Food is a defence

A country that cannot feed itself is doomed. In fact, there are two basic requirements for a country to enjoy absolute sovereignty – the ability to feed itself and the ability to defend itself physically from external aggressions – every other factor is secondary.

And it must be made clear that countries that have attained this status did not get it on a platter of gold. This can be seen from the response of the super powers towards our request for armament and the recent South African attempt to play along with the USA and its friends.

They are basic requirements for survival and must be obtained at all cost; no country releases its technological know-how freely; they are either stolen, acquired by force or imitation, espionage or through mutually beneficial collaborations. It is not for free, had never been for free and will not be obtained freely.

So, Nigerians must brace up. The rise of Nigeria as an economic and territorial giant is a threat to so many foreign interests, both in Africa and beyond.

They will pretend to love us but be sabotaging us secretly(see America’s and Britain’s response to the Chibok girls issue and our battle against the insurgents, it was all sound and fury, calculated to embarrass Nigeria and its leadership). We must therefore, strive very hard to be independent of food and defence, no matter what it takes; it is a crisis and must be handled as such.

I must give it to the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Adesina; he has been doing his best to make that ministry relevant in the affairs of this country, compared to his predecessors in that office. But with what he has done so far, I am afraid to say that he is just scratching at the surface; we have not begun to address the issue yet.

Agriculture is life, agriculture is big business, agriculture is power and agriculture is defence. Once the people are assured of their food, their minds will be more focussed into meaningful productive ventures, instead of resentments like we see today.

The whole industrial revolutions of the 19th century to the cloud technologies we are experiencing today, developed as a result of breakthroughs in researches carried out to improve the way agricultural products can reach the markets without much damage and stress to human lives and at great profit.

The windmills, power machines, pulleys and many others, were developed to improve the cultivation of farm products and from there, extended to other areas of needs – transport, housing, textiles, petrochemicals and the whole lot – they all developed from researches carried out in the agriculture sector. Too much labour and efforts have gone into them and so will not be given to us freely. What is to be done?

Basic farming technology is available to every part of the world; each has its own peculiar characteristics. For example, the Chinese use mainly chopsticks to eat; it did not start overnight, it has been developed over time to meet their peculiar needs. We must adopt methods that are favourable to the topography and climate of our country.

The nation is blessed with a vast expanse of uncultivated lands; each region having the capacity to bring out unique agricultural products. Let us start by identifying the peculiarities. Again, I will use the term ‘agreement’.

Taking agriculture to a higher level can only come through a unity of purpose that food sufficiency is a must for the country which all must key into; from the local government, to state and to the federal levels. There is nothing that the mind conceives that cannot be brought to fruition as long as focus and determination are in place.

Officially, imported rice is banned or come in with very high tariffs, but we know that 95% of rice eaten in this country are all foreign processed and smuggled in. This will not happen if the people are properly sensitized about the damage this is doing to the country.

With the coming of Ebola, we saw how the Nigerian spirit prevailed: assorted, tasty bush meats and other food types that are the favourites of Nigerians were abandoned while the Ebola threat lingered. Even today some people cannot bring themselves to eat bush meat.

In the sixties right up to the seventies, rice as a food item, was eaten mainly on Sundays or festive periods. It was not the staple food for Nigerians. But laziness and the cultivation of taste for things foreign have now made it so.

Furthermore, policies that seem to favour the importation of foreign food items to the detriment of our local food production were introduced by our “been to” administrators. As a result, farming has become very unattractive and a risky venture for Nigerians to invest in.

Agriculture can never thrive in this country without the support of government. The USA and Russia, for example, sometimes run their agriculture at losses, with big subventions to farmers. Food surplus are destroyed; it is better to produce, than not have food to eat. The NNPC has been operating at very huge cost to the government for long and the various governments have been sustaining this institution.

The survival of agriculture requires massive investments and it must affect all the chains- the farmers, farming implements/tools, seedlings, cultivation, milling, storage and preservation, research and development, environmental impact surveys, marketing/distribution and retailing links and, of course, transportation. Agriculture and agricultural extension services must be put into active works.

Trained agric experts must be posted to all of the 774 local government areas of the country to monitor farmers progress. Banks and big corporations should be made to compulsorily devote certain percentages of their earnings to agricultural development. Agricultural research institutes must be encouraged to be more active.

The challenge of agriculture should be handled like the Ebola scourge; it must be a do or die affair, no expense must be spared. There must be monitoring units at various governmental levels for quality and quantity of goods produced, and incentives and prizes given to outstanding performers.

We must, with a lot of aggression, move agriculture above oil investments. Food is a defence and we must treat it as such. Government must be seen to be doing it and also, acting it.Our legislators also have roles to play here through their community development programmes and the enactment of favourable laws that will enhance farmers production.

We must impose trade restrictions – all nations do it – if our farmers are to survive and ensure that the agencies(Customs, Immigration, Police, SON, etc) responsible for implementation and enforcement perform their jobs with due diligence.

We must build mills and factories for processing of our farm products, at least one mill should be established in all of the local government areas of the country.

The agriculture ministry must also see to the establishment of a marketing commission that will determine prices in such a way that will encourage the farmers to produce more. In America, farmers are paid certain amount of money whether they produce or not. Our independence as a nation depends on our ability to feed ourselves. Let us all join hands and overcome our agricultural challenges.