South: Still in search of old green food baskets

Following the collapse of regional governments in 1966, successive military administrations in southern Nigeria shifted the region’s economic priorities from agriculture to oil. This development subsequently killed agricultural initiatives in the region, especially in the South-West and South-East forcing it to rely on the North for food supply. SEYE OLUMIDE and LAWRENCE NJOKU write on factors militating against agricultural development in the South.

Without a doubt, the insurgency ravaging northern Nigeria, has exposed the folly that southern governors have been engaging in over the years as far as agricultural development is concerned.
 
Across the South, arable land fit for cultivation far outstrip areas that have been built up, but how southern states with the humongous allocations that some of them receive daily wait on their northern counterparts to produce and ship down south, food items including tomatoes, onions, pepper, millet, yam, and livestock among others.
 
Presently, states like Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Lagos and Ogun in the South-West and Enugu, Imo, Abia, Anambra, and Ebonyi states in the South-East are some of the states that rely heavily on the North for these items.

Stakeholders insist that the present development is a testament to the poor quality of leadership, the lack of sense of the importance of food security, and the lukewarm attitude of the zone’s leaders towards agriculture.
 
Amidst their abundant arable land and substantial rainfall, the South West and South East have failed to improve agricultural production in their domains and, therefore, guarantee their vast populations’ food security.
 
With northern farmers presently in dire straits over the unwholesome demand made of them by bandits and sundry criminal elements, prices of foods in the South have increased almost beyond the reach of the people.
 
While the North Central is regarded as the largest supplier of yam to the South, food items like pepper, tomato and others are supplied to vast markets in the South-West and South-East from the North-East zone.
 
Before the discovery of crude oil in 1956, the Chief Awolowo-led Old Western Region established about 20 farm settlements and five agricultural institutes across the region to ensure food security.
 
These agricultural institutes established across the zone came up with technologies for both subsistence farming and cash crops. Proceeds from the sale of these farm produce were used to develop the region and build some of its grandest landmarks some of which are still standing today.
  
Some of the farm settlements were in Ado Odo; Ago Iwoye; Ajegunle; Coker; Ibi Ade; Ikenne, and Sawonjo all in Ogun State.  Also, the famous Lalupon, Fashola, Ijaye, Eruwa, Ilora, Iresaadu, and Akufo farm settlements were established in Oyo State, while in Ekiti State, there were Idanre, and Orin-Ekiti farm settlements, all of which were testimony of the laudable agricultural initiatives enuniated by the former premier of the defunct Western Region.
 
In addition to all these, the Western Livestock Company was established and it created ranches in Oyo, Lagos, Ogun, and Osun states, where quality meat production was made to satisfy the peoples’ protein needs.
 
One such ranch was the Imeko Cattle Ranch, in Ogun State, which spanned 4,000 hectares and had five dams. The Oke-Afo Cattle Ranch on its part occupied 12,000 hectares of land.
 
Between 1960 and 1970, agriculture contributed  55.8 per cent to the Western Region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).Today, that figure has crashed to about 28.4 per cent according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
  
The region, which boasts about 2.9 million square miles of arable land, and a teeming population of over 50 million people, now depends on imported foods and food items from the North.
 
For instance, Lagos with an estimated population of over 22 million, slaughters an average of 10,000 cattle heads daily. With each cattle costing between N750, 000 to over N1 million, this means that well over N3 billion worth of cattle are consumed daily. The bulk of these monies are repatriated to the region for the purchase of more cattle for consumption.
 
It is alleged that one of the major setbacks that agricultural development in the South faced was the movement of major irrigation schemes to the North, by successive military regimes in the 1970s and 1980s (led mainly by northerners) under the pretext that the South had enough rainfall yearly.
 
A professor of agriculture engineering, Adewunmi Taiwo, said this singular policy affected agriculture schemes in the South, especially South-West and, “up till date, irrigation projects in the South have been left at the mercy of the North.”
 
The don said that only recently, governors from the northern axis and those from the Middle Belt took over the River Basin Development Authority, which he said, had been deployed to boost agriculture in their various states.

Eze stated that such worrisome developments would not encourage anyone to go to the farm, stressing that there should be a deliberate effort to protect the farms and farmers for an all-year-round result.
 
When cattle destroyed his over N17 million integrated rice farm at Oji–Agu Akpugo, Nkanu West recently, the Manager of Excellent Integrated Farms Limited, Ekene Uzodimma, noted that such incidents discourage people from going into farming.