By Tanko Mohammed
The increase in demand for local agricultural produce after land border closure has made many enterprises in the industry to take advantage of opportunities to boost their revenue.
Since the closure on August 20, 2019, agriculture business operators now rely mainly on local variant to grow their produce; rice, poultry produce, tomatoes pastry and vegetable oil production.
This effort is expected to return Nigeria as a biggest employer of labour and a major agriculture source of exportation and revenue generation such as in the 1960 and 1970’s.
To buttress this, Mrs Janet Edge, Co-coordinator, Leventis Foundation’s Agribusiness said that people should take advantage of the restriction on goods that use to be imported but that can be locally produced to leap out of poverty.
Edge said that from poultry to rice, fruits to confectionaries and condiments there is an increase demand in those products that can change the lives of those that explore it.
“The evolution going on in the rice market is commendable and should be supported by all for optimal profit for the people”.
She said that the foundation was training 240 people and that the agriculture value addition sector can gainfully absorb 30 per cent of unemployed.
However, agriculture is faced with different constraints which hinder productivity and growth. To meet-up demands, large and small-scale farming are affected.
The challenges are from planting to harvesting, storage, value chain addition, consumption and commercialisation.
A Billings Agro Allied study also identified technology advancement, lack of modern methods, ideas, and equipment in farming.
The study said that usage of modern tools in farming will make agriculture easier and increase productivity.
“Proper utilization of modern farm tools will improve the current state of agriculture in Nigeria.
“The Ministry of Agriculture can provide farmers with cooling devices for transportation to enable food products to remain fresh until delivery.
“Placement of crude tools with modern equipment such as tractors will make farming easier. Farmers should use weather tracking websites or applications. This will help take precautions against adverse weather conditions.
“High or extremely sunny weather causes evaporation which reduces soil moisture. Weather applications can predict this for farmers and enable them make provision for irrigation to prevent plant dryness,” said.
In support, Mr Ahawaye Abdulazeez, a rice farmer and Principal Partner, Future Venture Organic Farms Ltd said that agricultural yield was being affected in all stages of the farming business.
“The absence of mechanisation limits the progress of farming activities and stifles development.
“Lack of irrigation tools in rainy season; lack of modern planting and harvesting tools have led to an overload on human labour; and lack of modern storage tools have lead to food wastage,” he said.
Recall that In 2018, the then Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe had said that about 30 to 40 per cents of the foods produced in Nigeria were wasted due to poor storage equipment.
Ogbe said that poor storage facility still stand in the way of successful distribution of good, especially perishable ones such as okra.
He said that the traditional method of storage considered simple and effective, is not entirely adequate. It may expose agricultural products to rodents.
“Mechanization is also needed in weather prediction. The inability of farmers to predict weather conditions can take a toll on farming productivity.
“High weather temperature or low weather temperature can have an adverse effect on farming,” he said.
Another farmer, Mr Femi Alabi said that, innovative driven farming system should be the song in the nation’s agric sector.
Alabi, the proprietor of Alpha Farms, Lagos added that there is more to farming than just digging the soil and planting crops. Farmers need to know how to select the right seed variety to get optimum yield.
“They need to know the best time for planting, best on-farm practices to reduce crop loss and how to partner with the right off-takers to get the best price for their product.
“The absence of proper information can lead to agricultural pollution. For instance, some of the fertilizers and manure used for the purpose of enhancing plant growth may be made of harmful chemicals. This can lead to the destruction of the environment, thereby cause negative effect on the plants,’’ he said.
Alabi said it is important to get the right information to track farm market, know market prices which are open to alteration due to lack of proper information storage systems.
For Mr Basil Akanwa, an Agric Produce Marketer, marketing involves all the activities in the conveyance of agricultural produce to their ultimate users.
Akanwa said that marketing can be a challenging process when adequate techniques are not used. Farmers rely on traditional marketing procedures which may not lead to profitable outcomes for them.
According to him, the presence of many middle men in the agricultural business might cause a negative influence on agric-marketing.
In cases where the goods pass through middlemen such as the wholesalers, and retailers, the prices paid by the consumer may have to pass through these intermediaries before getting to the farmer.
He said as a result, the farmer will not make much profit and some of the middle men take advantage of farmers who do not understand how the farm market works.
The agric-produce marketer said that the presence of middle men in the loan process may also hinder agri-business, saying, “a farmer might not have the prerequisite to obtain loans from financial institutions and the need for a direct link between the farmers and their sponsors’’.
He further said that Agri-marketing also suffers due to poor food packaging and competition, a concept that some farmers may not have an understanding of.
Akanwa said that Agric-marketing is also affected by unstable prices in the market which can lead to poor estimation of produce cost.
The advent of online farming and crowd-funding has made it easier for farmers to obtain funds for farming. Platforms such as farmcrowdy now exist where a sponsor and a farmer can meet without unnecessary intermediaries.
