By Mike Adeyemi
Kwara State like many of its contemporaries in the North Central zone is no doubt an agrarian State. The reality of the nearby Federal Government owned agricultural institutions in the state nearly stand out this statement. The institutions are National Centre for Agricultural Mechanizations (NCAM), Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), and Nigerian Stored Products and Research Institute (NSPRI) all in Ilorin, the State capital.
As Kwara North and South senatorial districts are known for the growing of tubers, grains and cash crops, those in the Central engage typically in animal husbandry, most likely due to the ease to benefit from the abundance of Savannah plants contained by the region. But in spite of the massive land in Edu, Patigi, Shonga and Kiama, all in the Northern part of the state and exceptional plant life in Ekiti, Oke-Ero, Oyun, Offa, Irepodun and Ifelodun, food production capacity in kwara state is decreasing and on the way out. These lapses were not helped with decreasing fiscal appropriation and low research drive from the state government. A look at the 2018 Kwara budget’s appropriation on Agriculture clears the claim to this assumption.
For instance, the Kwara State budget for 2018 composed of recurrent expenditure of N75, 204,257,902 billion (41.3%) whilst capital expenditure gauge N106,681,798,630 billion (58.7 %). My fear is the undue breakdown of the financial plan with a spoonful percentage apportioned to the agricultural sector, though with a mere shift from the previous years 2017. The Kwara state budgetary allocation of 0.43 percent to the agriculture sector for 2018 was grossly too little.
Unfortunately, this has been the trends in the allocation to the agriculture sector for quite a while now, which is at risk to aggregate demand thus discouraging growth in the state’s economy.
The State’s allocation decreased from 1.38 per cent in 2014 and 1.29 per cent in 2015 to a dire 0.40 and 0.43 per cent in 2016 and 2017 in that order. These allocations fell short of the Maputo Declaration and Commitment that required allocation of not less than 10 per cent to the agricultural sector.
In the 2016 Kwara budget for instance, it was as a matter-of-fact that provision for women in agriculture was made under the state’s capital budget. However, this was not cash-backed and therefore not implemented during the course of the year. Sadly, in 2018, no provision was made for capital expenditure aside a slight sum of N205 million earmarked for training materials for all farmers in the state. No clear budgetary provision was made for annex service in the 2018 budget in spite of the complaints by the farmers.
Regardless of this shortcoming, the Kwara State Government deserves applause for the provision of N86 million for youths involved in agriculture. This increment compared with the N10 million in 2016 would generate more youth-focused initiatives. In the meantime, this piece wishes to advise the State Government to leverage on this and come up with a holistic agricultural course of action which could project the State in the committee of state in terms of agricultural pace. If Kebbi State could produce Lake Rice, why won’t Kwara? Kogi State of recent also produced Confluence Rice. Why can’t Kwara State also come up with “Harmony Rice”? The comparative advantages are there for the state to tap if only a substantial budgetary provision could be appropriated to the sector and perhaps the state should sought for Federal Government intervention in terms of loan under the backing of the CBN.
With a total land area of 34,600 square kilometers and an annual rainfall of 1,500mm, Kwara State is richly gifted in agricultural produce, naturally producing huge quantities of Arable crops. But sadly, the agricultural developing of the state has remained chiefly unrealized over the decades. Kwara State has the agricultural prospects of becoming one of the great states in Nigeria, the human and material resources are in abundance to achieve this.
What Kwara State needed this moment is the effective will of Lagos State, the agricultural skilled of Kebbi State, and the coerce passion of Kogi State. It sounds not easy, but Kwara State can do it and change things for better in the State. To make available food for all Kwarans, the Kwara State Government must path through the instrumentality of pragmatic policies which include; i. subsidising farm inputs. ii. Price and tax incentives .iii .Direct Government participation .iv. Manpower training program. v. Establishment of processing and storage plants. vi. Establishment of short and medium term credit facility. vii. Provision of better farming implement. viii. Acquisition of better farming implements. ix. Encouraged formation of cooperative movements in agricultural production and marketing.
Kwara State has a land mass of over 34,600sqkm, which translates to an approximated soil mass of 4,185,500 hectares. Even if 78,000 farmers are made to just cultivate 10 per cent of the state land mass that will translate to 418,550 hectares of farmland and 5.37 hectares per farmer. With a normal yield of 1.5 to two metric tons of Rice per hectare, this is possible. Based on this great potential, if I am the Sole Administrator of Kwara State and it is proved beyond doubt to me that the State has the soil and the weather to produce commercial Rice farming, I will inaugurate a 5-10 years consolidated, integrated and mechanised Rice farming and industrialization line up that will end into the cultivation and milling of the highest grade Rice in my State.
I will work with the significant agencies and private partners to get our people to cultivate the development of high-yielding lengthy grain Rice varieties, which yield six to seven metric tons per hectare as against the traditional variety farmers cultivate with a yield of 1.5 to 2 million tons per hectare, then mill it to the highest grade for sale to other parts of Nigeria.
With the Lower Niger River Basin running through the state and joined with the high tech irrigation and mechanized farming working with the right partners, we can go ahead to transform Kwara State over 5 to 10 years into a Rice hub.
Imagine turning 20 per cent of the State Land mass into 817,000 hectares of Rice farm. That will yield over five million metric tons, 100 million bags of 50 kg Rice. At N10, 000 per bag, the Kwara State Government can generate over N1trillion in Rice production and commercialization over the next 5 to 10 years, while creating over 600,000 direct and indirect jobs. Apparently, it can be deduced that we are not only suffering from shortage, but a collection of ideological disorder.
The economic multiplier effect of this survey is feasible and possible. Multiplier effect or spending multiplier refers to the idea that an initial amount of Government spending that leads to a change in the activity of the larger economy. In other words, an initial change in the total demand for goods and services (what economists term aggregate demand) causes a change in total output for the economy that is a multiple of the initial change.
For example, if the government spends one naira and, as a result of this spending, the economy (as expressed by the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP) grows by N2, the spending multiplier is 2. If the economy grows by N1.50, the spending multiplier is 1.5. However, if the economy only grows by 50 per cents (a loss from the original N1 spent), the spending multiplier is 0.5.
Multiplier starts with the idea that government spending has some social cost (i.e. a rise in government spending requires a fall in other parts of GDP, such as consumption and investment). As such, the value of public projects (bridge construction or roads) needs to justify that social cost. This view doesn’t assume that an increase in consumption at any cost is a good thing if the multiplier’s value is less than 1, then government spending has crowded out the private investment and spending that would have otherwise happened. Even government spending where the multiplier is higher than 1, could still be a poor use of tax payer’s naira. For instance, though N1 in government spending could lead to a GDP boost of N1.50 in the short run, it could also make it harder to solve the longer-term-debt problem.
In order to understand the effects of government spending on the economy, one must know how much of the economic change is due to government spending and how much is due to other factors. Unfortunately, it is impossible to figure this out with general government spending, since the level of government spending often expands and contracts along with the economy.
Generally speaking, unless the Kwara State Government make farming enticing and attractive to the youths, “by means of suitable training, authentic policies, periodic monetary interventions like soft loans and provision of up to date equipment,” the state would one day find it hard to feed its human population. If Kwara State wants to make its heart proficiency, agriculture, and achieve the rank of an agrarian state, she cannot talk its way through. A lot of work has to be done in creating policies, infrastructure and framework that will make the “common man” the driver of the agricultural revolution the state seeks. I don’t want to believe our people do not want to farm anymore. What I believe is that, there is no back-up to support them to do so. The foremost yearning of a businessman is the ease of use of an enthusiastic, standing by and able consumer of his/her merchants. And this is fastening upon which the government has to pivot its policies on agriculture.
Relevant authorities and stakeholders in the agricultural sectors in Kwara should engage more of the inputs of weather experts and topologists in agricultural practices to conform modern best practices. “Our farmers are under-producing in this part of the State. The state lacks good road network to bring the needed materials to the farm and even when we manage to use local tools to produce, how do we bring the produce to the consumers without the good road network?
Kwara state, through its investment company, Harmony Holdings Limited, should expand at least one “agro centric” industrial square in each local government area within the state. These squares would focus on processing into semi-finished products or finished products, the major agricultural outputs from Kwara State. Some of which include cotton, palm produce, coffee, kola nut, tobacco, maize, cashew nut and even yam –all these have strong local and international markets values
These industrial parks do not have to be full-size. They could be planned to accommodate between 5 to 20 companies-a combination of hut processing companies, packaging companies, storeroom and warehousing companies, and logistics companies. Cashew farmers in the state should be assisted by making the business profit-oriented. Aside Olam Nigeria Ltd, hardly there is a matching cashew processing industry in the whole kwara to curb massive wastages occasioned by poor storage capacity.
To make these industrial parks attractive to investors, complementing infrastructure must be built. Roads must lead to and from them, there must be constant electricity supply, water must be there, and telecommunication infrastructure must be built. The locations of these industrial parks should be such that, they are within a maximum of 100km reached to every village in the state. And the State Government has to work extensively in linking every community within the state to these squares by providing good roads, thus giving farmers easy access to them.
Private power companies would readily partner with Harmony Holdings Ltd to deliver electricity and water to the industrial parks and their environments if is able to get agro-allied processing companies to subscribe to putting their facilities in the industrial parks. It is all about structuring the idea to attract serious industry players to desire wanting to be part of the development.
Harmony Holding Limited can itself set-up a commodity buying company that will buys off the crops from the farmers and sell to the end-users, this has a dual function of stabilising pricing and instilling self-reliance in the farmers and the processing companies.
Apart from the employee job creation, direct and indirect that these industrial square would bring, they would also lead to knowledge and technology shift. Kwara state can feed the Nation, yes it is possible! She just has to do the needful modified by pragmatic policies.
*Adeyemi is a Chartered Economist and can be reached via: mikeadeyemi2001@gmail.com
