It is about the most talked about issue in Nigeria today. Even politicians, particularly those in the camp of the opposition, have adopted it as the central issue for the campaigns towards the next general election. Workers sing the song, and that , strangely, does not exclude farmers. The issue is the prevailing hunger in the land, following the biting inflation and food insecurity. The agitation has been that the government should increase support for farmers and provide the necessary implements for modern farming, as well as encourage all-year-round farming technique. The response from the government has been that it has started the all-season farming, providing implements and educating them on modern farming techniques with a purpose to increasing food production among others. But the situation on the ground suggests that the authorities need to do much more. Now, aside from that, the government, which has been consistent in the provision of farm inputs like fertiliser and seedlings, among other support for farmers, has started an annual procurement and distribution of tractors for the use of the farming community. However, the number of tractors so far procured are grossly inadequate. Yet, it is said to be a radical departure from what preceding administrations had done.
But Dr. Folashade Oke, a consumer and welfare Economist, who is a senior extension fellow in the department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, FUNAAB, says that the government needs not look further for solution to the food crisis. According to the pioneer coordinator of the agroecology programme at FUNAAB, agroecology, which entails a reduction in the dependence on inputs like fertiliser for improved production of food items, is the answer to the lingering problem of food insecurity. The attraction, as she says, is that it reduces expenditure on provision of inputs, encourages an environmental friendly farming and teaches the farmer the farming techniques that his forebears used to ensure mass production of food in the days of yore.
The don who spoke to Aderemi Oladipupo, our correspondent, expatiates on how this can be done to achieve the production of more healthy food for the populace. We serve you the excerpts here:
How do you define Agriecology and how is it different from conventional farming approaches currently in use in Nigeria?
When we talk about Agroecology, it is a combination of two words; that is Agro from Agriculture, then Ecology. We know that agriculture has to do with the production of food and not producing it alone to but all the activities involved till it gets to the table of the consumer. And when we bring ecology component to it, when we add it to Agro, it will now become Agroecology. This has to do with the application of ecological principles to the business of farming, to the business of agriculture and what are these ecological principles? Everything that has to do with the environment, that has to do with natural nutrients, recycling, the use of biodiversity; that is all the natural resources that God has blessed us with. How we make use of it, and one major important thing in Agroecology is that it believes in minimal use of external input when it comes to business of producing food. What I mean by minimal external input is that we all know that the cost of seeds, cost of fertiliser even some of our smallholder farmers that produce our food can’t afford it and so what agroecology does is that it believes that even if you want to use such external input, it should be minimal, it should be reduced. We should concentrate, we should maximise or rather let me say we should optimise what we have in our environment that we can make use of in providing our food and some of those external inputs that we can optimise include the practice of crop rotation, practice of composting, forestry, mixed cropping. So all these practices are natural and it is believed that anything you are doing that will not constitute and have adverse effect or a detrimental effect to the environment is what Agroecology believes in. And as such when we look at the conventional way of farming, definitely which largely make use of external input where we use fertiliser, where we practise mechanised farming, and all these, they are having negative impact on environment and as such what Agroecology is trying to say is that those things are really affecting us because all of those activities have disrupted the ozone layers, brought about the rapid emission of green house gases and so what agroecology does is that it wants to reduce the impact of such external input.
In your own view, what role can agroecology play in addressing Nigeria’s current food security challenges?
The role of Agroecology in food security is that Agroecology can first increase resilience and it can reduce the cost of production on the part of the small holder farmers and it can also improve soil health. And that can (create a situation where we would) have diversified diet simply because Agroecology does not believe in mono-cropping. It believes in diversifying the form of farming whereby farmers can produce different varieties of food in a particular production system and with that they will be able to be food and nutritionally secured. And also in terms of increasing their resilience like I said the conventional farming requires large form of input so the money the farmer ought to have expended in buying fertiliser, in buying seeds can be saved and as such can be channelled into some other things, can be put into another use whereby the farmer will have additional returns and as such it will be tending to improve food security and also there will be stability simply because one of the principles of Agroecology is precision agriculture and smart farming. And this smart farming allows one to produce food all year round. Though agroecology alone cannot guarantee food security, I believe it is a gradual process and so with time we will get there.
One of the principles of Agroecology is precision agriculture and smart farming. And this smart farming allows one to produce food all year round.
What are the biggest agroecological barriers to food production in Nigeria’s different regions — North, South, and Middle Belt?
When we look at agriculture in Nigeria, it is largely sectoral. What I mean by sectoral is that there are some crops that thrive well in the Northern part and there are some that thrive in the Southern and even in the Eastern part but each of these regions has its own peculiar challenges, and as such I will not want to generalise some of the challenges because one man’s meat is another man’s poison. But when we look at the Northern part of the country you know it’s more or less like arid region and as such they have water challenges. That is on the part of natural resources but when we now talk about the challenges from the human angle, the issue of insecurity, the issue of banditry is a major challenge that we have not been able to circumvent and as such it is preventing the way farming activities is being done. But when we now move to the South, we have the issue of flooding we have the issue of land fragmentation, as we all know the land tenure rule in Nigeria where you can’t just wake up and say I want to go and open up a place for farming. (You cannot say that) one land is lying fallow somewhere and I want to go there and plant. No! All land is vested in the government. So, people don’t have the right access to use the land for farming activities anyhow since all land is vested in the government, they might decide that this area is set aside for estate and as such no agricultural activities can take place there. We also have the issue of land disputes. All these ones will limit long term investment in Agroecology method. Another challenge is the climate change. In fact, now like I said, we can’t really say we have raining season, the wet or the dry season. Greenhouse gas emission has really affected the ozone layer and as such we have fluctuations in rainfall. The rainfall pattern cannot be predicted, the temperature, the humidity and as such we need to cope with it, so but the agroecology principle which has to do largely with smart method of farming, smart method of producing food, will be able to overcome the challenge of Climate change. The issue of post-harvest loss is also a challenge whereby you know our smallholder farmers practice rain fed agriculture and as such you discover that during the raining season everybody open up their land and plant. They will almost harvest at the same time to the extent that everywhere will be full of a particular product and at times they might not have market for it. So that is wastage.
But agroecology principle has one of the major things that has to do with supply chain management as well as processing. It says we should have a processing hub whereby some of those produce as they are harvested and as farmers, you might be able to sell directly and so can be aggregated and sold to the processing industries as the off-takers, such that the burden of marketing is off the shoulders of farmers.
You mentioned Climate change earlier, how about desertification? Then, land access, herder-farmer conflict, and insecurity are major issues. How can agro-ecology help reduce these tensions?
Well the land access, herder-farmers conflict, all those ones rest with the government. It has to do with the policy that is being proposed by the government. I was at an event where I addressed a group of women (recently) and they asked me how these challenges will be solved. Everything rests with our government. They know where these people are, they know who their sponsors are. The small holder farmers that can hardly afford even some of these internal inputs, do they have what it takes to combat insurgency? No! I believe our government, if they really want to do well, they should make the environment conducive for farming. They should provide security that will not make people to be living in fear. Then when we talk about desertification, desertification has to do with dry land area and one of the components of the Agroecology is agroforestry, which is the natural resource of the environment, so by encouraging agroforestry, I think the issue of desertification can be overcome overtime. Then the issue of the farmers/herders conflict, also earlier in this month of August, I happened to be at a conference, livestock conference. So many issues were brought up. All these herders that are roaming about the streets can be controlled. If the government wakes up today saying that they don’t want to see any cattle or any herder moving animal from one point to the other, I believe it is workable. Animal can be reared in a confined environment and you can see when they move from one location to the other, they will eat, they will travel far distance and you know the energy gained from the feeds will even be lost when they travel far distance. I believe if we practice the ranching form of cattle farming, the issue of farmer-herder conflict will be a thing of the past in Nigeria. And it will even have a multiplier effect simply because when the animal are confined in a place, the rate at which they grow will be faster simply because what they eat they will be able to utilise it directly and the end product even their waste will be incorporated back into the forest which is the source of manure, which is one of the components that agroecology is all about.
Does Nigeria’s current agricultural policy sufficiently support agroecology, or is it still too focused on fertilisers and imported inputs?
Let me say that the current Agricultural policy is still heavily towards the conventional farming where we have some inputs from fertiliser being subsidised. I could remember, some years back during a particular administration in Nigeria when the Minister of Agriculture really did well to ensure that even the farmers in the core remote areas could access fertiliser, but immediately the administration left, we didn’t hear anything of such again. Its quite unfortunate that governance in Nigeria is not a continuum and as such we do not have sustainability. If another government comes everybody comes with their own agenda and with that, we are being fragmented so for agroecology to really take its place there will be some reforms to the policy. There has to be direct effect of fertiliser subsidy towards agroecological input support and also in the issue of land tenure there should be a reworking particularly when the current land tenure system does not even support women to have direct access to Land. It may not be so prominent here (in the south west), but in the Eastern part of Nigeria the women do not have (the opportunity) to own a farm land. And when you look at these women, they even constitute the larger percentage of the work force that are engaged in different groups when it comes to agriculture and food production. Then another aspect of the policy that needs reform is the extension services. Extension services should be funded by the government towards agroecology principles. Federal ministry of Agriculture and food security should (encourage the 36 state ministries of agriculture) , the ADP, to integrate agroecology into their budget on an annual basis. (This is necessary so) that everything will not rest on federal government alone. Let the individual state contribute their own quota.I believe this will go a long way.
The Federal ministry of Agriculture and food security should (encourage the 36 state ministries of agriculture) , the ADP, to integrate agroecology into their budget…
What policy reforms would you recommend to the Federal and State governments to scale agroecology for food security?
The policy I will recommend like I said Agroecology is just evolving in Nigeria. There is no way something will evolve that it won’t have teething problems, so the policy I can say is that they should see it as this is what will bring about sustainable Agriculture. This is what will sustain our food production system. So, that way we will be able to match up with the advanced countries in terms of food production, so that we will be self-sufficient in food production. And, like I said, this agroecology you see, in Nigeria it’s as a result of funds released by the European Union. They have seen that the way Africa is going, looking at the issue of Climate change, looking at the issue of desertification, we may not be able to be self sufficient in the years to come particularly in the forthcoming generation. So, there must be an alternative way of food production. This alternative way to food production in agroecology. So, the government should see it as a baby that must not die. They must be ready to commit fund to ensure that all the resources they will get are supplied and as such it will be sustainable and it will have an overall multiplier effect on the whole public. I said earlier that extension (workers) have to do their work, (the same also applies to) research institutes (and) the universities on policies in terms of land accessibility that move closer towards agroecological input support. All these will go a long way to help.
How can agroecology be financed? Are there opportunities for smallholder farmers to access funding without depending on big agribusiness?
Funding or financing in agriculture for smallholder farmers is necessary, simply because most of the food we consume are largely produced by small holder farmers. I believe the starting point will be the cooperative societies, which has the spirit of pooling resources together. So, when they pool resources together, they will be able to achieve more, rather than individuals struggling on their own. And also, everything still goes down to the public. Smallholder farmers need to be supported with credit facilities. Unlike the developed world, where their governments provide everything that is needed, even up to the point of marketing. All what the farmer needs to do is make himself/herself available to work because all the inputs needed are provided by the government.
Now, speaking about smallholder farmers, there must be a mindset shift in that they themselves must be ready to ensure that they reduce their dependency on loan. They should be able to come up with a production activity that can attract foreign grant/donor to what they are doing. They should be able to shift their mind-set away from what they are used to, or to what they will do that will attract those that have these funds to support. We have climate change adaptation or climate resilience adaptation fund. When the donor comes around, and they see that what we are doing does not align with what they are interested in, they won’t be able to put down their fund. So, what I am saying in essence is that our farmers will also need the mindset too such that they will be able to queue towards what the donor wants to finance.
Now, speaking about smallholder farmer, there must be a mindset shift in that they themselves must be ready to ensure that they reduce their dependency on loan. They should be able to come up with a production activity that can attract foreign grant/donor to what they are doing.
Many Nigerian farmers already practice elements of agroecology. What indigenous practices should we be documenting and scaling?
To many of them, they practice it even without even knowing. We have some of them that engage in inter-cropping. What is their mindset in engaging in this inter-cropping? They engage in inter-cropping for both short- and long-term benefit simply because in inter-cropping they plant early and late maturing crop together and such, they get some funds or means to finance some of their needs but the way they do it do they have the understanding? So, another way in which this inter-copping can be improved is to plant some leguminous crops, so that as the crop is growing we can also have the ability to release some nutrients into the soil particularly nitrogen and with that it will not act in the environment negatively. Then all organic composting can be done whereby when they reach their farmland, all they need to do is to pack them on one side and allow them to decay. With that they can incorporate into the soil. Also, when they finish harvesting what they have planted, for instance maize, the residues can be converted. I have a project now that the maize stover that is the remaining part of the maize plant after the crop have been in silage are being added to feed cattle in a confined area. And these animals are doing wonderfully well with each animal gaining an average of 1.5 kg weight in a day. Agroforestry policy may need to be re-enacted. There was a time that Agricultural development firm in Nigeria were mandated to plant tree. I think we need to go back to that era and so, when we look at some of these things we see that majority of them have already been practicing agroecology. They have been doing it without knowing but all we need to do now is to educate them, to make them be aware of the need to intensify effort to some of those things they are doing.
Looking at the farmers, you mentioned earlier that lots of women occupied some positions among the farmers in Nigeria. How can we support women and youth farmers, who produce a large share of Nigeria’s food, through agroecological approaches?
There are so many ways we can support women. Like I said the current land tenor act needs to be looked into, components need to be reworked to favour women. We are not saying that women should be at the center but it should be reworked in such a way that what men have access to, women too get access to it. There should be gender equality. Let women also have access to such opportunity. They shouldn’t debar them and when it comes to funding, support women the more, because it has been found out that when you give loan to farmers, the women do much better than the men in terms of plantation and then in terms of repayment plan. So, there should be more support both local and international to support for men and women. Let me also say what agroecology is all about trying to make agriculture to be fascinating to youths. This is because an average Nigerian youth believes that agriculture is for adults. They assumed that it requires some form of arduous task. But no, agroecology is saying that in producing your food, the arduous task has been removed. It has to do with producing your food in a smart way to say that food production does not necessarily mean that you have to carry your hoes and your cutlasses but doing it in a smart way such that you will be able to be at par with some other people who are your colleagues that are even engaged in doing white collar job, that are in the formal sector. You have hectares of farmland and you need to monitor using irrigation, doing precision agriculture where you can pick the required input, the harvest even at the comfort of your home, without having to move around. That is what agroecology is talking about. It is not that some of these resources are not available in our environment it is just that we have not yet tapped into them fully.
Agroecology is all about trying to make agriculture to be fascinating to youths… It has to do with producing your food in a smart way.
What’s the role of community seed banks, crop diversification, and mixed farming in building resilience?
All these will serve as a buffer against some of the shocks that may come from agriculture simply because we know that agriculture is a risky venture. Like you know, it is a risky venture because of the way we practice it in Nigeria, particularly among smallholder farmers that rely on labour to plant their crops. If rain did not fall that is labour loss and also the role that seed bank, desertification and mixed farming in building resilience is that it will serve as a shock absorber or let me say it will serve as a buffer to provide cushioning effect against some unforeseen happenings, like drought, prices crashing when the farmer diversifies. For instance, sometimes last year the price of cassava was extremely high and as such a lot of farmers went into cassava farming, but this year since so many people have committed their resources to cassava farming and as such the price crashed. So, what diversification will do is that it will help to reduce reliance on a particular form of crop, while seed bank will help us to be original in terms of our local crop variety. When we talk about mixed farming, mixed farming will contribute to resilience because what mixed farming does is that it encourages circular economy simply because the waste from one can serve as input that will contribute to the growth of the other. When we talk about mixed farming it has to do with the practice of growing crops and also rearing of animal. In summary, mixed farming, diversification, seed bank help agroecology by trying to help preserve our local crop varieties and it also help to reduce reliance on heavily and highly priced imported food crops. All these contribute to building resilience in terms of food production in Nigeria.
If Nigeria invested seriously in agroecology over the next 10 years, what would food security look like by 2035?
Well, let me say in the next ten years, if Nigeria invests in agroecology, it will have a drastic effect in terms of the rate at which we import food in Nigeria. So, there will be a reduction in import bill and also since agroecology, like I said earlier, will involve planting different crops at the same time. It will make us to have access to a more diversified diet, which will improve food security and also some of the practices are compliant with the environment. They don’t have negative impact on the environment definitely we have a stronger climate resilience. There will be healthier soil and there will be stability in terms of the rural income that will be achieved simply because all these will lead to being self-sufficient through defendant of parallel investment in terms of the infrastructure that supports agriculture. What I mean by infrastructure is good road network, there must be storage that supports processing facilities to take up some of these food crops, when they are harvested such that loss will be minimal. In terms of infrastructure, it can also have effect on erratic rainfall pattern, irrigation can be done. If we have a sustained investment, agroecology will be able to play the role in the next ten years of contributing to food security growth and be able to have considerable impact in terms of agroecology contribution to food security if there can be heavy investment in terms of infrastructure.
Critics say agroecology has low yields compared to chemical-intensive farming. How do you respond to that, especially in the Nigerian context?
Saying that it has low yields, I don’t think I will subscribe to that. Simply because it is believed that when you apply fertiliser to your crop plant it will grow faster, then it is going to double your yield but have we looked at the welfare impact on that, day in day out people die of many sicknesses simply because of what we consume. We apply fertiliser, there is no way some of them would not have the knowledge of the withdrawal method. The farmers apply pesticides on the vegetables in the morning and harvest in the evening, me and you will consume it gradually. We have seen all manner of cases, of food burn simply by virtue of what we consume on daily basis. I think we need to put emphasis on what we consume and so like in developed countries that is why most of our produce cannot stand the world market. They are being rejected simply because an average European man wants to know the source of what he or she is eating. He wants to know everything about the production process. But in Nigeria nothing of such, we just take it. I think we should rise up to the point of having to be sure of what we are eating, to ensure that all those residual chemical contaminants that put food product at risk are reduced and agroecology will offer us such opportunity. But, having said that, one of the components of agroecology is irrigation and when you have irrigation structure in your farm, it can make you to produce all year round. So in my view I don’t think agroecology will have a low yield compared to conventional practice. Since it is a modernised system of farming, it will require a huge financial outlay. Saying that agroecology will have a low yield, I think it’s a misconception.
What metrics should we use to measure success — is it just yield, or should we also track nutrition, soil health, and farmer income?
Well, all I can say is that we cannot use yield of the output alone to measure the success, but we can track the diversity in the food consumed by household and also the soil health overtime, the level of the organic matter that is being dropped as against the residual contaminant, chemical usage on the soil and also the income level of the farmer overtime can be tracked to see whether it is helping them or not. Also, if there is a reduction in the level of how much loan they need to take before they go for another production cycle. If the farmers can demonstrate higher resilience in climate shock. I think all these are good indicators that agroecology is contributing to food security or trying to play its role in food production in Nigeria.
What’s the one misconception about agroecology that you wish every Nigerian policymaker understood?
Like I said most of our smallholder farmers have been used to the old way of doing things and they are so difficult to convince. Saying oh! You don’t want us to be planting …. I was in a place last month and they were saying is it possible to plant inside sack, plant your yam inside sack and start something meaningful when you are supposed to go to the farm and carry your hoe and cutlass. Agriculture has gone beyond that. Even in your backyard, you can do something meaningful. You can have smart irrigation there provided you have a good source of water. You can have a control production all year round and I also told them you can even lay soil to plant some crops particularly vegetables. You can plant them in a green house where it is irrigated, you will even not have problem of labour. Labour issue is a serious challenge in agriculture, you hardly find labour around and as such the smart irrigation with smart principles, with a smart agroecological practices, you can produce using minimal form of labour, you can have control production and convenient way of production of some food crops, particularly vegetable over year-round. So, the misconception that agroecology is a form of backward form of food production will not hold because the system is knowledge intensive and it is a modernised system of farming. Our farmers need to change their mindset, they need to be made aware of new ways of farming they will not necessarily wake up in the morning carrying hoes and cutlass, there are machines that do that.