Covid-19: Food scarcity looms, says Prof. Ayoola

• FG raises hope, signs $1.2b for mechanization

A renowned economist in Agriculture, and food analyst, Prof. Gbolagade Ayoola has said that year 2021 would be worst hit with food scarcity as Covid- 19 impacts and dilapidated agricultural infrastructures have already incapacitated  small scale farmers in the country, saying there is need for state of emergency declaration for the sector. Prof. Ayoola made this call in an interview on the state of food security tilted ‘’ Small scale farmers and Covid-19’’ yesterday at Sunrise, Channels television.


Ayoola pointed that the inaccessibility of farmers to agricultural inputs as a result of Covid-19 pandemic disease that placed restrictions of movement on both food suppliers and buyers coupled, long time neglect of the agricultural infrastructures to service delivery would both play major negative roles on the availability of foods in the coming year, added that the food silos have not been effectively put into use in the past two decades.

He posited a state of emergency on the food productivity value chains where farmers would have access to inputs with other working infrastructural systems that have efficient service delivery capacity to close the gap between demand and supply towards year 2021 foods availability.

Prof. Ayoola responding to question on farmers not being able to sell their produce said that ‘’ this is a very serious situation. Indeed, this is the time one is in the position to advise for food emergency declaration in agricultural sector.

This is because our farmers have been seriously overwhelmed. From what we have heard, two things are critical, and both of them are what the farmers are being denied now. The first one is the farmers’ inputs like the fertilizers, seeds and agro chemicals. From what we have heard, farmers are not reaching these items as they are not accessible to them.

The second thing that is critical for farming population to strive is rural infrastructures. From what we have heard, the market infrastructures are inaccessible at this present time just as production infrastructures are not serviceable. So also is the grazing reserves, the rural roads network and the rural waters supply schemes. Then storage infrastructure, talking about how grains are being kept in a traditional way which can no more service the present agricultural system’’

On the state of silos he said that ‘’ what is happening in the silos? The silos are emptied as we speak. We have never been able to fill our silos beyond 1/3 of its capacity since creation in the past twenty years. Therefore we cannot even respond to this emergency as we should. I could remember that just immediately the Federal Government declared distribution of food items from the silos that people started to cry that the grains are bad which means the storage system was not functional or working effectively enough’’

Speaking on processing and market facilities he said that ‘’ where are the processing facilities to process rice, the fish, the livestock and other poultry products. The farmers have been locked out from the market system; therefore they cannot reach their buyers. So the two edged swords are playing out here. One is the supply ends as they are unable to supply to the markets, and the second is the demand ends that cannot be reached as the people that are supposed to consume the produce have been locked in their houses. The danger is what will now happen soon after this particular time in the year 2021. There will be a major supply-demand gaps that will have to be filled’’

 Meanwhile, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono has told the state house correspondents that a sum of USD$1.2 billion has been approved by President Muhammadu Buhari at the last Federal Executive Council meeting (May 14, 2020)  for the purpose of agricultural mechanization development in the 632 local governments and 142 processing plants across the nation.

 Nanono said that the sector would experience first of its kind revolution saying that ‘’this is going to be a major revolution in the agriculture sector that we have never seen before’’

In another development according to Commerce Africa magazine on ‘’ how Nigeria plans to revolutionise Agriculture with $1.2bn loan’’, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Dr. Andrew Kwasari said that the purpose of the loan facility was to galvanise the infrastructural facilities of the sector saying that ‘’ agriculture is a sure way to diversify and grow the economy in the immediate and long terms.

 This approval will stimulate appropriate technological scaling to realise potentials in agricultural mechanization. It is time to shift gear from potential to reality in the capability of the Nigerian agricultural sector and to grow the GDP. Our analysis has shown that this investment has numerous economic multiplier effects that will grow the nation’s GDP and foreign exchange reserve by billions of USD in few years to come’’