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Rice pyramid in Nigeria and matters arising, by Prof M. K. Othman
Rice pyramid in Nigeria and matters arising, by Prof M. K. Othman
Deep Thought with Othman
In the early part of the year, 2013, the Agricultural Complex of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria received members of the Joint House Committee on Agriculture who came for an oversight function.
During the introduction of personalities, the then Executive Director of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR), Professor Balarabe Tanimu of blessed memory was introduced as professor of groundnut agronomy, and IAR, a research centre with the mandate of genetic improvement of groundnut among other agricultural commodities. During the opening remarks, the leader of the delegation, a distinguished senator enthusiastically challenged the distinguished scholar, Professor Tanimu, and the Institute to bring back the “great” Kano groundnut pyramid of the 1960s and 1970s. After eulogizing the tireless efforts of the groundnut farmers of that epoch, he pledged a sturdy House support to the Institute with enough budgetary allocation to achieve the challenge.
In his response, Prof. Tanimu appreciated the benevolent gesture of the House members for their keenness to increase the Institute’s budgetary allocation. He stressed the importance of adequate funding for agricultural research as the most viable means of decupling production, addressing production challenges, and/or enhancing crops’ nutrient content.
He assured the guests of IAR’s readiness to judiciously utilize the fund allocation for higher research outputs. He pointed out that even with the inadequate funding, IAR was able to develop new varieties of groundnut, which produced high yield and the quantum of production was much higher than what was being produced in the 1960s and 1970s. Similarly, the level of consumption was much higher due to population increase within the period (about 45 million people in 1960 and 170 million in 2013).
Nonetheless, Tanimu pointed out that reviving the groundnut pyramid was not the aim of IAR. Those pyramids served as aggregation centres for feed-stocking the Agro-industries of foreign countries. Professor Tanimu, an excellent diplomat cum academic, carefully chose his words not to hurt the feelings of the august visitors. Yet, the message was very clear; the groundnut pyramid was a symbol of colonial exploitation and underdevelopment.
Then, groundnut and other cash crops were being produced for exportation to European countries, which were processed and imported into the country at ten times the prices of the raw materials. The best way to produce agricultural commodities is to serve as raw materials to local industries whose products would be locally consumed and exported to other countries. In any case, the commodity pyramid has been one of the performance indicators for measuring agricultural productivity. The simple indicator for measuring productivity is crop output or yield per unit area of production with a unit of Kg/m2 or tons per hectare. So, what was the implication of the Abuja rice pyramid mounted some weeks ago?
Mounting a pyramid of an agricultural commodity such as rice in any part of the country cannot showcase the quantum of production of such a commodity. The associated costs of organising and transporting the commodity to the venue can be overbearing. However, the Abuja rice pyramid event, being the first of its kind, was marked with pomp and pageantry recording a huge success. Although, this success could not stand to represent a success story of boosting rice production but has uniquely packaged hopes for a better future. The presence of top government functionaries and high-profile personalities including President Buhari indicated the willingness of Nigeria’s leadership to support the country achieve food security. The commodity pyramid should not replace the annual agricultural show where innovations, ingenuity, and breakthroughs in the agricultural sector are being packaged and displayed. A few weeks after the rice pyramid event, where do we move? What are the matters arising from the Abuja event?
Fortunately, Nigeria is naturally positioned to achieve greatness in Agriculture; versatile fertile land, huge unquantifiable water resources, and virile and active human resources. In addition to these natural endowments, policies, and programs, over the years were designed to fast-track agricultural development. Theoretically, these programs and projects sound perfect but practically, their implementations have always been haphazardly done thereby retarding their successes. In the last three decades, so many funds were sunk in agriculture in the names of programs and projects without tangible impacts on the productivity of smallholder farmers who constitute ninety per cent of the farming population and contribute eighty-five per cent of national food production.
The major defect of these programs/projects is the lack of an agricultural extension component. Where extension component exists, there has always been incoherent roles and responsibilities because the front extension personnel belongs to the state government while the programs are mostly federal government-sponsored/supported. Today’s agriculture is driven by knowledge and the knowledge is solely facilitated by extension service delivery. In Nigeria, agricultural extension service is poorly funded and poorly manned. How do we move forward?
Agricultural extension entails knowledge transfer, utilization and feedback, market intelligence, skill acquisition and perfection, and productivity enhancement along the value chain of agricultural commodities (crops and livestock). Therefore, special treatment to agricultural extension can be made through fast-tracking the release of the National Agricultural Extension Policy. The policy was already developed and I am privileged to be part of the team that finalised the policy document. The development of the policy was a painstaking national assignment that was done over five years by agricultural experts, technocrats, and academics. Thus, the policy contains ready-made and holistic solutions to the challenges to agricultural extension service delivery.
It also considers what to be done to modernise agriculture holistically now and in the future. Fortunately, the structure of the agricultural extension system at the grassroots level, the Agricultural Development Program (ADP), developed between the 1970s and 1980s with the support of the World Bank, is still in place and robust but ineffective due to gross underfunding.
The policy has taken good care of how to source alternative and sustainable funds to support and develop an agricultural extension system in the country. If the policy becomes operational, it will automatically increase public and private investment in agriculture with special attention to extension services. This will spontaneously escalate agricultural productivity in geometric proportion. The increase in agricultural productivity will cover both crops and livestock farming with positive implications on the livelihoods of the farmers and herders.
In conclusion, instead of having commodity pyramids, efforts should be geared towards adequately funding extension services through legislation of agricultural extension policy. This will sooner than later bring the desired result of achieving food security, reducing poverty, and creating jobs for millions of Nigerians.
Simon Bako Lalong: Where Are The 400 Deutz Fahr Tractors? (1)
By: Balami Lazarus
As young schoolboys in Zaria, we were privileged to spend our time interacting with our peers within and around the academic environment of Ahmadu Bello University (A.B.U.) main campus at Samaru. This period gave my peers and me a wide range of exposure to various facilities, faculties, departments, schools, colleges, and units of the university. Being boys full of life, adventures, and events, we were not bored with their academic programs but more interested in their social and practical activities.
Institute of Agricultural Research (I.A.R.), Division of Agricultural Colleges (D.A.C.), and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and other related units are where we were more attracted to because of their implements/tools and equipment. The tractors and their components, like harrows, ploughshares, and harvesters, have awakened the aspirations of some of us to be agricultural experts, farmers, and university dons in agricultural sciences, and others as researchers.
Agricultural tractors have been one of the most important machines in the cultivation of commercial and mechanized farmland, providing food/cash crops and agro-allied raw materials for industries and factories, hence the economic development of Nigeria.
Therefore, tractors like Massey Ferguson, John Deere, Ford, Fiat, and Styre were common sights for us.
When I decided to do some investigations on the whereabouts, or to say disappearances, of the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors belonging to the state government and the people of Plateau State. It was really not easy for me because individuals who were in the stream of affairs, past and present, are not willing to speak on this matter. And I began to suspect there was connivance/conspiracy in the disappearances of these tractors by some collective individuals.
Questions are being asked over and over by the citizens of Plateau State about the 400 Duetz Fahr model tractors made in Germany, which were procured by the state government during the administration of former Governor Simon Bako Lalong (2015-2023), whose tenure was nothing to write home about except for his poor performance in governance. Unlike the beginning of the good governance of the present administration of Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang.
In the course of my investigations and findings, I was told that the one and only person who had asked questions severally and was still speaking on the matter was one Ehis Akugnonu of JFM 101.9 FM. Jos (aka Osama), whom I met on this matter, our discussions lacked adjectives to qualify the disappearance of the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors on the Plateau, a state blessed with fertile land for farming and production of food and cash crops in all seasons.
Agricultural programs have always been the priority of the government, both state and federal. Institutions of learning—universities, institutes, and other research centers—are not left out of the scheme of agricultural activities. Individual and organized private sectors are also playing significant roles in the development of the nation’s agricultural economy, adding value to the agricultural food chain.
Former Governor Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau State procured the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors to boost agriculture to enable farmers to cultivate more farmland through the utilization of these tractors. Surprisingly, they were never distributed to farmers in the 17 local government areas. Sources within Government House Little Rayfield Jos told this writer that “there was a clandestine arrangement that played out in the disappearance of the 400 Duetz Fahr’. In simple arithmetic, if and only if these tractors were distributed to the 17 local government areas, each would have gotten 23, leaving 9 tractors for other purposes, but the disappearance has dampened the spirit of the state farmers. “No single individual is happy about this matter.”. We will continue to ask questions until these tractors are brought back to us’. Said a concerned citizen.
Recently, the Executive Governor of the State, Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, in his good governance programs, procured 200 new tractors of the Massey Ferguson model that were immediately, without delay, distributed to organized farmers’ groups across the 17 local government areas. This gave hope, wiping away tears on the faces of small and medium-scale farmers on the Plateau.
In tidying up this write-up, I was informed that the disappearance of the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors paved
way that saw the carting away in a thievery manner and the gleaning of government house items at Little Rayfield Jos. While fingers are pointing to Senator Simon Bako Lalong on the whereabouts of the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors worth hundreds of millions of naira, which could have changed the agricultural landscape of Plateau State.
Balami, a Publisher/Columnist
08036779290
Simon Bako Lalong: Where Are The 400 Deutz Fahr Tractors? (1)
Simon Bako Lalong: Where Are The 400 Deutz Fahr Tractors? (1)
By: Balami Lazarus
As young schoolboys in Zaria, we were privileged to spend our time interacting with our peers within and around the academic environment of Ahmadu Bello University (A.B.U.) main campus at Samaru. This period gave my peers and me a wide range of exposure to various facilities, faculties, departments, schools, colleges, and units of the university. Being boys full of life, adventures, and events, we were not bored with their academic programs but more interested in their social and practical activities.
As young schoolboys in Zaria, we were privileged to spend our time interacting with our peers within and around the academic environment of Ahmadu Bello University (A.B.U.) main campus at Samaru. This period gave my peers and me a wide range of exposure to various facilities, faculties, departments, schools, colleges, and units of the university. Being boys full of life, adventures, and events, we were not bored with their academic programs but more interested in their social and practical activities.
Institute of Agricultural Research (I.A.R.), Division of Agricultural Colleges (D.A.C.), and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and other related units are where we were more attracted to because of their implements/tools and equipment. The tractors and their components, like harrows, ploughshares, and harvesters, have awakened the aspirations of some of us to be agricultural experts, farmers, and university dons in agricultural sciences, and others as researchers.
Agricultural tractors have been one of the most important machines in the cultivation of commercial and mechanized farmland, providing food/cash crops and agro-allied raw materials for industries and factories, hence the economic development of Nigeria.
Therefore, tractors like Massey Ferguson, John Deere, Ford, Fiat, and Styre were common sights for us.
When I decided to do some investigations on the whereabouts, or to say disappearances, of the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors belonging to the state government and the people of Plateau State. It was really not easy for me because individuals who were in the stream of affairs, past and present, are not willing to speak on this matter. And I began to suspect there was connivance/conspiracy in the disappearances of these tractors by some collective individuals.
Questions are being asked over and over by the citizens of Plateau State about the 400 Duetz Fahr model tractors made in Germany, which were procured by the state government during the administration of former Governor Simon Bako Lalong (2015-2023), whose tenure was nothing to write home about except for his poor performance in governance. Unlike the beginning of the good governance of the present administration of Governor Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang.
In the course of my investigations and findings, I was told that the one and only person who had asked questions severally and was still speaking on the matter was one Ehis Akugnonu of JFM 101.9 FM. Jos (aka Osama), whom I met on this matter, our discussions lacked adjectives to qualify the disappearance of the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors on the Plateau, a state blessed with fertile land for farming and productionof food and cash crops in all seasons.
Agricultural programs have always been the priority of the government, both state and federal. Institutions of learning—universities, institutes, and other research centers—are not left out of the scheme of agricultural activities. Individual and organized private sectors are also playing significant roles in the development of the nation’s agricultural economy, adding value to the agricultural food chain.
Former Governor Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau State procured the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors to boost agriculture to enable farmers to cultivate more farmland through the utilization of these tractors. Surprisingly, they were never distributed to farmers in the 17 local government areas. Sources within Government House Little Rayfield Jos told this writer that “there was a clandestine arrangement that played out in the disappearance of the 400 Duetz Fahr’. In simple arithmetic, if and only if these tractors were distributed to the 17 local government areas, each would have gotten 23, leaving 9 tractors for other purposes, but the disappearance has dampened the spirit of the state farmers. “No single individual is happy about this matter.”. We will continue to ask questions until these tractors are brought back to us’. Said a concerned citizen.
Recently, the Executive Governor of the State, Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, in his good governance programs, procured 200 new tractors of the Massey Ferguson model that were immediately, without delay, distributed to organized farmers’ groups across the 17 local government areas. This gave hope, wiping away tears on the faces of small and medium-scale farmers on the Plateau.
In tidying up this write-up, I was informed that the disappearance of the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors paved
way that saw the carting away in a thievery manner and the gleaning of government house items at Little Rayfield Jos. While fingers are pointing to Senator Simon Bako Lalong on the whereabouts of the 400 Deutz Fahr tractors worth hundreds of millions of naira, which could have changed the agricultural landscape of Plateau State.
Balami, a Publisher/Columnist
08036779290
Simon Bako Lalong: Where Are The 400 Deutz Fahr Tractors? (1)
My Binoculars: A tribute to a former Controller of customs Borno state Joshua Angbalaga
By: Sam Kayode
Indeed Angbalaga was a reporter’s delight. Firm yet welcoming. His demise is a sudden blow to some of us who have basked in his warmth and detribalized nature. He was of a different make from the generality of uniformed personnel some of us are used to, sharp witty with a strong ability to interface from one generation to another. He was a trained sociologist from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria where he graduated in 1984. Taught for sometime at the FCT which gave him the unique ability to understand his generation and all the ones after his.
His training as a customs official since 1988 had taken him to many States including the commercial capital of Nigeria Lagos and many other cities. Controller Joshua Angbalaga was easy going and kept an open door for most of us journalists who came into contact with him through exclusive interviews. He was open minded and was ready to tolerate most of our young colleagues who sometimes displayed slight intolerance for uniforms at news conferences because of the insurgents lurking around.
In Controller Joshua Angbalaga buried today in lafia nasarawa state, I have a personal loss of a man who was an exemplary news maker. He was a public figure who had immense knowledge about the weaknesses and strengths of the gentlemen of the pen. He was a good representative of his controller General. He understood the body languages of most of our intolerant younger colleagues and gave his subordinates in the office then a standing directive that any time any of us comes to see him, we must not be kept waiting unnecessarily if he is free. He was far different from previous controllers who had come and treated reporters like condemned criminals who should never be allowed to come close to the controllers office upstairs.
Some of them in sister agencies especially the ones in the immigration service gave standing orders that journalists should be turned away from the gate as if we were insurgents. This was because some of them were never financially transparent as we learnt from their boys so we understood why they were so vehement at stopping journalists from conducting their constitutional activities. A lot of Angbalaga’s paramilitary colleagues marveled at his dexterity with the gentlemen of the fourth estate.
Our paths met in April 2017 when he reported to Maiduguri as controller and Borno/Yobe area Commander of the Nigerian customs. That was three years after I reported in Maiduguri as correspondent of the nation newspaper.
From then on we continued to work together with him and his entire management team in making expected progresses within the war theatre.
We had several news conferences with him especially on how he had been able to make tremendous progress in turning things around in spite of the insurgency which was at its peak by then. Angbalaga was a rare news maker in uniform because of his belief that none of his officers were too rotten to resist reforms. They were all in sync with his policies to make the state better than he met it. When it was time to go, he left maiduguri on transfer to Abuja where he later retired in 2020. He was involved in stopping a lot of contrabands including hard drugs which is the main fuel keeping insurgents at alert.
On retirement, we kept our communication intact and friendly. Oga Angbalaga was a very studious officer who had already prepared himself for leadership roles by completing his master in public administration in 2000. Feeling a bit bored and not tired in retirement, he went back to school for his PhD program in University of Abuja. He told me recently that he was close to finishing his course work and was kicking to go to the next challenge as God directs. We bantered on the phone while I wondered if he was going back to teaching but he laughed and asked for Gods will to be done. We had a one hour call last year with an invitation to me to visit him during the last yuletide 2024. So with a promise that I would be in lafia to see him for the yuletide, we rounded the call. But due to certain conditions not under my control, that was the last time we would talk as friends. I missed the trip due to I’ll health. Controller Angbalaga is no more as the Lord wills. He has answered the solemn call of nature which sends all mortals back to their creator regardless of age, status, character, race or creed. Death has shown that it’s a leveler of all mankind and my friend oga Angbalaga as I used to call him lived a forthright life before bowing to immortality. May the Lord console his friends at Mount St Gabriel Makurdi, St John Bosco Doma, the entire family of the Nigerian customs service, immediate family and the entire eggon nation where the Lord used him to touch several souls before his passage.
Have a nice sleep oga Angbalaga. From Biodun as you used to call me.
My Binoculars: A tribute to a former Controller of customs Borno state Joshua Angbalaga
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