Agriculturist Urges S/West Governors To Embrace Commercial Farming

An agriculturist, Mr Africanfarmer Mogaji, has advised South-West governors to engage in commercial agriculture in the face of food inflation in Nigeria.

Mogaji, a former Chairman, Agriculture and Agro-Allied Group, Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), gave the advice in an interview with the New Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on Tuesday in Lagos.

He said governors within the zone were not paying much attention to agriculture like their counterparts in the North.

He said they must begin to utilise all available land for commercial agriculture to address food insecurity in the zone.

He said the majority of the South-West states did not benefit much from the CBN Anchor Borrowers Scheme due to lack of commitment from the government, unlike the northerners who took advantage of the scheme to expand.

He said the “southwest zone did not have any food commodity to its name, not even the famous cocoa.”

He urged the governments of the zone to focus on maize and livestock production where they had comparative advantage in terms of good climate.

“We do more livestock than the northerners because we have more rain. Many of the northerners migrated to the southwest during the rainy season.

“The government is not taking advantage of agriculture as a revenue generator; Oyo and Ogun states have huge unutilised expanse of land that can be used for farming.

“What they need to do is to show interest and amplify it, and the private sector will come in to invest.

“Go to Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, and even Lagos, you will see huge expanse of land that are lying fallow. These can be used for farming, and we will have food in the zone.

“This is the time to come together as a nation and embark on aggressive commercialisation.

“Many people have their money in banks. The value is dropping, but if they put it in the soil, when it will come out, they will have good returns.

“If government is not pushing for private investors to come into the sector, who will do that for them,” he said.

Investment in Silos

Mogaji also urged government at all levels to encourage private sector investment in silos because the majority of the nation’s silos had been commercialised.

He said that in developed countries, silos and storage facilities were operated by agricultural cooperatives and private investors.

“Our government needs to get it right. They need to encourage private investors to set up silos and storage facilities across the country and assure them of adequate protection of their investments.

“I did quite a lot of study in Colorado and Iowa in U.S. The American government sent me on this training.

“It is the private sector and cooperatives that own a chunk of the silos after government.

“Cooperative societies should be encouraged to establish silos because they are long term and they keep growing in number and size,” he said.

According to him, cooperative societies have access to long-term loans, and banks are willing to grant them loans because they have track records of long-term funding and repayment.

“Once they set up the silos around the farmers, the farmers don’t have to sell their produce immediately after harvest.

“They can store or process it so there will not be glut in the system and also make their money in return.

“Also, farmers can continue to get loans for the cooperative societies, and that way, the system will benefit as well as the farmers.

“This is not rocket science. It is workable and doable. All the government needs to do is proper planning,” he said.

 

 

NAN/Shakirat Sadiq