Richardson Okechukwu,
project coordinator for the International Institute for Tropical
Agriculture (IITA) and the British-American Tobacco Nigeria Foundation
(BATNF) Cassava Project was at the Flag-off and Inputs Distribution
Ceremony for Otu, Ogboro and Igboho which took place at Otu Community
Hall, Itesiwaju LGA, Oyo State, last week. He speaks on the Cassava
Project and the need for a sustained collaboration between the
government and the private sector to drive the nation’s agriculture
revolution, among other sundry issues. Excerpt:
How do you describe the partnership between IITA and BATNF so far
Well, it has been a very
complementary. One, at IITA we are technical experts, we always interact
with the farmers and we always hear their complaints about what they
would love to do and what they would love to achieve. On major thing
they always lack is the resources to get the inputs that they need to
implement the technical knowledge that they have learnt from what we are
teaching them.
This, for many years, has
been affecting adoption; it’s been affecting seeing the new faces of the
farmers that we have been talking about. You know, people don’t like
farmers because of the way they look and all those kinds of things.
Then you wonder how come we
do this thing every year they are still doing this business of farming.
We have found out that the main problem is lack of resources to
implement these technologies. So the BATN Foundation provided this great
opportunity for 110 people to have these inputs that cover everything
from land preparation, planting materials, technical resource persons to
be in ground, herbicides and fertilizers to be provided for them.
So what remains is the
actualisation of those findings and results that we have been telling
them is possible. So it is no longer business as usual. The beautiful
thing here is that the BATN Foundation has made it a grant; but it will
turn out to be a revolving fund, that at the exit of the Foundation, the
grant will still be there for this group of farmers to access, to plant
and to be on their own. Also, there are some elements of sustainability
which you cannot find in other relationships. But we have it found in
this one.
So IITA is bringing on board
its partners to make sure that every missing gap like marketing, forming
of cooperatives, group dynamics, conflict resolution between crop
farmers and livestock farmers and all those kinds of hiccups are all
addressed; so that we can see how this model can be a good example for
many other people to adopt.
So how long has this partnership on the distribution scheme been on
This is the second year; it
started last year, 2014. This is the second cycle. The Cycle One has
been rounding up about this time and we will move onto Cycle Two. In
Cycle Two, we believe that the cooperatives will be registered and from
the sales of some of the things we have invested from Cycle One, they
will pay some money into their cooperative account and they will also be
able to manage the Cycle Two. Also, by the time they will sell (their
farm produce) in 2016, they will be able to put some money there so that
when we conclude the Cycle Two, they will also put some money there.
We have also been able to
watch the group grow, we have been able to help resolve some conflicts
(You know when money presents itself, you may have some challenges to
resolve); so by the time we are exiting by 2016/2017, we believe that
they would have got a good purse, and linked to all the partners, the
input, the suppliers, the fertilizer companies, the herbicide companies;
they will not be getting adulterated products. Then they are also
linked to where they will sell their (cassava) roots.
And then God willing, if the
other investors that we have invited to come here in Otu, Igboho and
Ogboro build micro processing centres come onboard this year, then we
believe that this 110 hectares will be like a child’s play compared to
what we will achieve; there will be gross expansion.
Are there lessons to be learnt from this partnership between BATNF and IITA
Yes, there are lessons to be
learnt. One good lesson is that agriculture requires patience and
sustained support. For any small scale farmer to do any business there
has to be some sort of subsidy. There has to be some sort of support to enable him move forward.
In advanced countries, they
(small scale farmers) receive subsidies. Even when they produce and
there is a glut, the government will buy it. Farmers here in Nigeria
don’t have any coverage.
So a good lesson here is that
of a foundation that is looking at agriculture and must be targeting
this issue of sustainability so that when you give the fund, you should
somehow come around, you should come back; you should always be there to
support these people; not that you should finish and go. So it’s a very
good lesson that is being learnt here.
What impact has this
scheme had on the numerous benefitting families in terms of improving
their productivity in subsidiary farming
As at the time we came in
2014, we found that many of these farmers didn’t really know what a
hectare (of land) is. Many of them were mixing their crops, planting up
to four types of crops on a piece of land, which is primarily
subsistence farming. Any farmer you see doing that is just looking for
what to eat and how to survive; they were not thinking business.
Right now, there is a big
shift. You will find out that their yields have gone up from those seven
tons in a year to 20/21 tons. But we want to push these yields to over
25 tons. So for those four Cycles, they had all kinds of challenges.
Now that we are getting the
market sector doing very well, they will not be at the mercy of
monopolists; they won’t be at the mercy of middlemen; they would have a
stronger power to negotiate. By doing this, we can start addressing the
issue of income; that their income will increase, productivity and their
livelihood will change.
In what areas do you think government and the private sector can render more support
Government’s responsibility
is policies. They must sustain policies that are pro-agriculture;
policies that will empower indigenous production. You must sustain those
kinds of things; you must provide the enabling environment.
Certain things like feeder
roads, tractor hiring services, some basic water management systems,
empowerment of the youths and soft loans for farmers; all these things
are governments’ responsibilities.
It is very important that
these things are put in place in very good strategic places. The private
sector firms are willing to participate but there is no way they can
pay for the cost of everything; there is no way. But once they find out
that a good arrangement is in place, a lot of private sectors people
will love to come into the area. But they need these raw materials for
their production.
All the starch we are using
in this country, most of them are imported; how much more if we can make
us of our cassava and our maize and our cocoyam and our Irish potatoes
to produce starch. We will not be importing any of these things.
Look at the issue of cassava
bread: the high quality cassava flour has become so useful today; wheat
on the other hand, is so expensive. The high quality cassava flour has
to be sustained.
The private sector firms, I’m
sure, are willing to come into the production of these things; a lot of
young people and a lot of people in the Diaspora want to come home with
their money but they need an enabling environment.
How well does the Foundation’s initiatives resonate with the Institute and the farmers that have been helped so far
Well, all our contracts with
the BATN Foundation have moved very smoothly. They have provided all
that we agreed should be provided. And they haven’t been doping any kind
of micro managing of the Project.
I think that the freehand and
the belief in us as the lead technical partner that has allowed us to
improve the work, is very complementary. And it is a relationship we
will like to sustain.
In fact, IITA will like to
work with them more in other areas like in areas of yam, plantain,
banana and maize because these are all important crops in Oyo State and
so many other places.
Most companies in Nigeria
often direct their corporate social investments towards providing social
amenities, welfare support, etc; are you satisfied with this kind of
CSI in the area of agricultural support
Sincerely, I will tell you
that most companies will like to go to places where they will have quick
visibility; they always like to go to where they will have immediate
results. Very few people like this long term approach; and agriculture
is long term; it requires patience.
So for a company to go into this kind of line, there is some sincerity in really helping people to grow. This
is one very good thing I love about working with the BATN Foundation.
They are not looking at who is there; they have left the people to
choose from all classes of levels.
Yes, the big ones are okay
but agriculture needs something longer. If you are going to intervene in
agriculture you have to be there for a longer time; you have to there
to balance things.
Naturally, the environment is
changing, the climate is changing and there are challenges to it. The
rains are not coming when we want them to come and these are things that
farmers cannot control. So any investor who goes into agriculture has
to plan bigger and has to be able to do this.
So kudos to BATN Foundation
for taking the bull by the horn and for them to plan for a three-year
journey and not just a one-time intervention from the word go.
From IITA’s perspective, what is the future of this scheme
The future is big. Now
Nigerians are realising that agriculture is the way. The former minister
of agriculture kept on shouting it and pushing the issue concerning
agriculture. So IITA is
fully on ground to support this process. And we will pull all our
resources and technical knowledge together to make sure we support
anybody who makes agriculture move forward; not only to produce food but
also to make money while producing the food.
We have to make sure that we
look at the entire value chain, from the market to the production; and
most especially the young ones, the youth; they are our focus. We
need to get more and more people to start looking at agriculture. There
is nothing we can produce in this country that there is no machine to
do it. There is nothing we can produce and we will not have the
technical expert top do it. We must not continue to be the country that produces the raw materials for others to use.
So addressing this whole food
value chain is very important for Nigeria and IITA with our partners
like Africa Rice that is focusing on rice; partners like those focusing
on cassava; and the national research institutes. I think that we will
do more now that more and more investors are looking towards
agriculture.
What are the challenges you have faced in managing the BATNF-IITA partnership while trying to help these farmers?
Well, in partnerships there
are always challenges; organisations do have their own. The main thing
is building harmony with the federal ministry of agriculture, ministries
of agriculture at the state level.
So that you don’t have this
dichotomy of this for federal government and that is for state
governments; but the people that need it belong to the grassroots. So
this harmonisation is very important. The goals and objectives of the
donor organisation have to be properly streamlined by targeting certain
key value chains.
So the main challenge is
getting all things to jell together. It also means connecting all the
partners, connecting the research, the extension and getting the
government policy to be functional in the way it should work.
What is the future of IITA?
Well, the future is very big.
IITA will continue to push our mandate to make sure that at least 7.5
million people are pulled out of poverty. We also want to make sure that
at least 11.5 million hectares of our soil is turned to fertile soil. A
lot of the soils you find here have been so degraded and that is why we
push for so many kinds of technologies to make the soil better. If the
soil dies then the problem will be worsened.
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