In southwest, agriculture takes back seat

Four years ago, some south-west Governors promised they will feed the region in a matter of years. They hinged that promise on their touted investment in agriculture. But when tomato became scarce and supplies from the North were threatened, no south-west governor was bold enough to open the ‘silos’ to flood the market. There are therefore no answer yet to a looming food security challenges in the zone, GBENGA AKINFENWA reports.

Over the years since oil economy took over, the South West agriculture sector has continued to slide downhill. The region, which once boasted of a vibrant agric sector and was even exporting a variety of essential cash crops, has been finding it hard feeding its own people. Like other regions of the country, it’s obvious successive administrations here have relegated the issue of agriculture and investment in the sector to the background, preferring to rely on the Federal allocation from Abuja.

And now that the country’s fortunes are dwindling, the folly of neglecting this vital sector and the resultant unsavoury effects are staring everyone squarely in the face.

For a long time now, the Southwest market has depended heavily on the North for supplies of items like tomato, potato, onions, pepper and vegetable fruits. So, whenever there is a disruption in the supply chain from the north, the southwest experiences serious food shortage. The more the northern farmers have challenges in supplying food items, the more helpless the southwest becomes, leading to high cost of these commodities.

Observers cannot but wonder whatever has gone wrong with the agriculture sector in the region, which in the past, was in good stead. In those days, agric provided a solid revenue base for the government to execute its many social and welfare programmes. But today, the achievements, policies and frameworks recorded in the sector are seen only on paper, despite huge yearly budgets. Successive administrations in the states have paid lips service to the sector, and are unable to attract potential investors. Oyo State, which in the past was known for the production of cocoa and Ogun for cassava, can no longer meet the demand of local consumption, let alone selling to those outside the states.

The recent scarcity of food items, especially tomatoes, which almost went out of circulation, and the hike in prices of other food items such as rice, beans, groundnut, cassava and yams, among others, brought to the fore the imminent food security challenge that policy makers must confront. It is a wake-up call to the governments of the region to set in motion necessary machinery to revive the sector. This has become imperative, especially with the recent activities of nomadic cattle herdsmen, who are not only ravaging farms, but are gradually and steadily grinding farming activities in the region to a halt.

Plantations, which constitute the main source of income for government and which take years to nurture are destroyed overnight. Cases abound of fire incidents that destroyed cocoa and oil palm farms across states in the southwest. Farmers here can no longer keep their produce in barns on the farm as they always do. The menace is, however, not restricted to cash crops, as fishponds and bee-farms are affected as well. The effect of climate change is also not helping matters.

It is apparent state governments in the region have a lot to do to address the problem. It is not all bad news, however, as some of the states are making efforts to restore the sector to its former glory. This they do by encouraging young men and women to embrace farming. Efforts are also being put in place to make farming an attractive and lucrative business, to provide employment. But it is glaring that agriculture has been neglected for too long.