There is no doubt that many Nigerians have applauded the Federal Government (FG)’s
announcement on her new agricultural revolution with the approval of $1.2
billion loan for the execution of the agricultural mechanization centres which
are to be located in about 632 local government centres and 140 processing
centres for the use of farmers and agro processors.
While we agree that the decision of Federal Executive
Council (FEC) to approve a memo seeking approval for a loan facility of $1.2
billion to pursue this mechanization project towards reducing drudgery in
farming and processing of agricultural produce is apt at this time, we cannot
but mention that some grey areas need to be well sorted out, and that is what
necessitated this editorial, it is to call the attention of the government
especially the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on some things that should be done before any
disbursement is made.
The breakdown of the execution of the projects for which the
loan facility is meant is still unclear in the sense that the specification of
the type of tractors and other equipment to be imported are not yet spelt out
to justify the purpose of the loan, and more importantly the level of
involvement of the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) and
Nigerian Institute of Agricultural Engineers (NIAE) who set standards and
provide professional guidance to get the best out of the deal are very minimal.
Although there are indications that a representative of NCAM
is a member of one of the committees, the question is why would NCAM who has legal mandates on any agricultural
equipment and ‘tractorization’ certification before importation be just a mere
member on a committee set up on an issue like this ?, while NIAE was not even
involve in any way.
In the light of the above facts, the questions begging for
answer are since the professionals were not consulted before the government
asked for and got the loan, then how did it arrive at the approved amount?
We may want to echo here that this loan facility may not worth
the while if the purpose is to embark on tractors, implements and other equipment
importation to only assemble in this country as that strategy in the face of
the current Covid-19 pandemic and high unemployment is equivalent to creating
jobs in other countries with our own money.
More so, this shows that all the noise on food importation
banning is mere noises without substance. We are not saying that as a country
we cannot import equipments, what is very important is that those tractors and
other equipment we intend to import must have specifications, and they must be
the ones NCAM and other research institutes do not have capacity to produce before
such importation can be embarked upon just as adaptability to our ecologies
must be considered for proper sustainability and judicious spending of the loan
facility.
Why we are calling the attention of the government to all
these is that our lesson from Covid- 19 will amount to nothing if our level of
sensitiveness to backward integration is not scaled up to internalising our
mechanization strategy to commercialization of the locally produced prototypes
machines in our many research institutes and NCAM towards checkmating drudgery in
food productivity.
We cannot keep importing power tillers and harvesters that
are available in the country and at the same time expect to develop our own
agricultural model that will be competitive enough for global market. As much
as we appreciate this gesture from the government towards mechanization, we
also emphasise that the time has come for us as a nation to give deep thought
to all these importations, otherwise we will perpetually remain dependant on
other countries for items we can produce locally at the expense of the
country’s economy that will be suffering due to unending devaluation of our
naira.
It will not be out of place for NCAM and even NIAE to be
absolutely involved so as to ensure effective utilization of the facility to
the sector’s development in a sustainable mechanization of tractor hiring
centres being made closer to farmers and processing machines for processors. It
must be noted that NCAM as a government agency purposely set up for such issue as
this must be allowed to work so as to justify tax payers’ expenses.
Finally, the concept tractor hiring centres in Nigeria is
not a new model as several administrations have done it in the past without
much impact basically because most of the imported machines are not very
adaptable to our ecologies just as full consultation with technical
stakeholders are negated for reasons best known to those administrations. This
is why it is important that all precautions are taken this time around in order
to make a difference from what it used to be.
Hmmmm! Very true
ReplyDeleteExcellent submission and if the professional arm of the Society are not involve in such a serious issue. The whole thing will collapse and we all will revert to square zero.
ReplyDeleteA very informed and useful ALERT! Who are the Stakeholders involved in the conceptualisation of the latest Mechanisation Policy? There are a number of Tractor Manufacturers/Assembly Plants in Nigeria, there is the Agricultural Machineries and Equipment Fabricators of Nigeria(AMEFAN) with over 100no Membership,there are 2no Government Agricultural Mechanics and Machinery Operators Training Centres(though almost moribund due to lack of patronage and funding,the Farmers Association, just to name a few.NIAE was left out and ditto these other organizations,among others. NCAM has a mandate to drive Agricultural Mechanisation in Nigeria, they are being threatened with Scrapping and/or Rationalization from time to time, despite their retinue of innovative solutions in the Agricultural Value Chain, including the recent invention of a suitable Tractor(Tryctor) for Nigeria. Government should direct the Ministry to table this Policy for Stakeholders Inputs before the disbursement of the $1.2B Loan commences in any form . Engr. Ademola Isaac Olorunfemi
ReplyDeleteGood but the modalities for aquisition be made open.
ReplyDelete