By Mahmoon Baba-Ahmed
Rainy season in Nigeria is usually accompanied by string of challenges and multitude of prospects. Its onset is usually predicted perfectly in some regions. In other areas, especially in the North, the arrival of the rains is often belated with anxious farmers excitedly anticipating its timely coming. Th is year’s pattern of rainfall and its distribution remained essentially the same with what obtained in the previous years. Th e rains came late especially in the Northern states where the bulk of the nation’s food reserves is produced.
Initially, the fall was intermittent, but later gained momentum, becoming regular as the season progressed, encouraging farmers to cultivate their fi elds with much enthusiasm. When the rains became steadier, farmers fully mobilised to their farms only to encounter a problem worse than the situation caused by the delayed rains. Th ere was a manifested scarcity of vital agricultural inputs including an assortment of the indispensable fertiliser. Th ese materials ought to have been provided long before the commencement of the rains, but inadequate and unworkable arrangements for prompt procurement and timely distribution of these vital inputs, coupled with bureaucratic bottlenecks, negated farmers’ eff ort to compensate the loss of previous man-hours, occasioned by the delayed arrival of the rains.
Th e innovative, much publicised states and federal governments’ strategies put in place solely to assist peasant farmers overcome the swindle or fraud associated with the procurement of agricultural inputs, has after all proved to be a deception. It has woefully failed to redress the issues of corruption and offi cial highhandedness that make the distribution of fertilisers and related inputs to bona fi de small holder farmers almost impracticable. It also excluded medium and large scale farmers, who were the unsanctioned benefi ciaries from the scheme.
From time immemorial the practice of fertiliser distribution and other related inputs has been encountering teething problems. Modern farming implements and materials are not readily available even in the southern parts of the country where the rains came earlier and farmers were always unsure or uncertain about the time of delivery and availability. However, in the North where the inception of the rainy season was tardy, the agricultural inputs were only delivered when the rains were almost retreating. In some instances very few farmers were able to procure the inputs due to the insuffi ciency of the consignments delivered to the areas with higher number of practicing farmers. In that case scores of farmers were forced to share a single bag among them.
Similarly, the seedlings that accompanied the fertilisers were unsuitable for the farmers’ needs. Besides, they could also not germinate properly with inappropriate or insuffi cient rainfall. Th e net eff ect of that regrettable development has been poor cropping with resultant low yields. Farmers were therefore left at the mercy of heartless merchants who stockpile the much-needed fertilisers, selling them at exorbitant prices to distressed and anxious farmers. In that vein, the bulk of fertiliser and other agricultural inputs the federal, state and local governments traditionally provide were never promptly obtained by the farmers. Perhaps they were being secretly appropriated to importuned politicians to seek their favour and patronage for the future elections. While Nigerians are lamenting the non-availability of essential farming materials this season, another adversity with similar characteristics and threatening magnitude had suddenly and surprisingly reared its head.
Th e intense torrents of rains pouring down vigorously in the middle of rainy season caused the banks of major rivers to swell up, giving rise to tempestuous fl oods in many towns and cities which devoured many lives, shocked and distressed innumerable families. Th e ravaging fl oods did not only claim innocent lives but also invaded farmlands, destroying the developing food crops or invaluable cash crops. Th at has heightened the fear of poor harvest in view of largescale fl ooding which had been predicted in due course that could adversely compliment poor cropping in the northern states, ostensibly caused by the delayed supply and shortage of vital inputs under shoddy arrangements, executed imprecisely and motivated by offi cial corruption. However, the federal government was prompt in taking counteractive measures against shortage and escalating food crisis as a result of the two calamities that have adverse eff ect on productivity. It generously doled out one-point-six billion Naira to six states aff ected by the fl oods as relief to the victims. Th at was a good step in a right direction.
Th e prevailing economic recessionary trends in the country are a blessing in disguise, for they have necessitated the promulgation of a policy forcing a large, fl uid, unemployed army of young men to return to the farms with encouraging results. Th e country is now witnessing a Rice Revolution which will hopefully forestall the importation of foreign rice into the country. Already, the bumper harvest of the same commodity recorded last year and the prospects of same this year, are raising hope that the price of rice will soon crash. Needless to say, workable and shrewd strategies ought to be evolved in future to preempt the forces that facilitate factors capable of causing food shortage, thus necessitating massive importation from abroad by agents of Multinational Corporations whose disreputable activities inhibit our agricultural development.
