He holds strong views because he is passionate about his country getting it right on all fronts, particularly in the area of food security. He is in the the academia, and properly positioned where agricultural activities are of major concern. And right in the centre of the efforts to make make rise up and run for gold. Sobowale Soremi, a lecturer at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta,FUNAAB, said, “We have what it takes to feed ourselves, and probably to feed the whole of Africa.” But, he said, the problem is that not much seriousness is being applied to efforts at improving agriculture, insisting that even where supposedly good policies are proffered, those who will drive the policies end up bastadising them.
Am expert in agronomy, Soremi teaches in the department of Plant Physiology and Crop Production at FUNAAB. He has traveled to countries in Africa and Europe, learning and teaching. Currently, he is involved in a research on Strengthening Farmers-Led Innovation for Transformation to Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) in Nigeria. He has a number of published works in learned journals like the Nigerian Journal of Plant Protection (NJPP), Nigerian Journal of Mycology, European Journal of Soil Science,Tropical Agriculture (Trinidad), Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences and Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment and Extension.
From his experience on the field, Soremi said that insecurity remains the bane of food production in Nigeria, even as some of the political and traditional leaders are complicit in attacks by criminal herdsmen on the hapless farmers.
Not only that, he believes that whenever officials drive policies, farmers who are supposed to be the direct beneficiaries are not given enough education. That also is aside from the fact that the necessary machines needed to drive mechanised farming are not available.
He also spoke on the controversy surrounding the Genetically Modified Organism, GMO foods in Nigeria, expressing regrets that the relevant agencies are not doing enough to wade into the issue in order to properly advise the government. Soremi spoke with Taiwo Farotimi and Aderemi Oladipupo.
Nigeria is number 8 on the list of countries with the largest arable land in the world; we have 91.1 million acres of land, what percentage of this has been put to use?
We have how many Hectares?
We have over 91 million acres of arable land?
Ehmm well, I don’t know how many percentage that has been put to use, but I can tell you that not much has been put into productive use. I mean there is difference between use and productive use. Now when you talk of arable land as a whole, I have identified the first fundamental problem with Nigeria. I don’t know whether it cuts across Africa or not. I have been to some African countries, I am not sure I have seen the same thing there and the fundamental problem with land in Nigeria is that there is no land use planning.
There is no land use planning?
Yes, land use planning. When we say land use planning, What I mean by that is that if you say ehmm , okay, you are in Lagos? What part of Lagos are you?
At the fringe of Lagos, the area I am is on Ogun state land
Okay. On which axis Mowe, Ayobo
No, Akute Lambe side
That means you live on Ifako, Agege, Akute, Lambe to enter Adiyan water works. I get the description now. Okay, let me use that axis as a reference point for you. What I mean by land use planning is that somewhere there I cannot remember exactly there used to be poultry or a livestock farm by the Lagos State government
There is a piggery farm. Is that what you mean?
A piggery farm yes, Hen hen, today the way I can picture that area, people have built very close to if not on the piggery farm area now. Am I correct?
Yes, they are close to the farm.
Yes, that is the problem because there is no land use plan. The meaning is that if those areas where we have the livestock/piggery farm by policy and by law have been designed as Agriculture area or a livestock farm area.
The meaning is that nobody should have the right to go and cut the place to say I have approval. In fact, there will be no approval for somebody to build around that area. That is land use plan and the same thing happens all over. I don’t know much about (the whole of) Nigeria but I can say (what is happening in) Southwest-Nigeria. It is pathetic to me. Ten years ago you passed through a place, it was a farm land; today you are passing through somebody have change it to a residential estate or they are partitioning land there for people to come and build. It is a pathetic situation because the meaning is that we don’t see it that way.
You see, something is going on in Africa now which is not really new all over the world, it is not new globally but we might find it new in Africa. They are mapping the land, the soil in particular. They are not particular about land. They are doing soil mapping to say this soil here is this type of soil (and) this is the type of crop you can grow there and stuffs like that. That project is not even progressing in Nigeria because of lack of funding and that is what leads to land use planning.
Something is going on in Africa now which is not really new all over the world, it is not new globally but we might find it new in Africa. They are mapping the land, the soil in particular. They are not particular about land. They are doing soil mapping to say this soil here is this type of soil (and) this is the type of crop you can grow there and stuffs like that. That project is not even progressing in Nigeria…
Land use planning you say where you have Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB) is a university, because there is a university, the axis around it ten kilometer, five kilometer or one kilometer will be residential areas. The places after it another five kilometer will be farm and nobody, nobody in the Bureau of Land Planning or physical planning will approve even a block to be laid there for foundation because they want to build for residential or factory tomorrow.
When I was growing up Lagos/Ibadan express way was bush, today that’s not the case and we have religious bodies, we have ehhhhh housing estates; almost religious bodies more than any other. These are religious bodies that don’t pay taxes and they took such area of land that could be useful for crop production for food production that could be useful for industrialization. So when we talk about the percentage of land that we have in Nigeria, it’s not just about the percentage that is being put to use, we should be concerned about (the part) that is being put into productive use. Let me share an experience, I don’t know whether you have travelled to Ghana by road passing through Seme border?
Yeah, I have passed through Seme border to at least Benin Republic but not up to Ghana. To Ghana was by air.
Okay you may not see it the problem there. The problem is …hope am not taken too much of your time?
No, no, no, no we are okay
The problem is that when you leave now, there is this Abidjan/Lagos highway that is supposed to end in Abidjan in Ivory Coast that is been left; Nigeria end that is not put in place. When you enter Benin republic to link that road again it’s on the fringe of the Atlantic Ocean to your left if you are going. Atlantic Ocean is to your left. You will observe sir that to your left and right people cultivate crops and you would guess like I guess because I didn’t talk to check that the soil are saline soil because they are on the fringe of the ocean but people still put them to productive use. In 2022 I travelled from Netherlands to Germany by train almost 12 hours, or 10 hours ride I think, I can’t remember the number of hours. I was shocked that in Europe I was seeing cultivated land with Canola, wheat, Barley to my left and right. I saw cultivated land on a 10 hour train drive. Now travel from Lagos to Abeokuta do you see crops by the side of the road?
No!
Travel from Abeokuta to Ibadan you see shanties, you see abandon projects, you see so many things and where there is nothing you see bush. So we should not be talking about what percentages had been put to use out of the 91 million acres rather it should be the percentage that have been put to productive use. And when I say productive use, I mean productive agricultural use because you are talking of arable land now, not any type of land. There are countries in the world that do not have up to the quantity we have so we should not just be talking of use, it should be productive use. I don’t have the exact figures that have been put to use so I may not be able to give you.
From the examples that you gave, is it not more of the problem of policing of whatever policy have been made, because when you talk about the areas where we have the piggery farm at the Oke Aro side, the areas surrounding it, most of the buildings there are not likely to have got approval from the government. Is it not more of policing by government? People go there , they build, they don’t even ask for approval or whatever. But nobody bothers to educate them. Even in the record of the state government its like there are no buildings around that place?
Okay, I wouldn’t know the record of the state government but I can tell you that you are right to say it is about policing, policing is there, but the question is who are those to police it? Nigerians, human beings who themselves have corrupt mentality already. Anybody get on the job to feel like I have to make my own breakthrough now because I have a job not because I have to work to make my breakthrough on the job so it is not the same thing. I have a job with my breakthrough not I have to work my way on this job to make my breakthrough so if you say policing on the part of government but who are those in government? Nigerians, you and I, people like us. Most of the people who have corrupt mindset. Now let me say this in addition to that. A colleague here who wasn’t a Professor at the time but he is a Professor now bought a land somewhere in Ogun state. I won’t mention the area. When he bought the land, fortunately for him he has a niece who is an architect, who works in I think Lagos or Abuja. So he told his niece, ‘Hello dear I have a land, come and draw for me what I will build on the land.’ You know when those people tell us that you should use this as your surveyor, use this person as your Lawyer, it’s because they are covering so many things. His niece came, designed the prototype on paper and then wanted to file it with Ogun state government. She drove all the way from Lagos to Abeokuta and ended up in Bureau of physical Planning or land. She had told her uncle to go and take the coordinates and send to me. That one sent the coordinates; she used the coordinates to do the job. When she got to the Ministry to file the document, she was informed there that the Land is an acquisition. She called her uncle; ‘Uncle, I am at Abeokuta /Oke Mosan, I want to submit your document like I told you but this is the information obtained.’ The Uncle said it’s not possible now. People have built houses around the land I bought so how can it be on acquisition. He said where are you? Uncle said, ‘I am in the office.’ She said, ‘Okay start coming over, let’s meet somewhere strategic and go to that place together.’ They went there (to the land), luckily when they got there they met the neighbor, the land beside him has been built and the Uncle anytime he goes there try to relate with the supposed neighbor anyway. When they got there the person was at home. They say let’s meet him, they met him greeted him after sometime asked him, ‘Do you have building approval for this place, he said yes. If you don’t mind can we see it?’ He obliged them and when the approved building plan was brought out the coordinates are not the coordinates of that place. So, if government goes tomorrow that we are demolishing this place somebody will bring out a falsified document, which is approved anyway because somebody did not do the policing like you said and say no, ‘we have an approval for this place, how can you say you want to demolish because they use false coordinates to get the approval.’ That is how we are as a people. That is why I use to say that our problem is not basically leadership; follower-ship is a big conversation that we are not ready to talk about. So even policing on the part of government but people too hide information, we are not ready to say the truth.
. Dr.SobowaleSoremi
In what way can we say that this complex situation has impacted on food production in Nigeria?
Oh, thank you. It has impacted very much because we have no land use planning, we know that we have a big problem with our land system, which is land tenor system; land is owned by individuals, family, and land partitioning. Your father have a land and two children so you divide it into two for him to inherit that is if your Auntie or your Uncle does not claim any part of it. So what somebody has as TEN Hectares becomes five or becomes four for one person and that person also partition again. So that family fragmentation has hindered investment in agriculture. What do I mean by investment? We need to move away from the things we have known like I use to say I agree with somebody who said if our grand parents wake up from the grave now, they will not miss their way around because he died in the fifties the environment is still the way they left it. So this fragmentation of land has restricted investment in agricultural development
In what way?
We are saying there is Climate change, we need to invest in irrigation. Somebody who wants to invest in irrigation has to be sure that the land he is putting irrigation on is secured in terms of the fact that nobody will come tomorrow and say it is my land. Two, it is secure in terms of if it cost him one million naira to put irrigation system on ten hectares and I don’t have ten hectares I have one point five hectares and he also spent one million it will not be profitable on 1.5 or 1 hectare. So this land fragmentation is actually causing a big limitation to investment in agricultural innovation and practices that will improve our crop production. Now the other part is the fact that, and I say this with every sense of responsibility. We have what it takes to feed ourselves, and probably to feed Africa.
Is that so?
But, I don’t always talk about Africa first because “Ile lati nkeso rode”(pardon me am a Yoruba boy) (charity begins at home). When we don’t have enough here we can’t be talking about export. We have what we need to feed ourselves.
We have what it takes to feed ourselves, and probably to feed Africa.
The question is ‘What is our priority?’ Now this land fragmentation when I talk of investment in agriculture innovation, it includes technology. We have been used to hoe and cutlass, unfortunately, even the university teaches agriculture and still teach hoe and cutlass, very unfortunate! Yes, you can quote me that I say so. Now because we need small mechanized hand held implements that can make the work faster and reduce drudgery so this land fragmentation has also restricted investment in such technology to ease the drudgery or to even eliminate drudgery involved in food production. So, there is a lot. Even financing; it has limited financing too because nobody will come and invest in or give you loan to go and farm 0.5 or 1 hectare for the next five years and say you will be able to pay back the money.
That’s true
So all these are there that will need to look at again. Take a second look at sincerity. When I now say we should remove the bottleneck, I am not looking at the situation where one will go and corner the land because that is what we use to have in Nigeria. Some people use trick to corner land in Nigeria and say they want to use it for farm even though some of them don’t eventually use it for farming. I am not looking at that. I am looking at my own practical way forward, which is for farmers in an area to come together like they form cluster or Cooperative or whatever they form and look beyond individual production. So, we will have a cluster of Rice farmers and so if me I have 0.5, and another person 0.5 and another person has 1 hectare, we put these together, synchronize our activity such that we can bring in implements mechanization, bring in irrigation, bring in all those things collectively and when we make our yield, we also share collectively based on what we contributed, may be in terms of land or input. But you know we are a sincere people to ourselves; the fear that this person may outwit me and all those things are there. That is how this will impact on our food production.
As we speak now, there isn’t anywhere where such is practiced?
Ah, I don’t have the data so, don’t let me say Yes or No. I can’t say there is nowhere but I look forward to see it around here. Around the Southwest more. I look forward to hearing the success story of it in the Southwest. See it in practice but I have not heard of it, though I look forward to that.
What role will Estate farming play in this, where you have people who have the means getting up to say 200 acres/hectares can be somewhere doing a number of things that can improve production in different areas?
Well, when you say Estate farming, I will presume what you mean by that is the fact that somebody owns a large expanse of land. Am I correct?
Yes,you are correct.
Because he has the resources, the financial might and he is putting it into agriculture. That is just like commercial farming. So I wouldn’t know. But you see most of the problems we have. We have two problems with respect to that not based on the fund; the funds may be there. However, we need capacity, we need the capacity of people to work and manage the farm.
Okay
Now, I can say this now because I am part of this in a way for the second year. Last year I was part of it. This year I am part of it just some few weeks back. Ogun state is trying to the lead with respect to that to say let us have crop production at Technical college level. Because we don’t have artisans…there are different aspect of crop production. Why am I talking about crop production? It is not because I am a crop production person, but it is because crop production is the basis of food security. We have livestock, we need crop to feed them. Whatever you are doing, so the idea is this Ogun State in Technical colleges (farming scheme) is trying to introduce crop production class now. Where they will train artisans in crop production. What does that mean? It means that we can have people who say our own specialisation area is to come and prepare your land for you, our own specialization is to come and apply herbicides or pesticides for you. They come as a group no matter how large the area of your land is. Or our own job specialization is fertilizer application, whether it is manual or use of one implement or the other. Ogun state is leading that. I was part of it last year when we developed the curriculum for the state tertiary vocational education board and this year just weeks back, last month it was validated by NBTE (National Board for Technical Education). I was also invited to be part of that too.
That is good.
So, we need to build capacity first and foremost, we need to make young people see them. But there are many things we are not talking about when we talk about food security or food production. We have aging population in the villages. And beyond the aging population, the villages or rural areas are being deserted because of insecurity. I will not mention places, but there are places I visited in Ogun state that people have vacated the whole village. I am talking of a village left with a church, an orthodox church. You can imagine what an Orthodox Church looks like in a village, they have abandoned that village because of insecurity.
That is one major aspect now…
Yes, when we talk about Estate farming, the first thing is that we need the money and the land that will be there, we need the skill, people with the skill across all cadre; artisans, manager, supervisor across that cadre and they are not there because people don’t want to read agriculture in Nigeria. I don’t know how many times they do career training in primary school and Secondary school and they put Farmer there. But everybody wants to eat but the Doctor will say come and take this medicine but you must eat before you take the medicine.
That is certain.
But nobody is interested in how the food comes and for me that is a big issue that we have to talk about. We need to build skills across the cadre of people who will be involved in food production. Now when we do that, we will now because we have done that, when we do it we now help the other end of it which is the value chain development.
Yeah
Once you have the basics of the value chain, once it is established and it is functional. The other end of the distribution chain, storage everything will be in place. So because I have been to farms, I can tell you I visited a farm last year, somewhere in Ogun state I will not mention the place. It is owned by somebody popular in Nigeria and they were doing rice production. Let me tell you what I saw on that farm. They had a rice mill, equipment for a Rice mill. They have built the structure and they imported the equipment for the rice mill and equipment were packed outside with the wooden cabin that brought them and they were not installed. First thing I noticed on the farm. When I got into the farm, the man who said he is the farm manager, I asked him what he studied, he said he studied Geology! Why did I have to ask him? I did because he was telling me things that do not apply in crop agriculture production.
Can you imagine?
And I was asking him where did you train, he said he studied Geology at University of Lagos and you are a farm manager. So, we need to build skills, people can have money to say they want to establish farm but we need to build skills. The other part which I have also observed here is not peculiar to the people that have money and operate farms, I think it cuts across every sphere in Nigeria. It is the high level of nepotism. They will bring their cousins who are graduates, irrespective of what they studied. Their in-laws, their wife’s sister, wife’s brother or somebody from their village to come and be managing the farm. We need to change our orientation that if we keep talking farming or what they called Agricpreneurship for those that are Gen-z or they Gen- whatever they call it….
It should not a dumping ground for just not anybody?
You see it is not a hobby it is business. We need to see it that way. People have to come and realise that when I am putting money into buying seeds, buying fertiliser, into buying insecticide, whatever I am buying, purchasing land or acquiring land, I am running a business. And it should be run as such, Simpliciter! It should be run as a business in every sense of a business. Once we don’t because that’s where we are now we are not imbibing that value and I don’t know how it is going to drive us. So, this is part of what is killing the Estate farm that you are talking about.
The area of the skill thing excites me, you have been part of it, good enough up to NBTE level. What you have seen, does it give you confidence that the government that is starting it is putting in all the commitment and whether there will be structure that successive governments can follow?
I dont know. Because, all I have done is to be sited somewhere, review or develop and then validate the curriculum. Well in one or two of the persons that have been there, somebody who said he is a Consultant had invented some innovations across Ogun state. He had presented some pictures of laboratories that are been improved, but I don’t take that as laboratory improvement because when you say you are improving a laboratory. it is not the building or the bench or table that makes the lab, it is the equipment. I have not seen really those equipment there with those pictures that I have seen. Talking about succession, you see, you permit me to say this when we talk about government, government. I always disagree. The problem is not government; the problem is the Bureaucrats, the people in the Ministries. They are the ones that shift goal post and they advise Mr Governor or Mr Commissioner or whoever that doesn’t go that direction, the other man went there and this is what he came back with. Let us go this direction. If they will be consistent in the agencies of government, it should be fine when we have a change of approach and we see result. But that is what I cannot guarantee. I cannot talk about that.
From your experience so far particularly in the South-west, is the insecurity ebbing at all?
Is it what?
Are we having a reduction in the rate of insecurity?
Reduction? We are not having reduction. Insecurity is increasing. You may be living in town and you have your peace. Go to the villages, the rural areas;I am talking of places where we have farmers. Where they don’t have the opportunity to even carry Dane gun to protect themselves. There are so many things going on in the rural areas. So many things. I don’t believe they are doing much in terms of insecurity in rural areas. The part I will say now, I don’t know if you will be able to publish it. Because I can tell you that some of our leaders at various levels are involved. They are part of people that are responsible for what is going on there. Let me share this experience with you.
We will be glad to have it
Somebody is a … don’t let me say he is a herdsman. He has a place where he took his cattle. He is a Northerner and what he did to settle where he settled in the Southwest is that when he was coming, of course they did their home work, their survey. They see that that place is a good place for them to settle. So what they would do was to look for the name of the Oba (traditional ruler) in charge of that rural area. Now they got the name that it is Oba so so so that is covering this place/axis and their contact. I don’t know from where. Call the Oba to book an appointment to see him. So he went to the Oba on the day of the appointment and he went with a truck of a female cow, just one female cow that he took to the traditional ruler. When he got there after traditional salutations and exchange of pleasantries, he would say, ‘Kabiyesi am sorry o I brought one gift for you. He presented the Cow’. Kabiyesi said, ‘I am not doing anything now where do I keep Cow?’ The man said, ‘Don’t worry, I will keep it for you in my place, when it gives birth, it will be increasing, and it will still be your own.’ That is how they entrap our traditional leaders and our political leaders too. They have stake in all those locations you see those guys. They have cows that they are keeping for them and that is one of the reasons why we cannot say the truth. It may not be news to you but the day I discovered it, it was news to me.
That is how they entrap our traditional leaders and our political leaders too. They have stake in all those locations you see those guys. They have cows that they are keeping for them and that is one of the reasons why we cannot say the truth.
Well, maybe we should go to another area. There is this issue of GMO foods which primarily should be a way of increasing food production. But there is the outcry that the GMO is a threat to the health of consumers and the land. What is your take on this?
Thank you very much. I once had this conversation with a European and I told him what I am going to tell you now. First and foremost, I told him that it is because in Europe they have filled up. Yoruba ni eniti o ba ti yo lonwa bekunbekun (the Yoruba say that the one who is filled to the brim, often goes about courting trouble). In Europe now, you go to the store to get your groceries and you see organic, you see conventional, you see GMO with labels. Of course, because they have some level of transparency in their society. We, we don’t want to label here because the fact is that it is when we have optimised, and I emphasised that sir, optimised both human and natural resources. We have a huge human resources,you know. 120 million is not a joke anywhere in the world. If Nigeria should go to war today, our neighbours will be in crisis; they will be in demographic crisis, if we decide to move and become displace persons and move into the neighboring countries.
It will be serious
So we have population. We have human resources, we have the land and the skills are there so we are not putting them to optimal use. That is why we are going to bed without food. Agricultural value chain is such that if we make it attractive with technology, with innovation, a lot of people will be employed along that value chain. I mean a lot. We might not, or if we are still talking of unemployment, I am sure the ratio/rate will reduce drastically. Now beyond that because you mentioned GMO and talking about the fact that, eniti o ba ti yo lonwa bekunbekun. It is because we have not mobilised and utilised and optimised the resources we have that is why things like GMO are attractive to us. Now because as human beings we have our phobia, our different fears. For some people their fear is introduction of new technology and things like that. Up till today despite the fact that smart phone is all over the place, there are people may be in their 40s or 50s who will tell you they will not still use smart phone. Why? Because it is not that they cannot afford it but for the fear that ‘somebody will take my password, somebody will get to know everything about me’. You know things like that so, I agree that there should be fear, concern around GMO. However, what I don’t agree with is the level of those fears that we are bringing on. Why? Because if there are regulations, and I say this with every sense of responsibility, that in Nigeria we compromise ourselves a lot. Globally there are regulations for everything. If you are bringing a product, it must be subjected to certain test. So let our regulatory authorities, NAFDAC (National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control), whoever, Standard Organisation of Nigeria or whatever they call themselves, let them come out and say for this seed that is being introduced this is the test we have carried out and this is the result we have. That will douse any tension. But we are hungry sir and we need to put food on the table. So, if it is the GMO that will make us have food on the table. We have to put food on the table. A crisis is looming ahead of us that we are not seeing and it is the food crisis. We are not seeing it because some of us feel that we are free, but if we escalate it more than where we are, you will see people burgling into our homes during the day, not even at night again, not because they want to steal your TV or your laptop or your phone, but because they want to eat.
A crisis is looming ahead of us that we are not seeing and it is the food crisis. We are not seeing it because some of us feel that we are free, but if we escalate it more than where we are, you will see people burgling into our homes during the day, not even at night again, not because they want to steal your TV or your laptop or your phone, but because they want to eat.
There is a lot of outcry out there of hungry people. So, if, and I can tell you that once the government knows that the problem is food, if GMO will bring food here, they will bring GMO in and it will not be about the English or the Yoruba we are speaking, it will be about trying to solve a social problem.
Let us look at this area. GMO can solve the food problem but you said there are certain areas of fears then there is over-reach. What are those areas of immediate fears?
Okay. The area of immediate fears like it had been speculated. Let me say speculate now because I did not carry out any research and I have not read any published scientific report emphasis scientific report that say so but there are fears of Carcinogenic attributes from GMOs, there are fear that ehm, there is this talk on social media which I have not substantiated that our Ginger farms are disappearing because of GMO. I’m looking for facts to substantiate that. But they said they have introduced Ginger GMO. Now naturally some of these things people talk about exist in nature. Some plants are allelopatic in nature.
By which you mean?
The meaning is that when you grow a plant, another type of plant will not grow around it. That is allelopathy
Okay
Now, the use of certain practices, the adoption of certain practices over the years may be use of inorganic fertiliser, even the way you prepare your land so many things can come and make your land un-useable. Can make your environment in a way toxic to a plant. When you continue to grow a crop over and over again on the same piece of land, the pests and diseases that are attracted to that crop will accumulate there. So there may be a year that you might grow that crop and it will wipe out because there will be outbreak of those pests and diseases. All these things are natural phenomenon that occurs in nature. But some of the fears of GMO is that it has high allelopathy and it will make your own local variety to disappear. I am just trying to use a layman’s language, henhen but am not sure of all these. That is why I am saying that let our regulatory bodies, that are in charge of or taking responsibility of whatever, come in. They are using public funds for goodness sake, so they should work in the interest of the public.
But some of the fears of GMO is that it has high allelopathy and it will make your own local variety to disappear. … That is why I am saying that let our regulatory bodies, that are in charge of or taking responsibility of whatever, come in. They are using public funds for goodness sake, so they should work in the interest of the public.
Of course
Hen -hen, so a seed is coming in, there are procedures for seed coming in to this country and into every country all over the world. And if it is in such commercial quantity there are procedures of how to test it or what to do and everything. They should do this thing with righteousness for the sake of a Bose on the street, for the sake of Chioma, for the sake of an Amaka, for the sake of Ozobor, for the sake of a Segun, for the sake of an Emmanuel that is on the street that will tomorrow come and contribute to the betterment of the Nigerian society and do the right thing.
Thank you, but for the fact that you said you are not aware of any research report, I was going to ask whether there are reports that you can share with us. Is it because……
I am not aware.
Is it because attempts have not been made like, say in your faculty, to look at some of these issues or its not on the card at all?
I can say it’s not on the card at all. When you talk of the faculties in Nigeria, for instance, when ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) talks about strike, Nigerians only want to see their children in school.
Yeah, you are right.
And permit me to add that they are not responsible for them when they are at home. Oju won o kawon nle, enu won o to won (they can hardly supervise the children at home nor can they control them), so they want them to be out of the house. And the only place they will go is tertiary institutions so when they are around ASUU is a problem to them. Because you see some of the things ASUU have been saying is that there is no fund for research.
Yes, I know.
If you want me to test the GMO and be sincere, the meaning is that I am not going to take it from the person bringing it into Nigeria. The truth is that he is not going to fund the research. I should have the recourse to a fund that I will use to do the study and come out with my own report. And of course it has to be multidisciplinary. Somebody from food and nutrition has to be there on team, somebody from pest management you know stuffs like that have to be there. So we need financial resources and equipment which are not existing in the Faculty as we speak. And when I say equipment mean modern day equipment that can give me good quality result that I can report. These are not there and that is why it might not be on the table in the Faculty because you do your research with your own resources/your own fund. Of course if a Foundation that is directly or indirectly taking fund from people that support GMO or that are involved in GMO, know that what you want to do is to detect negative effect of GMO, they will not fund you. So these are the social implications of it. We need our government to put fund where the mouth will matter, where our voice will matter. We are talking of GMO, GMO what is government going to do to make sure that we subject them to scrutiny locally with up-to-date facilities. There is nothing wrong if the government says today take facilities, I choose Federal university of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), University of Ibadan (UI) Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Nsuka or I choose wherever to evaluate GMO test even if we don’t have up-to-date facilities because all these things is technology that we don’t have infrastructure to go into presently but we can develop infrastructure to test, evaluate if we grow them in our environment in terms of the soil micro in terms of the weather in terms of the effect on human nutrition et cetera, et,cetera that we can do locally. We have that capacity in terms of human capacity but where is the fund to run it?
When we talk about funds, you talk about government. Is it that some local Foundations in Nigeria are not interested in funding researches in the Universities?
I have not seen anyone that is funding research in any universities. I have not come by anyone that is funding research in Nigeria particularly in Agriculture. I look forward to seeing one. I was somewhere some months back and the facilitator was from Uganda and he was challenging us that we should write to Dangote Foundation to sponsor research. I quickly went to goggle Dangote Foundation that day and I can’t see where they are interested in what we are doing in the Southwest. I was seeing what they are doing in some Universities in the North and they do is to donate buildings, give scholarship to students and things like that. We need more than that but you see, the problem why companies or Foundations may not or are not presently sponsoring research in Nigeria is not far fetched. You ask me how?
How?
Government takes, I think, 3% of their profit for TETFUND every year and so, they will expect that TETFUND should fund anything they want to do in educational sector.
I see.
Unfortunately, TETFUND decides what they use the money for and not those that put the money down and it’s being run by government anyway.
When we take out the issue of dearth of funding and perhaps direction from government and all that, in what way will you say that the Universities and other relevant institutions are contributing to the attainment of food security in Nigeria?
Thank you, they are contributing in their own little way because, they have scholars, who in their own way do research that are meaningful, irrespective of how you look at it, that are contributing one way or the other to food security, either in terms of Climate, in terms of technology in terms of packages, they do. Universities and other tertiary institutions do make outputs that are suppose to drive them. The question would be how does, how well do we accept those recommendations and policies. I think that should be the question. How well does the Universities liaise with, may be people in Ministries to make policy out of the research they have done? How well do they liaise with Practitioners to take up the new technology then and how open too? When I said you should give me some minutes before we started this interview, It was because I was called for an emergency meeting because we are trying to do demonstrate with some farmers using their location for some technology. The first day I went they were asking me that sir what did I bring for them.
The farmers?
Yes. I had to spend #11,000 that morning that I did not plan and it is not part of the project that I went to do. So for how long can I continue to do that? It is on record I have my records. The female group that I meet I gave them #10,000. in the case of the Community leader, he did not take anything in the presence of the people. When he took me to the land that we are going to use and we were coming back, he said, ‘Give me my own now’. I had to give him #1,000
So they didn’t see it as bringing something good to their environment?
Those are the issues. So, there are the social factors there and that’s why I talk about the problem of follower-ship in this country. Where everybody feels that there is a cake somewhere you must be part of, even the Dangote Foundation started since 1994, you know?
I know
Henhen, Okay. I didn’t know until that meeting, started since 1994 and he said he is working on child nutrition; intervention on vaccine may be donating vaccine or whatever he says he is doing. That is all I could find out there.
Perhaps the role model is the Bill Gates Foundation?
Yes, yes out of that role model for you concentrated in the Northern states of Nigeria
When we look at the whole gamut of issues and when there is no food in the market place people shout government and in most cases it is the Federal government that they are looking at. When we look at the three arms of government and we are talking about food security, which ones and in which areas do we think each of those tiers of government have responsibility and how much are they doing those responsibilities?
The problem for me is that we as a people or as a country we are importing what is not ours and because of that unfortunately we don’t have the grasp of what we are importing. Whereas it is what is ours that we are suppose to improve. There are countries all over the world even in Europe or Africa that their economy does not dependent on oil but depend on agricultural produce. I think Kenya, a large percentage of Kenya export is even flower. It is not just food even flower which is part of Agriculture- Horticulture. So what government at all levels supposes to focus on is how to harness the land, the people to produce food. Don’t let me say I know. What I heard, is that in the North they give them loans, they get tractors and some other supports from government periodically particularly during cropping season. What I know is that my Aboki in Lagos in Mushin where I grew up who sells sweet, petty trader there he lives a particular point and later I discovered that the same period every year that he disappears to say he is going home. So one day we engaged him. Why is it that in this period every year you disappears? He said he goes home to farm. That is where we discovered that in this period of the year he disappears he goes to farm.
Hun hun
I remember in the North I heard somewhere in the news sometimes ago that including Benue state they give one day off to Civil servant to go to their farm.
Okay
But we need more than that. We need a serious investment in Agriculture. What do I mean by that? We should start with the land use planning that I talk about; we need to plan our land use and be very religious with it. If I can use the word we need to plan how we mobilise the youths to be involved in Agriculture; but not (the) hoe and cutlass Agriculture.
We need a serious investment in Agriculture. What do I mean by that? We should start with the land use planning that I talk about; we need to plan our land use and be very religious with it. If I can use the word we need to plan how we mobilise the youths to be involved in Agriculture; but not (the) hoe and cutlass Agriculture.
At all levels, Federal, State and Local governments. The meaning is that we have to put technology in place or we have to promote technologies. There are machines you can use that they are not tractors
Is that so?
Yes, I don’t know whether… yes there are smaller machines that encourage mechanization that are not necessarily tractors that you have to learn how to drive.. We need to invest across levels in things like that. This is the only way we can move forward
Those ones are not as expensive as Tractors but will do the work of tractors?
I don’t know what you mean by effective
No, I am asking is it that those ones will do the work of Tractors but they are not as expensive as tractors?
Yes they are not as expensive as tractors even when you talk of expensive in acquisition, expensive in maintenance as tractors but they would work in …. you see let put it this way, we have in our elementary school we have this definition of machine. What is a machine? It is what makes work easier to be done. Right?
Yeah
So that is the basic. We want things that we will use to do our work better and faster in food production that will remove the drudgery to work. That is just it, and they are there. They are existing sir.
Thank you very much Doctor, as a parting thing with the situation we are now what are the short and long term interventions that can come from government?
The short term intervention is that government should not just make policy; they should be ready to implement the policy. There are so many policies on the shelves in Ministries and Agencies that are meant to support Agriculture.
The short term intervention is that government should not just make policy; they should be ready to implement the policy. There are so many policies on the shelves in Ministries and Agencies that are meant to support Agriculture.
Do you know, I can remember the exact percentage, that for every bag of Rice imported into this country, there is a percentage that is called may be Rice development tax or something that is supposed to be used to develop the Rice sector in Nigeria.
Hun hun , the ones that are imported?
That are imported, I am not talking of the ones that are smuggled from Benin or Cameroon or Chad basin. The ones that are imported by the likes of Chagoury.
As part of backward integration or something?
Hen hen, there is a percentage of that fund that Custom and Excise is charging that is supposed to be meant for rice value chain development in Nigeria, that we don’t hear anything about.
I see
So that is why I said it is not just about talking of policy we need people with sincerity of purpose to drive our agricultural transformation. And when I say sincerity of purpose, it cut across. Let me give you a reference. I don’t know whether you are aware, during the second term of Obasanjo as elected President, and Gbenga Daniel as governor of Ogun state. There was this cassava revolution, that they said we have to use cassava in the confectionery industry. We have to use it for high quality cassava flour we have to use it for ethanol and all sort of that. It went down because there was no adequate education. Let us start from there, everybody went to cultivate cassava but it is not all cassava variety that fit into this value chain.
Alright
And when they cultivated all those cassava they came by, they harvested and wanted to sell to those processors, and those Processors could not take them. There are processing factories all around; I don’t know the number that are meant for that cassava revolution that are moribund now. Investment is just lying down and not been utilized because the input, the raw materials is not coming. So, it is not just somebody saying there is this policy, we have to be sincere about our policies and when I say sincere it will include removing all bottlenecks in making sure that we achieve the objective of that policy, including infrastructure. Some farmers had the variety but they don’t have the road to transport them to the factory. the processing point. By the time he got there the quality have reduced they told them that it is less than what they expected. They did not go back there the following year. We need people who are sincere. During (General Ibrahim) Babangida’s regime, even though people don’t want to hear military rule he did National Directorate of Employment (NDE), did road, pipe borne water and some other projects in the rural areas. Those are things that are meant to keep people in the rural areas and produce food. Unfortunately today insecurity has rub off all those things that were there because people have ran away from all those areas because of insecurity Fulani herdsmen attack. How can somebody who is producing … the herdsman is in the business of meat production
And he is hampering the production of food?
And somebody is in the business of grain production and you that you are in the business of meat production they will say they should allow you to come and eat our production of grain, both of them are in business. One is tampering or endangering the sustenance of the other business and nobody is putting them to check so we need sincerity of purpose across all these levels irrespective of the policy they say they are doing, or whatever paperwork they have.