Alhaji Isa Aliyu, the president of the National Onion Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria (NOPPMAN), is also an executive member of the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuffs and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria. He speaks with OLAKUNLE MARUF in Sokoto on the high cost of food in the country and the way out.

What is your view on the high cost of foods in the country?

The high cost of food items in the country is due to low level of production of the staple crops and the others. The rate at which farmers are producing food these days is lower than before. More farmers are quitting due to the insecurity in the land. The issue of funding is another major problem being encountered by farmers. This is due to the high cost of farm inputs as a result of the fuel subsidy removal by the government.

We think that the government should invest more in agriculture. During the previous administration, we had many intervention programmes that helped farmers across the nation. We had the Anchor Borrowers Programme and many others that were used to stabilise prices of foodstuffs in the market. We also had support from the Sokoto State Ministry of Agriculture in terms of seedlings, fertilisers, among others. But the current federal administration has not really paid proper attention to the agricultural sector. Their concentration has always been on a specific commodity or product. The administration has invested in just one item among many. They should not concentrate on one item and leave the others to suffer. That is what we are currently facing. Fund was released recently for wheat farming. If the government had chosen about five or six items to invest such money in and monitor the development, things would have been better. If about N50 billion is invested in rice farming, another N50 billion in maize, same for beans and, let’s say, N20 billion for tomato, things would be better than it is now, but spending so much on wheat alone would not make much difference.

The prices of all the stable foods are high and we are dragging foot on a minimum wage that cannot even buy a bag of rice. And I have not seen any mechanism being put in place by the government to take advantage of this rainy season so that we can have enough food supply that can last for some time and even help during the dry season if we have more interventions to augment the season.

There are insinuations that the scarcity of food is as a result of climate change. Do you agree?

We are beyond that; we have technology, innovation. If you are talking about low rainfall, even in Sokoto where we are experiencing low rainfall, we still have ways to tackle the situation. Let me use my farm as an example. I plant super seedlings which take 70 days to mature. The rain started in June or July, so by August, it is sure time for harvest. So, what are we saying? We have varieties, we have the technology, we have the innovation to deal with the issue of climate change. If it is too much rainfall or low rainfall, we have the solution. So, the government should stop saying that. It is like taking us back to our great grandfathers’ era.

There is the belief in the South that your union members are diverting foodstuffs to other countries. Is this true?

We are all citizens of this country. How can we do such a thing to our brothers? There is this school of thought that if region A is specialised in producing a certain crop, and region B is specialised in another crop, they should put all their power in production so that there will be economic relations between the regions. There was this man, I have forgotten his name, that warned the government and other stakeholders that there was going to be scarcity of tomatoes and he presented his facts. He said that by June, if nothing was done, a basket of tomatoes would sell for more than N130,000. So, what are we talking about? Tomato, pepper, onion are all perishable crops. There is no way you can hide them because we don’t have the storage facility to do that.

What is your take on the claim the exchange rate is also contributing to the high cost of foods?

I still blame the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira, which is the reason why I will agree with the claim on the exchange rate. The issue of the exchange rate affects us because of the chemicals we use. When we talk of improved seedlings of tomatoes, pepper, onions, among others, we have to import them and that involves dollars. A cap of onion seedlings that sold for about N20,000 two years ago is now over N70,000. Fertiliser that sold for N7,000 during the agricultural intervention era is now above N40,000. If you look at those things, you will see that fuel subsidy removal, floating of the naira and insecurity are contributory factors.

As a stakeholder, how would you advise the Federal Government?

I will ask Mr President to declare an emergency on agriculture. He did it before, but I would ask him to do it again. They should also not focus on a single commodity because in Nigeria, each state has a comparative advantage on a particular commodity. If every state is supported on that singular commodity, it will be better. The South East should be supported on the production of palm oil and the South West on cocoa production.

There is this programme of one state, one programme, let’s go to a particular state and support their products and see the results. It is better than hearing that they have spent over N300 billion on wheat production with the price of bread still high in the market.

Out of that N300 billion, let’s say N50 billion goes to wheat, rice takes N70 billion, millet gets N20 billion, sorghum, N20 billion; palm oil, N30 billion; cocoa, N30 billion and perishables, like, N5 billion, if these funds are given to the right people and monitored very well, we will see the results. If you give us just N2 billion in the onion sector, we are going to shake the country with onion production.

The government should re-declare emergency on agriculture because I see the possibility of anarchy if the government does not take decisive measures to secure the country food-wise. The way they are pumping billions into tackling insecurity, they should do so with the agricultural sector because this is another form of insecurity and it should be tackled with all seriousness. They should engage all stakeholders in dealing with the problem. I don’t think there is anyone who is not feeling the heat. There should be ‘Operation Use Your Land’. There shouldn’t be any land not being used for agriculture again. If you are not using your lands, let the government use them to farm and give a certain percentage of the profit to the owner after harvest. We should not let any land remain fallow, especially in secure environments across the country. We should not allow lands in any secure area in any state to remain unfarmed. (Saturday Tribune)

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