Mr Africanfarmer Mogaji, an agricultural expert, has urged the Federal Government to deploy all mechanism and expertise to achieve its 12 points plan for food security.
Mogaji made the appeal in an interview on Sunday in Lagos while reacting to the declaration of state of emergency on food security by President Bola Tinubu.
He stressed that only proper planning and implementation of policies would bring about the desired change required for the nation to be food secured.
He however said the declaration of state of emergency on food security by the Federal Government was long overdue.
Mogaji said that the declaration has sent a strong message to investors and local players of government readiness to addressing mirage of challenges in the sector.
He was a former Chairman, Agriculture and Agro-Allied Group, Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
The expert noted that Tinubu did the right thing by declaring that state of emergency, adding that it indicates government seriousness.
But Mogaji expressed concern over inadequate planning and implementation of the 12 points enunciated in the declaration.
He said that there are a lot of challenges that must be addressed in order to achieve the 12 points listed in the declaration.
He listed impending flooding in 14 states, food harvesting, food wastage and transportation, insecurity on farmland, substandard fertilizers, low quality agrochemicals, poor irrigation system, poor power supply, and outdated and old silos, as some of the impediments.
“If I were to be the minister of agriculture, I would have advised the president to declare that state of emergency on food security.
“A state of emergency send a message to everybody; investors and local players, that we are serious about agric business.
“It helps everybody know that we are focused around things and open to discussion.
“More investors will be more relaxed because it is now a national call,” said Mogaji.
“The president did the right thing by declaring that state of emergency.
“Many local players will say, now government is serious. Let us all plan to go back into the system.
“The declaration will unlock local funding which is the most important than the external funding, because external funding takes some time but local funding will be immediate,” he said.
The food security expert alerted that there were no grains in any of the nation’s silos, thereby doubting how the declaration will work.
Mogaji noted that the government need to know what is doable and what is available.
“There’s a couple of theories they put down that implementation may be difficult except they involve major players who had burned their hands before.
“The declaration is easier said than done. Government need proper and well thought-out planning to achieve its agenda.
“The cultivation of 500,000 hectares of land for farming is doable because the lands are available, but they cannot be achieved immediately because majority of the existing land are under cultivation and are in the North,” said the expert.
“The distribution of grains and sorghum to farmers. Where are the grains to be distributed? Even the rice pyramids in Abuja, government sold it off immediately.
“They sold it out completely; it wasn’t that they are in our grain reserves, they sold it out.
“Where are the grains they talk about to be released to farmers? And that is why the government need to know what is doable and what is available,” he said.
Besides, Mogaji pointed out that herdsmen, insecurity coupled with all the bottlenecks have affected grain production in the last three years.
He also called for the establishment of ultramodern silos across the country to boost storage facilities.
“The reality is where are the grains, the silos are still not been used because they’ve concession them out to private players and they have not taken it over.
“The silos are there, but they are not functioning, they are not ultramodern silos and there are no grains in them.
“Government concession them out to private companies, but as at 2022, they had not handed it over after three years of payment.
“There are no grains anywhere that government will release to farmers, all they said now, government will go and buy grains and quickly move it into the silos,” Mogaji stated.
“There are no grains currently. The last three years was not a good one; herdsmen, insecurity have affected production, production has dropped coupled with all the bottlenecks.
“Even the major players in the industries like OLAM, Nestle and others are also mopping up the little that are produced.
“Bottomline for me is, the government still have not thought through the agric sector, it is not like other sectors,” said the expert.
He therefore urged the government to find immediate solution to the flooding and erosion in many parts of the country which would have adverse effect on the proposed cultivation of 500,000 hectares of farmland.
“The government had not paid attention to the expected flooding in about 14 states and if the flood starts now, all the farmland including 500,000 hectares they are proposing will be destroyed.
“They need to sit down and plan very well; some of us have already done research and scenarios ahead of this nature, they need to sit down with technocrats in the system,“ he said.
On release of fertilizer to farmers, Mogaji said that majority of the fertilizers in the country are substandard, adding that it will not have much impact until the sector is well regulated.
He noted that that was why agriculture doesn’t work in Nigeria because there’s a value chain.
He added that there must be proper planning to achieve this, cautioning that agriculture should not be abruptly planned.
“Agrochemicals in the country are of very low quality and prices are going up, majority of fertilizer is of very low quality too.
“Mechanization is expensive, diesel is expensive, issue of insecurity is still there on the farms; how does the government intend to address all these?
“These things require a bit of planning, instead of listing so many things at once,” he said.
