THE ATTAINMENT OF FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA:THE NEED FOR FOCUSED AND EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP AT THE FMARD- An opinion by AFAN President.

The APP (Agriculture Promotion Policy), the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN) Intervention through the Anchor Borrower Program  and now NATIP(National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy)if properly implemented could have led to the attainment of food security ecurity in Nigeria.

The Buhari Administration puts Agriculture on the front banner by enacting the above policies but failed to put the right people to drive them leading to a colossal waste of direly needed resources.

The APP was launched successfully in 2015 and the CBN came up with the laudable Anchor Borrower Program (ABP) which it launched initially with 2.6 billion Naira for the development of rice and wheat value chains in Birin Kebbi, Kebbi State.

This development came about at the right time and was widely acclaimed as potentially impactful.

Along the line its implementation encountered many teething problems sprouting from the CBN’s decision to reach the farmers through individual commodity associations without involving the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD),the State Ministries of Agriculture and All Farmers Association of Nigeria ( AFAN), the umbrella association of farmers.

The CBN developed prime anchors with a view to creating a veritable and clearly rational vehicle to fast track value chain development, but ended up shortchanging the food system by inadvertently creating a siphon to misapply resources. 

The prime anchors had a lot of resources but did not know how to incentivize the farmers and make them sustainably productive.

Instead of advancing soft loans to the farmers in kind to produce optimally 

and off taking the produce at a guaranteed minimum price as envisioned in the scheme they resorted to buying from the open market thereby creating unnecessary food inflation.

The CBN intervention may be responsible for the perennial food inflation in the nation as shown in the Rice and Maize Anchor Borrower Program and prices of agrochemicals generally.

It can be seen that the 

so-called Prime Anchors have devised a method of laundering the enormous resources in their hands to import substandard inputs from China to give out as loans to our resource-poor farmers through stage managed fraudulent events aided by some unscrupulous senior public officers and fake farmer-leaders.

The CBN intervention should be reappraised and all the billions of Naira given out as loans to Prime Anchors recalled.

The FMARD should be repositioned to work in synergy with the 36 states and FCT, the real farmers, all MDAs with cross cutting responsibilities as well as donor agencies and development partners.

NFRA (National Food Reserve Agency) should be resuscitated to all the institutions such as NADF (National Agricultural Development Fund),National Agricultural Extension Policy(NEP),National Research Institutes and Technology Incubation Centres should be well established or reinvigorated to work optimally.

The NATIP(National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Plan)should be meticulously implemented with all the 36 States and FCT carried along in order to ensure success in our search for food security.

All appointments in the Agricultural sector should be made on merit and all those so appointed should be closely monitored,frequently evaluated and ultimately held accountable for there to be substantial progress in the realization of the core deliverables of the TINUBU/SHETTIMA 

hope-restored Manifesto.

The incoming Administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should ensure value for money in all its investments in the Agriculture space by closely monitoring the implementation of all its programs,ensuring the attainment of set goals or milestones within fixed time-frames and ensuring transparency as well as probity.

This is the elixir for the attainment of food security in Nigeria which will ensure a productive citizenry who will be able to think outside the box to be able to bring about prosperity to Nigeria and all Nigerians in the final analysis.

Arc. Kabir Ibrahim FNIA, FINC, CMC.

Member Board of Trustees, National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria(NAFN),

National President,

All farmers Assiciation of Nigeria(AFAN).

Former National President,

Poultry Association of Nigeria(PAN).