On June 29, 2017, a crew of Independent Television (ITV) reporters approached me while browsing through the newspapers to check if any of my articles has been published apart from the Blueprint where I run a weekly column on Fridays.
Th e venue was the popular newspapers’ stand at Wuse Zone 5 by Total, about 50 meters from PDP National Secretariat, Abuja. Th e questions of the ITV reporter were straight to the point. First, she asked for my opinion on the reported exportation of yam tubers by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. When I backed the decision, which is another avenue to boost our foreign exchange earnings, with the video camera lens still focused on my face, the reporter wondered if such a decision will not lead to shortage of yam produce for local consumption in the country.
I said it would not but could spur offi cials of the agriculture ministry to boost yam production for suffi cient local consumption and export. It will also diversify our economy from the overdependence on oil and restore the lost glory of agriculture. In fact, that has been the major policy thrust of the Buhari administration- diversifi cation from a mono-economy to other sectors like agriculture, mining and tourism. Th e agriculture ministry has been at the vanguard of this policy since the tenure of the former minister, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who recently got an international award for some of the foundation that he laid in order to achieve this paradigm shift in agriculture. Th e decision of the current minister, Dr. Audu Ogbeh, a seasoned farmer, to champion and reenforce this decision of achieving a poly- economy is commendable. To achieve this objective, the ministry has established clusterzones for its sustainable staple crops.
It has also ensured that the agricultural raw materials are processed into fi nished products through its value-chain system. Besides, in order to reduce the incidences of glut and avoid wastages, the ministry also constructed agricultural link-roads from farming communities to link up with the nearest markets. Silos were also constructed in strategic locations across the country for the storage of excess farm produce during bumper harvest. All these are geared towards ensuring stable price for the farm produce and thus encourage farmers. Aside provision of infrastructure, including construction of small earth dams for irrigation purposes and to boost fi sh farming to the farming communities, the ministry has also packaged various forms of incentives like micro-fi nancing and provision of various forms of subsidies on farm implements to the farmers. Th e same incentives go to investors in agro-allied industries or cottage industries.
All these eff orts/incentives and many more are geared towards achieving self-suffi ciency in agricultural production for local consumption to tackle hunger and for exports to boost our foreign exchange earnings. However, these laudable eff orts will amount to an exercise in futility as long as the herdsmen’s menace remains intractable.
What is the point investing millions of naira in establishing a farm only for some unscrupulous herdsmen to drive their cattle and graze on the farm before harvest? Th ese merchants of death do not only destroy farm crops, they sometimes rape, maim and kill their victims – the farmers; and in extreme cases sack and burn down some farming communities as witnessed in Agatu and other areas of Benue state. Added to these atrocities, were reported cases of armed robbery and kidnapping. But for the timely checks put in place by the Ekiti state government, the marauding herdsmen would have done much havoc in the South-west, even though there were pockets of attacks in Oke Ogun, Oyo State. One cannot imagine the audacity of these herdsmen in kidnapping elder statesman and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and former Minister of Finance, Chief Olu Falae, killing one of his security offi cers.
Even though the police claimed that no ransom was paid, the family of the former Presidential Aspirant under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) claimed that millions of naira was paid before the man was released after sleeping on bare fl oor in the kidnappers’ den for some days. As if this was not enough, Falae’s farm was severally attacked. Th ere is no doubt that there is a correlation between Food Security and National Security as we postulated in a previous article. We do not know whether Agatu and other farming communities in Benue state that were ravaged by the herdsmen have been rebuilt and the farmers mobilized back to their farms.
Benue state, being the food basket of the nation, has to be secure and other farming communities before government can achieve its laudable goal of food suffi ciency for local consumption and for export. Otherwise, if the agriculture ministry, in conjunction with the Offi ce of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and the Offi ce of the Inspector General of Police, does not adopt holistic approach to checkmate the menace of herdsmen that have become a national quagmire, its new policy of exporting yam will not only fail, but will also lead to food crisis in the country. Th is is because there may not be enough yam produce and indeed other crops for local consumption, talk less of export. So, in its eff orts to play a leading role in diversifying the economy, the agriculture ministry should liaise with relevant agencies to fi rst secure our farming communities. Otherwise its current yam export drive may be tantamount to putting the cart before the horse. Nonetheless, the new policy drive is both laudable and commendable as we urge the ministry to keep it up.
