By Olayinka Olawale
Prof. Olufemi Ajayi, an agricultural expert, has urged the Federal Government to decentralise the implementation of its proposed food security plan across the 36 states.
Ajayi, a professor in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
He was reacting to the declaration of a state of emergency on food security by President Bola Tinubu.
Ajayi said that the food security plan should be decentralised and carried out at the state level for a majority of the farmers to benefit.
He said decentralising the strategy to the state level would enable government to build on existing platforms and data of farmers and farmlands thereby reducing the possiliblity of the programme being hijacked.
He advised the government to interrogate all the available data on farmers, farmlands, equipment and the likes, before embarking on the food emergency strategy.
“It is good to declare a state of emergency, but if we have to start, we must start very well. Not just starting anyhow, we have to start on a very good note.
“We should interrogate all available data, and everything that is available to us from the state and federal governments.
“The president should desist from setting up committees because committees don’t work in Nigeria, except they are decentralised.
“The only thing committee members do is to discuss sitting allowance, where the meeting will be held and they will pick Abuja and nothing will be achieved at the end because of their personal interest.
“The implementation of this plan should be decentralised and carried out at different state level because they know themselves,” he said.
The don also urged Tinubu to seek the support of technocrats on food security to realise his agenda.
“I don’t know how the government will achieve this except they bring in technocrats to help out.
“When we want to conduct elections, we know how we bring in professors to come, though, some disappointed but some eventually were able to prove their integrity.
“If that is the route we want to go as per agriculture, so be it. Government should seek the support and skills of technocrats on food security,” he added.
Ajayi urged the federal government to direct state governments in the South West to open more farm settlements in their various states to boost food production.
He said the state of emergency ought to be declared before the removal of fuel subsidy adding that agriculture had received the highest level of lip service ever in the country.
Ajayi urged the new administration not to toe the path of old administrations who failed to adopt policies that improved agriculture.
According to him, the declaration is coming at a time when one can begin to imagine that, it is better late than never because it is long over due.
“The state of emergency on food security should have been declared long ago, long before the issue of subsidy removal.
“The state of food production in Nigeria has been so terrible and we have written a lot, especially researchers.
“There is something that is common and both the rich and the poor cannot avoid, that is food.
“Food is a common denominator, though the rich can buy in supermarkets, while the poor patronise the local markets. What about if the food are not available in the supermarkets, or are not produced?
“We are not producing what we eat up till now in the country and now that the Federal Government has declared state of emergency and there’s lot attached to it,” he said.
Ajayi said that government must tackle other factors affecting food production in order to achieve the desired result.
He listed the factors as aged farmers, lower returns on agric investment, lack of youth participation, lack of viable land for cultivation, lack of modern equipment, farmers/herders clashes and low yielding seedlings, among others.
“Government want to release fertilisers and grains, are they going to be free of charge or at what cost and rate?
“All these need to be spelt out. How will they reach majority of the farmers?
“Are they opening new forest for farming and what does this translate to when it comes to climate change?
“The challenges in the agric space is supposed to be addressed holistically. The cost of fertiliser is out of reach, insecurity on the farm, how will it be addressed?
“We just come up on the air that we have declared a state of emergency.
“Are those fertiliser and grains hiding somewhere, where are they, if they have been kept somewhere,” he said.
“Now we are in July, the planting season is almost over, before they cultivate the land, are the machine ready, are tractors on the field and operational.
“Where are the agrochemicals, extension officers, labourers, technical people that will do the job on the farms?
“Have they collected data on all farmers across the country and how the fertiliser and grains will get to them.
“Why are we not sincere, why can’t we start from where we should start, it goes beyond mere declaration,” he stressed.
Mr Shakin Agbayewa, the Deputy Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Lagos State Chapter, said that all the ploint listed by the federal government were pure academics.
Agbayewa said that the declaration was a good one for the sector and industry adding that government was beginning to realise the food security crisis.
“For the first time, we are beginning to see a president that have the love of farmers, that really want to tackle the issues within the farming states.
“All the points listed by the Federal Government, I see them as hypothesis or academics.
“We have seen a lot of policies and interventions from the Federal Government over time that does not translate to uplifting the farmers, that is just the gospel truth.
“But this administration is still new, we should give them the opportunity to prove themselves that they are different from other administrations,” he said.
Agbayewa noted that government must address epileptic power supply to support agro-processors.
“If government want to declare state of emergency on food security, government should look at energy.
“If farmers cannot buy fuel, diesel and cannot leverage on electricity to carry out processing, how will they survive.
“With stable electricity, I can do night or day economy and cost of production will come down.
“I agree that government should intervene urgently but all the things listed, to me, are still hypothesis,” he added. (NAN)
