give me two bags, you have not helped me. Instead of that do system of crop intensification , by teaching the farmers best practices, using what he has been using and he will enhance his productivity.

Small holder farmers and subsistence farming
No, subsistence means poverty and it should not be encouraged, a small holder can do farming that can help him and his family and the small holder farmer is key driver to the agro economy. When CADP came in 2009, they brought about 200b and targeted only commercial farmers, all the money is gone, has it improved anything in Nigeria?. So you cannot talk of agriculture without looking at the small holder farmers and you have to create an enabling environment for the small holder to get out of subsistence farming and that is getting out of poverty, meaning whatever he plants, he harvest, stores and sells without it getting bad.

Help for farmers
Extension work should be digitalised, we cannot employ the requisite number of extension workers, but through digital extension, farmers can be gathered in their communities through the tv viewing centres or cinemas and be shown this is happening in India and Ethiopia, but it is not happening in Nigeria. I have reached out to some governments , if they key into it, they will cut a niche and others will model after them

State governors and agricultural development
They have no choice, in fact it is a sine qua none for food security, if you do not feed the people, you will have skirmishes like you had in the North East, so every governor in Nigeria should pay attention to agriculture, because that is saying good bye to poverty, it is a must and every sensible person should know that, because without food for the people you govern, you cannot control them.

AFAN and federal government school feeding programme
AFAN per say may not be necessarily involved but farmer, but farmers in the states which partake in school feeding programmes will have to buy the items from the farmers, so we cannot just say AFAN, AFAN is just a convenient platform for farmers to aggregate. And that is the way it should be, we should not just be a monopoly, what of farmers who do not belong to the farmers, our interest is just for the good of farmers.
The greed in the psyche of Nigerians is what leads to monopoly, but allow it to trickle down and that is good leadership.

Minister of Agriculture and farmers
The way to go is not to do everything, identify your competencies, stick to them, take them to another level, then take the next step, so he has to prioritise. Take for instance what happened what happened recently in the Cassava Value chain, when some people came and said it has to take the right of place, you cannot say that when it is not the staple in some states, so what he needs to do is to take a certain crop/commodities .