Irrespective of the Federal Government’s current rush to address the food crisis facing the country, there are indications that prices of the commodities may not go down anytime soon, except certain indices responsible for the hike in food prices are tackled headlong.

This, according to experts, is based on the fact there are several important factors that culminate in the food production – land clearing/preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, sorting or processing, storage and transportation to the market, which require government support.

Unfortunately, government’s support over the years was concentrated on the provision of seeds and fertilisers with little or no attention paid to other aspects of the value chain.

Recently, a coalition of women farmers cried out on the need for government to look inward by evaluating why about N15tr to N20tr spent on food production since 1999 has not yielded much gain, saying the more funds are pumped into the agricultural sector, the lower the food harvest.

One of the reasons adduced to this, is the fact that the government has been dealing with portfolio farmers who have been cornering the interventions and then sell to the real farmers at exorbitant rate.

The National Coordinator of the group, Mrs Omolara Swenson, said: “When you see a typical farmer, poverty is written over their faces. They collect loans to cultivate food that we eat and they are unable to pay back for one reason or the other.”

Based on past antecedents, the Federal Government has always design intervention programmes running into billions of naira to boost food production, unfortunately the programmes have failed to yield the needed success.

The reason is not farfetched, “portfolio or political farmers, that have allegedly crept into the system over the years. They are often seen at the corridors of powers scavenging for government support.”

Often times, the so-called portfolio farmers come up with list of fictitious membership strength across the states. With their dubious methods, they connive with some corrupt directors to cart away government interventions meant for thousands of farmers.

Investigations showed that real farmers, the supposed beneficiaries of the intervention are often left with no choice than to buy the agro inputs at exorbitant rate from the portfolio farmers, who parade themselves around as agriculture input dealers and suppliers at the state level.

The Sokoto State Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Jemiliu Sanusi also corroborated the stance of the women farmers, lamenting that the non-inclusion of genuine farmers in the design of government programmes and policies was responsible for the failure or poor performance of government intervention programmes.

According to him, the first phase of wheat dry season farming under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme and Agro-pocket project (NAGS-AP), financed with a loan facility from the African Development Bank (AfDB) was designed to fail, because the so called beneficiaries of the programme were not carried along in the formulation of the project.

He pointed out that many smallholder farmers in the state cannot afford the N180, 000 subsidy payments to participate in the programme, explaining that the total package for the programme was N350, 000, which allows farmers to get 10 bags of fertiliser, two bags of seeds, and chemicals among other farm inputs.

Sanusi noted that the programme was designed in a manner that gave room for sharp practices given that the big farmers, who had the funds were able to manipulate the smallholders to participate in the programme, which eventually lead to round tripping of the agro inputs, wherein a farmer collect the inputs, sells it to the agro dealers, the agro dealers then sells the inputs back to the farmer at the normal market rate.

He said if government had involved the smallholder farmers in the planning process, the programme would have been designed to suit the farmers, probably give them two bags of fertilisers to farm half or a quarter of an hectare, and so on.

Similarly, the Chairman of Wheat Farmers in Kaduna State, Alhaji Bashir Tanko also corroborated that many wheat farmers in the state could not afford to make the deposit of the N180, 500 subsidy payment.

He attributed the reason to the fact that most members already planted wheat in anticipation of government’s intervention to augment their personnel efforts, adding that most of them had exhausted significant amount of their resources and since they could not benefit from the subsidy, they would continue to use their personal resources.

Tanko dismissed fears that the inputs could end up in the hands of non-wheat farmers because NAGS-AP had relegated the association.

Another issue constituting stumbling blocks to the growth of the sector, according to stakeholders, is the inability of government to get verified list of farmers across states.

The Sokoto State AFAN Chairman, Sanusi stated that there are several farmers list in existence, noting that that there is Federal Government’s list, state government list and the association list, regretting that streamlining the list in the state has been a horrendous task.

He said although in Sokoto State, they have agreed to work with the state government’s list of farmers for the second phase of the dry season farming, but stressed the need to streamline the list such that the real vulnerable farmers benefit from government interventions.

The Guardian learnt that other major problems facing the sector include the high cost of fuel, insecurity, displacements of farmers, as well as climate change, which are largely responsible for the shortage in food production, which is currently putting stress on supply.

The increasing cost of transporting produce from the rural areas and farm gates to city centres is another major reason the country is experiencing unprecedented prices of food. The President of AFAN, Kabir Ibrahim disclosed that previously, transporting grain from Katsina State to Lagos cost about N500, 000, but currently, it has increased to N1.5m.

Interestingly, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari had raised concerns over the issue of round-tripping of agro-inputs during the first phase of the Wheat dry season farming farming flagged off in Jigawa State in November last year.

He had said that the second phase of the programme, billed to commence in the third week of July would not commence until all the challenges encountered during the first phase is tackled headlong.

The minister said: “As we look forward, it is imperative for us to tackle some of the challenges observed during the ongoing Wheat Dry Season Farming in the 15 participating states, avoid reoccurrence in the second phase for rice, maize and cassava and ensure that they do not impede our agricultural development agenda.

“The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is fully committed to addressing the issues of round-tripping and poor validation of farmers’ data. We are dedicated to implementing stringent measures in the forthcoming dry/wet season farming for rice, maize, and cassava, to ensure transparent distribution and target genuine farmers. Collaboration with states, local governments, traditional rulers, local farmers’ associations, non-governmental organisations, and relevant MDAs will be crucial in achieving the desired objectives,” he declared.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in July 2023 declared a state of emergency on food production, and in an effort to bridge the widening food supply – demand gaps, the Federal Government  embarked on all-year round farming.

The Nigeria Bureau of Statistic report put the food inflation rate in December 2023 at 33.93 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which is about 10.18 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2022 (23.75 per cent).

It further revealed that inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Kogi (44.73 per cent), Kwara (41.33 per cent), and Imo (39.54 per cent), while Bauchi (27.49 per cent), Jigawa (27.98 per cent) and Sokoto (28.72 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in food inflation on year-on-year basis.

“On a month-on-month basis, however, December 2023 food inflation was highest in Bayelsa (4.42 per cent), Ogun (4.11 per cent), and Enugu (4.03 per cent), while Nasarawa (1.48 per cent), Delta (1.65 per cent) and Niger (1.67 per cent) recorded the slowest rise in inflation on month-on-month basis.”

Meanwhile, AFEX, a commodity exchange player in its 2023 Crop Production Report had projected a continued rise in prices of food due to low production. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), had predicted that this year, Nigeria is expected to see about 26.5 million people grappling with high level of food insecurity.

Nigeria’s Global Hunger Index score remains alarmingly high, ranking 109th out of 125 countries, indicating a severe food security crisis

In this effort, the government embarked on the NAGS-AP project, being financed with a loan facility from the AfDB of about $134.4m. In wheat alone, government aims to support between 150,000 to 250,000 farmers with 50 per cent input subsidy to cultivate between 200,000 to 250,000 hectares and an expected yield of 1,250,000 tonnes of wheat.

The intervention would also include other crops during the second phase of the dry/wet season farming.

The programme is aimed towards significant reduction in food inflation, as well as Nigeria’s dependence on foreign import, while increasing domestic consumption. Ultimately, industry players say this will promote agricultural self-sufficiency and stimulate economic growth.

Being conscious of the hijacking of government interventions by political farmers, the project was innovative in utilising Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to target already proven irrigated farm clusters; deploy verified farmer data; and map the farmers to AgroDealer Redemption Centres.

The programme also deployed smart (e) extension, detailing innovative irrigation techniques, promoting water conservation and good agronomic practices (GAP), as well as provided farm infrastructure, all with a view to enabling farmers maximise their agricultural output and overcome the limitations imposed by the elements.

Meanwhile, being mindful of the numerous challenges faced during the first phase of the NAGS-AP, as well as other agriculture intervention programmes, the FMAFS sent letters across the 36 states and the FCT for state governments to signify their interest to participate in the second phase of the dry/wet season farming.

To this end, about 10 states have so far signified interest to participate in the programme – Jigawa, Ekiti, Ondo, Kwara, Niger, Sokoto, Kogi, Nasarawa, Kebbi and Taraba states. It is expected that other states will also follow suit in coming weeks.

He mentioned that the second phase of the dry season farming will soon take-off across the 36 states and the FCT on properly identified irrigable farmlands cultivated by genuine farmers, who will benefit from the Federal Government’s subsidised certified quality seeds and agro-inputs, such as fertilisers, micro-nutrients, herbicides, and pesticides.

Kyari said: “following a painstaking stakeholders’ evaluation of the first phase of the dry season farming, and with the goal of achieving a higher index of success in the second phase, we have consequently modified the Implementation Guidelines for the phase soon to commence.”

The guidelines include, among others – the establishment of a NAGS-AP State Working Committee to be chaired by the Executive Governor or his representative and the committee will consist of the Commissioner of Agriculture as vice chairman, and the Commissioner for Local Councils and Chieftaincy Affairs or his representative, the State Coordinator of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security as Secretary, NAGS-AP State Focal Point person, AFAN, Representative of Traditional Rulers.

Others are representatives of the River Basin Development Authority (RBDA), covering the state, State Agricultural Development Programmes, ICT Service Provider servicing the state + representative of Data Clerk Representative of relevant commodity associations; Security agencies, Bank of Agriculture, and Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL).

Speaking on the inability for smallholder farmers to pay the subsidy fee of N180,000 to participate in the programme, the Minister stressed that the state government will have to come up with ways to assist the farmers

He said: “State governments will have to lend additional support to farmers during this period. This is because, when the Federal Government offered the 50 per cent subsidies on agro-inputs during the take-off of the wheat production, there were reported cases across a number of states, of farmers who were too indigent to pay their counterpart, in order to access the agro-inputs.

“A few states provided additional subsidies, while others assisted the farmers with land clearing, and quality extension services. Yet, others have invested in power tillers and solar-powered water pumps.”