Agric economy: Lukas Adeniji condemns farming methods at Port Harcourt

 Lukas Adeniji

The economic diversification of the President Muhammudu Buhari using non-oil sector with Agriculture at the front burner came under attack by one of the speakers at the Editors’ conference that took place in Portharcourt with submission that all the agronomy practice in Nigeria are inefficient to deliver the expected commercialization added the culture of hard work would checkmate corruption perpetuated by government officials in the country.

The Managing Director, Niji farms, Mr. Kola Lukas Adeniji said that all our farming systems are obsolete to give expected high yield to agricultural production when compared to what is obtained in other developed world where Good Agricultural  Practice (GAP) are given priority to ensure cost effectiveness towards making price competitive as only 5% population in America are into farming. 

Mr. Lukas Adeniji also pointed that our working hours may not be able to give the expected economic break through saying introduction of hourly evaluation of performance would speedily assist the nation’s development as corruption be put to check so as enhance people’  positive thinking towards improvement of the nation’s economy.

According to him “ poor agronomics practice by farmers, poor system of harvest, low value addition, buying of inappropriate machines into the country for farming, lack of efficient irrigation system, untapped arable land, poor infrastructure and corruption are real challenges to commercialization of Agriculture in Nigeria”

 Mr. Adeniji’s position seemed to be buttressing the first paragraph of the executive summary of the new agricultural promotion policy of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) that stated “Nigeria is facing two key gaps in agriculture today, an inability to meet domestic food requirement, and an inability to export at quality levels required for market success. 

The former problem is productivity challenge driven by an input system and farming model that is largely inefficient. As a result, an ageing population of farmers does not have enough seeds, fertilizer, irrigation, crop protection and related support to be successful. The latter challenge is driven by an inefficient system for setting and enforcing food quality standards, as well as poor knowledge of target markets. Insufficient food testing facilities, a weak inspectorate system in FMARD, and poor coordination among relevant federal agencies serve to compound early stage problem such as poor knowledge of permissible contaminant level”

He however criticized the method of bringing imported farming and processing machines that are not very adaptable to our environment thereby resulting to untimely break down without being used to capacity therefore stressed the need to do something positive in this regard.

The Niji farm boss also commented on the need to optimally utilize our water resources to ensure efficient irrigation capacity to allow all year round planting as wet season cultivation's cannot alone give the commercialization delivery to using agriculture towards food security and raw material for industrialization towards economic diversification just as he emphasized the need for provision of infrastructure for processing.

It will be recalled that challenges of extension workers in many states of the federation could be attributed to non-efficient productivity of agricultural production, processing, post-harvest and value addition as the transfer of the improved research technologies to rural farmers is a function of efficient extension which are poorly funded since the departure of World Bank in about more than two decades ago.