Ime Akpan
Ending poverty and hunger can only be achieved when the policy environment addresses the factors that cause the problem. At the Second Ordinary Assembly of the African Union (AU) in July 2003 in Maputo, African heads of state and government endorsed the ‘Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.’
The Declaration contains several important decisions regarding agriculture, but prominent among them is the commitment by the member states to allocate at least 10 per cent of national budgetary resources to agriculture and rural development, aiming for a 6% annual growth in agricultural productivity.
The Maputo Declaration is aimed at addressing the problem of hunger.
Consequently, there has been a growing push for the government to diversify and scale up interventions in the sector through increased public investment and improved institutional coordination at both the federal and sub-national levels
Nigeria’s agricultural sector, while vibrant, faces challenges in meeting the country’s food demands. Hence, food security which is crucial for individual and national well-being is a big challenge.
Realising that agriculture is a fundamental right and a key driver of economic development and stability and that food security is crucial for individual and national well-being, as it ensures access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food for a healthy and active life, Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State has made agricultural revolution a major component of his ARISE Agenda.
The aim is to contain with the twin problems of hunger and food insecurity.
Starting from individual household, the governor launched the ARISE Home Farms Scheme which is meant to empower individuals and families to cultivate a culture of growing their own food, reduce the cost of staple foods, and ensure access to fresh, nutritious produce. It is the governor’s vision of transforming Akwa Ibom State into a model of food self-reliance through the use of small, available spaces, whether in backyards or front yards to grow food so as to enhance food security and build stronger, healthier families.
The Arise Home Farm Scheme is a short-term approach to food sufficiency; it is aimed at increasing the production of some identified agricultural products such as fruits, vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumber, oranges, mango, pineapple, spinach, pepper, okro and varieties of local spices which can be cultivated around the homes.
Also in the mix are food crops such as cassava, rice, maize, yam, plantain and banana and cash crops such as cocoa, oil palm, dates/ raffia palm, kola nut and coconut, most of which can also be planted around the backyards.
For Eno, it is unthinkable that Akwa Ibom which is blessed with fertile land, favourable climatic condition for farming and very hardworking population should continue to depend on other states to feed them with fruits, tomatoes, garri, yam, pepper and other palm produce.
To foster agricultural growth and support initiatives that encourage self-reliance and contribute to the state’s overall development, the governor announced the collaboration with Blackrock Farms in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area of the state to enhance agricultural production.
In addition, the state government signed an MoU with world-acclaimed farm operators, Songhai Farms in Porto-Novo, Benin Republic.
The government is further determined to invest heavily in the blue economy and improve the living standards and financial success its fishermen. To this end, it signed an MoU with the Nigerian Navy for the establishment of Ibom Fish City, an ambitious project aimed at maximising the state’s comparative advantage in the blue economy.
In addition, the government launched the Ibom Model Farms (IMF) in Nsit Ubium which provided over 50, 000 hectares of land, backed by the customary certificate of occupancy (E of O).
The farm is not just a farm but a comprehensive and incorporated approach to agriculture aimed at creating a socio-economically viable society.
Modelled after the Songhai Farms in Porto-Novo, Benin Republic, the farm will be managed professionally, without government interference.
The IMF is not a one-off project; it is open to local councils that would donate land for the project.
To ensure food security, the governor inaugurated a committee to drive food revolution in the state, by reviewing the state’s food policies and working closely with small holder farmers and other stakeholders to achieve food security and price stability.
Meanwhile, farmers in the state are supported with agricultural machinery to aid land preparations for farming in addition to receiving farm inputs, agrochemicals, access to finance and benefitting from the services of agricultural extension officers.
Farmers are encouraged to form themselves into co-operative groups for ease of accessibility to government incentives as well as monitoring their progress by the ministry. These clusters make it easy for the distribution of farm inputs and agric loans as well as seed multipliers.
Traditionally, agriculture relied upon manpower and animal labour alone, requiring many days of work to till and plant seeds, to tend to crops and livestock and to harvest crops.
Mechanisation is a crucial input for agricultural crop production and one that historically has been neglected in the state, nay, Nigeria for so long. Increasing the power supply to agriculture means that more tasks can be completed at the right time and greater areas can be farmed to produce greater quantities of crops while conserving natural resources.
Applying new technologies that are environmentally friendly enables farmers to produce crops more efficiently by using less power.
To this end, the state government announced a collaboration with Bertola Machine Tools Limited to enhance food production in the state.
The governor also talked about the plan to establish equipment leasing services to give farmers access to essential machinery, thereby enhancing food sufficiency, stressing that partnering with Bertola Machine Tools Limited will be crucial in achieving this goal.
“As part of our agricultural revolution, we are setting up an equipment leasing company to support farmers in Akwa Ibom. We’re talking about an agricultural revolution, and if someone has what we need to achieve this vision, we need to patronize and support them,” the governor said while on inspection tour of the company’s facilities in Ifa Atai.
Through mechanisation, the governor believes subsistence farming will be significantly reduced while commercial agriculture will take over and allow for more food to be produced on a much larger scale, even allowing for exports.
Speaking on the state’s investment in the agriculture sector of the economy, the commissioner for agriculture and rural development, Dr Offiong Offor said the government’s policy is not only meant to increase food production, create and expand employment opportunities, especially for young people, but also to deliberately divest the state economy from overreliance on oil.
To realise the objective, she said the mentality and orientation of the people towards agriculture needs to change if any meaningful progress could be made in the drive to revolutionise agriculture and make it attractive to the people, especially the youths.
She said in the western world for instance, the 3 per cent of the people engaged in farming see themselves as top shots, but in Africa people are not proud to be farmers.
“Times are evolving, and we need to move away gradually from reliance on crude oil. Now we have electric cars that do not use petrol, but you can never have electric food. Food is food, especially in Africa; the way God made it and it will always be so.
“We need to understand that the primary duty of a man is agriculture, and that is what God primarily gave man as a blessing, and what you eat determines how you live. If you eat well, you go less to the hospital. So we need to sustain that in the minds of the people.
“Farming is not derogatory but something everyone who has farms should be proud of. Grow something at whatever level it is,” Offor said.
Eno who had served as the executive director of the directorate of agriculture investment said Akwa Ibom is blessed with arable land and other resources needed to be self sufficient in food production, saying more work and synergy are required among relevant stakeholders to achieve the desired result.
A public affairs commentator, Mr Imoh Etimudo described the governor’s revolution in agriculture as “holistic,” covering all forms of agriculture from crop production to fishing, poultry and general livestock.
There is sustained distribution of livestock to farmer’s multipurpose co-operative societies such as goats, pigs, fingerlings and birds for those in poultry farming; those in crop production often receive improved varieties of their crops covering cassava cuttings, pumpkin seeds, coconut seedlings and maize seeds while those who are into oil palm, cocoa and rice production are also given the necessary support to enable them make good yield as well as money.
