By EBUN SESSOU
Although Nigerians have been assured that the country will not be plunged into food crisis.  The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, made this declaration.

But the receding inflation was interrupted by the immediate impact of the flood which saw food prices rose to 1.1 per cent between August and September this year.

The impact of the flooding in some parts of the country and the attendant destruction of farmland is already becoming evident as recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows marked increase in inflation which jumped to 10.2 per cent in September 2012, compared to 9.9 per cent in August.

The data shows that the rise in the Food Index was mainly due to higher food prices in various classes led by potatoes, yams and other tubers, fruits, beans, bread and cereals (including rice) as well as other foods.

According to the bureau, the higher food prices reflected partially the impact of the floods on the production of certain crops as well as movement of food products to markets across the country.

Prince Wale

Saturday Vanguard gathered that, due to the effect of flood on some of the farmlands across the country, there is no doubt that Nigerians will not experience food shortage before the end of the year.

Prince Wale Oyekoya, Head of Agriculture Group of Lagos Chambers of Commerce lamented that the ugly policies of the government at all levels have continued to affect agriculture negatively.

According to him, “The people that are into agriculture profession are those who have retired from their various civil service and unfortunately, the environment is not favourable in terms of capital investment. You must have enough capital to go into agriculture in this country.  Right now, the inconsistent policy of the government has ruined the system.

“Recently, the President of this country, Dr. Ebele Jonathan instructed the Malawi government to be importing rice into the country. And what this means is that the local farmers in this country do not have the ability to produce rice.

“The same government that proposed the ban of importation of rice into the country, is the same that is inviting  another country to import rice into Nigeria. The truth is that the leadership of Nigeria is not encouraging agricultural sector.

“Most of the monies that are supposed to be spent on real farmers have been shifted to the political farmers. Most of the funds have been shifted to the political farmers. It is only in this country that farming is done on television.

“For instance, there was a N200 billion intervention fund that the federal government was able to release to the commercial farmers, which I challenged the CBN governor and the minster of agriculture on. And both of them admitted that no real farmer has benefited from the funds. “You cannot have access to any loan in some of the commercial banks because the funds have been exhausted.

“Right now, agriculture loan is on 30 percent in any commercial bank. While the policy is not communicated to the commercial bank and this is what I called in-consistence of our government. There have been so many lies and deceit by the government and I believe it is the responsibility of the government to rise up to the challenge, if not this country will go angry. And the looming food crisis is imminent.

“In most of the markets in Nigeria, there is increase in prices of foodstuffs. Now vegetables and fruits in the markets are costly. In Lagos, an orange cost between N20 and N50. Most of the agriculture sector in the country have been taken over by the foreigners including the Lebanese, Indian, Israeli. “Corruption has eaten deep into the fabrics of the nation. It is a way of taking our foreign reserves out of the country. There is huge disconnection between the Federal Government and real farmers. Central Bank of Nigeria cannot regulate commercial banks.

Asked if agriculturists in the country have access to loans or funds through cooperative society, he said, cooperative society in this country is not working. There are local and indigenous farmers that are capable of handling agriculture projects in this country but the Nigerian policy has killed all of them. Most of the people in the rural areas that practice subsistence farming have died natural death.

Over, 90 percent of farmers in Lagos State have invested into livestock farming, this is due to the unfavourable conditions in the country. The environment is not conducive because there is no funds for farmers. There is no adequate infrastructure in most of the farmlands in this country. Another thing is that any money that is earmarked for farmers does not come directly to them. It will first go through the State government, the commissioners and the civil servants before it gets to the real farmers.

The government know the real farmers but they are not ready to recognise them.
Government is only concerned on what would benefit them and unfortunately, none of the commercial farmers can give them what they want. There are series of challenges that the farmers experience on a daily basis. The fact that they are not given the free hand to work. Failure by the government to give the farmers C of O of their lands. Most business owners have been relocating to Ghana. If money is properly channeled to agriculture, there will not be problem of any kind. With what is happening in other parts of Nigeria especially in the North, it is imminent that there will be food scarcity by December and January because there is no storage facility.

I will advise that government should go into irrigation practise during dry season. I am expecting the government to invest into irrigation so that there won’t be shortage of food. Right now, there will be  food scarcity because we never prepared for any emergency in this country.