2 hours ago
5
Olotu Akinola Samuel, a former Senior Special Assistant on Agriculture and Agribusiness to the late governor of Ondo state, Rotimi Akeredolu in this session with BENJAMIN UMUTEME on the sideline of a stakeholders’ consultative workshop on livestock reforms in Nigeria recently, said the federal government should have a dedicated fund for agriculture for lending to players in the sector. According to the livestock farmer, the potential of the sector is bigger than the petroleum sector.
One thing on the lips of all thematic groups was the issue of access to finance. How can this be addressed?
Access to finance is a major challenge. And I think it is something the government at the federal level and the sub-nationals should tackle head-long. I will tell you this; the interest rates commercial banks charge on agriculture is unfriendly. Nobody can get a loan from most of our commercial banks at this present exorbitant rate. Paying back will be pretty difficult. So, let’s look at it, you get a loan at maybe 25 per cent or 27 per cent interest rate, even at best, maybe your profit is about 30 per cent at most; so it means you are just working for the bank. And when you look at this issue globally, the developed world which we are trying to emulate, they get agriculture loans for two per cent, one per cent. In fact, in some other countries, it is zero per cent. And that was what the former governor of the Central Bank was trying to address with the Anchor Borrowers Programme, making funds available to farmers as a developmental policy.
The intervention was development-focus, but the implementation was bad. It was faulty; it was abused by a lot of people within the system. Let’s look at tree crops; let’s look at cocoa, let’s look at oil palm, which bank will be ready to fund all those things. You need oil palm in this country for import substitution. If you look at the volume of money we are putting on oil palm, even cocoa to earn foreign exchange. So, I don’t see how the present arrangement will take care of those commodities with long-term gestation, long-term repayment plan.
In countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, you have ‘reech’ funds for ten years, easily accessible, maximum, 2-3 per cent interest rate. These are critical areas we have to focus on. The livestock we are talking about, you will discover that different thematic groups were coming up with accessing funds. My own recommendation to Mr. President is that he should have a dedicated fund for agriculture and we must ensure that we have data of practitioners in the system. You might not get all the money back.
I give you an example of South Korea, when they started their intervention, the first tranche of money that went out, what they were expecting was 50 per cent. They said if we have 50 per cent back it is a success. They were encouraged by the 50 per cent that succeeded, look at those that failed, look at why they failed and address it again. So, that was what happened in South Korea.
Today, we know how well the country is doing? To me, this is a critical step which the President has done well in this direction, but I want this issue of pasture development to be taken seriously because people that are pastoralists are roaming about. What are they looking for? – Water and feed. As a matter of national emergency, if the President declares today that he is in need of 200, 000 hectares, governors that are ready to key into this programme, this is what I am going to do to support you. Two hundred thousand hectares, accelerated pasture development, not that the government will do it, but they will facilitate the acquisition of the land, and encourage the private sector to grow pastures.
There is even a report that Saudi Arabia wants Nigeria to grow pastures for them. Why doesn’t the government catalyse investors in that area? They are not going to do it, the government should provide infrastructure, provide security, and open up lands for people to pay back over a period of 10 years. The cost we incurred on clearing this land, providing infrastructure there, the area you are using, you pay back in installment over 10 years. That way you’ve succeeded in addressing the challenge of the pastoralists.
The issues around security are still a very big challenge in the livestock industry. From the presentations by the various groups, what are the specifics on ways of curbing the activities of rustlers?
On the issue of security, I think we holistically look at the sector and not just about cattle rustling. Nigeria as a nation is not food secured. And we cannot put the blame on the present administration. All we can do is to look at what has to be done and how to do it properly. We just have to have a radical approach to doing it because hungry people are angry people. People are hungry, they cannot afford what is available and farmers cannot produce. By the United Nations standard, food security means food availability at all times.
Food accessibility and affordability at all times with emphasis on the most vulnerable in the society, then sustainable means of production then nutrient sufficiency. For food to be available the means of production must be sustainable, so that is when we can begin to talk about the method of production we engage in. We can talk about the issue of rustling.
Why are cattle being rustled in the country? It is because our method of production is archaic. Whether we like it or not, the nomadic method of grazing cattle is not in the interest of anybody. I will explain; it is not in the interest of the animal, the little food they are able to eat, the little water they are able to drink they expend on trekking. They trek to a place where they are able to access five litres of water, and after taking the five litres of water they will trek back. Coming back, they would have burned the little water and food they’ve taken. That is why the average daily weight gain in our animals is extremely poor. And also, that is why milk yield is very low; we are talking about one or two litres while people are getting 30-40 litres from an animal outside the country because we are doing it in a wrong way. And people attribute this to the issue of culture. I believe culture has to be dynamic.
I believe Nigeria and Nigerians have been unfair to the pastoralists because how do you subject people to a nomadic life and you expect them to live a decent life. How will their children be able to go to school when they trek from one forest to another? They don’t know what they are going to meet ahead. They meet wide animals and some of them will be bitten by snakes, they have health challenges. So, they go from one jungle to another. We cannot afford to subject them to that continuously.
In the second republic during the campaign, Chief Obafemi Awolowo said the method of bringing cattle from the North to the South was not the best. He said to raise the cattle up North, process it, package it, and bring it to the South. That is better! I was at the abattoir and I saw cattle being offloaded. They put about 60 in a trailer, and right there, about ten had died, another 20-30 could not even stand up. I am sure that some of them will still die. I saw them quickly slaughtering some of them. So, is this the method we want to continue, no? So, when you look at that challenge, you will agree with me that there is a need for modernisation.
At the stakeholders’ meeting, I said, take some of the pastoralists’ leaders to countries like Brazil, Netherlands, let them see what is being done there. Leave them there for three months, let them undergo training. Bring them back home and empower them with all they need to establish such a project in the country, then we use them as change agents. When others see what they are doing, the story will begin to change. Nomadic cattle rearing is unbeneficial to everybody. The animals are losing, the owners of the cattle are not making profit, the herdsmen don’t have access to settled life, and their children will not have access to education.
Analysts say the creation of the livestock ministry may not be the solution to the sector’s underperformance?
There is nothing bad in what the president has done by creating the livestock ministry; I believe it’s the right step in the right direction. If you have a ministry for petroleum, are you telling me the livestock ministry is not bigger than the petroleum industry? The livestock industry is bigger; we are talking about cattle, we are talking about poultry, and we are talking about sheep and goat, even aquaculture. When you look at the potentials and the advantages, the inclusive growth benefits in the livestock sector it’s something that the effect impacts on the grassroots. If the creation of ministries is our problem then, we should not have problems in Nigeria. If we run the ministry the old way we will get the old result. And that was why I made my suggestion that day that the ministry should operate on a regional basis. Let the centre just be coordinating their activities. The advantages in these are numerous. When you look at the cost of going to Abuja to attend meetings, it’s expensive. What we are saying is that this ministry should operate on a regional basis.
Let the states in the South-west come together, let the zonal office be in Ibadan or wherever we want to put it. The commissioner or whoever is in charge in Ekiti can travel to Ibadan and come back the same day; he doesn’t have to spend money on hotels. If anybody allows the ministry of livestock to operate the old way then we may likely get the same old result-which I don’t pray for. We have to allow the regions to be very strong so that we can say, North-central; this is the support from the federal government which will allow us to measure your success at the end of the year. The Ministry of Livestock is not about cattle alone, it’s about livestock generally.
The poultry sector is seriously challenged. It is the second largest employer of labour in the South-west. Those who are engaged in it are moving out because the situation is terrible. The big ones are even lamenting. I was in a programme where one of them said they made a loss of N9 billion last year.
Hatchery, feeds, when you produce, who will buy? Eggs are being produced, but how many people can afford eggs now? The purchasing power is not there now. Who will go and put N6, 000 on eggs? They will still prefer to buy garri. That is the problem we are having. That is why I am a crusader of the six geographical zones when it comes to empowerment. So, the costs of governance and costs of doing business will go down drastically. I am appealing to Mr. President that the ministry of livestock and maybe the ministry of agriculture should operate on a regional basis.
Let the regional office in Ibadan, for instance, coordinate the six states in the entire South-west. Let’s agree on what we are going to do in each region. The potentials in the livestock ministry if it is properly managed are superior to the ministry of petroleum.
Nobody should raise an eyebrow, what we should be concerned with is how the ministry is going to operate, is what all of us should be concerned with. I also want to appeal that the president should put a minister of state in that ministry too.
