Despite opposition from many quarters, some of the white farmers ejected from Zimbabwe lands are now in Nigeria for a multi-million Naira project that may bail
Nigeria out of her inadequate food production problem.
FARMERS contribute more than 40 percent of the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) in Zambabwe. 75 of those displaced by the land problem in the country (Zimbabwe) have moved to Zambia. Very soon, Zambia will export maize to Zimbabwe. We are very positive that we can work in Nigeria. Irrigation is central to what we will do here”. With these words, Mr. Alan Jack explained the credentials of the white farmers group of six members who last April came into Nigeria under the auspices of Zimbabwe Farmers Council.
The visit had been undertaken to Nigeria by the white farmers following their ejection from their lands by the Mugabe administration in Zimbabwe under the guise that they had taken over most of the lands in the country.
The white farmers, whose ejection from the lands made their relocation from Zimbabwe inevitable with some moving to places as far as Australia and New Zealand, did not come without prompting. The visit was at the behest of Kwara State Government whose Governor Bukola Saraki must have been impressed by the agriculture revolution the white farmers had carried out in Zimbabwe.
If the input of the white farmers had significantly contributed more than 40 percent to the GDP of Zimbabwe as explained by Jack while reeling out the credentials of the Southern African white farmers, Saraki must have reasoned that it did not amount to over-reaching oneself to bring these farmers to Nigeria to reverse the dwindling fortunes of agriculture. Agriculture had done well in the period preceding the oil boom in Nigeria such that it was the mainstay of the national economy with cocoa abundantly produced in the west, groundnut and cotton in the north and oil palm in the east. Today, the nation cannot feed itself not to talk of exporting any agricultural produce. The vast majority of the people is on the hot chase of petro-dollar.
But the grim reality that sooner than later, the nation’s oil deposits would be exhausted has forced the government, especially at the centre, to look inwards, the result of which is the decision that the people should return to the farm. It is against the backdrop of this scenario that the Saraki administration extended invitation to the Zimbabwe farmers so that now that the government of that country had dispensed with their services, they could avail the people of Nigeria the technology they had used in Zimbabwe to turn around the nation’s fortunes in farming.
The problem with agriculture in the country is not so much with the unwillingness of the people to go into the profession, but with the lack of technology to embark on large scale farming especially since the prevailing situation has reduced the Nigerian to a subsistent farmer. Closely associated with this is the problem of funding in a society where lending rates are prohibitive. These are the problems the Saraki administration believed would be solved with the white farmers involvement in the nation’s agriculture with a view to putting the people on acceptable pedestal in food production.
Aside the inflow of foreign investments the initiators of the project believed it would engender, it was also thought that the white farmers involvement would supply the confidence needed to get the local banking process to augment agriculture funding. On the latter, they have not been wrong as no fewer than five banks are already involved in the white farmers project.
The move to change the face of agriculture in the country was consummate last week when the government of Kwara State signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the white farmers. Significantly, the brains behind this initiative have not pushed the project to this stage of acceptance without stirring a controversy.
The controversy had largely bordered on the fear that the problem that sent the white farmers packing from Zimbabwe may re-occur here. The critics grouse was predicated on the grounds that the white farmers, if allowed in Nigeria, would in a matter of time, appropriate Nigerian lands.
Even the presidential backing the initiative got with President Olusegun Obasanjo explaining that the nation had sufficient laws to take care of whatever lapses that may result from the Zimbabwean experience appeared inadequate to calm the critics.
Some National Assembly members in fact joined the fray. The chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Dr. Ahmed Lawan, however, clarified the position of the House when he said that although the (white farmers) investment proposal was in order, the farmers must fulfil some conditions before they would be allowed to begin business.
His statement captured the stand of the opposition. “Having people bringing money into our country by way of investment is a welcome idea. If there are people who are willing to come, we should welcome them, but it should be on some conditions”, he said. One of the conditions, according to him, is for the farmers to specify how long they would use the land.
This was ostensibly to prevent the Zimbabwean experience from occurring here. Ahmed said the lawmakers would insist that the land should be used for crops of national priority. One other things that would determine allocation of land to the white farmers, he stressed, was the issue of remittance.
In this regard, he was of the view that the Federal Government should be entitled to a certain percentage of the proceeds from the farm.
According to the chairman, the law to be made on the issue will ensure that indigenous farming activities are not jeopardized by the foreign farmers.
With the signing last Tuesday of the MOU between the government and the white farmers, the grey areas have apparently been resolved.
For instance, on the fear that the Zimbabwean problem would resurface in Nigeria, an argument that forced the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture to demand that the white farmers should specify how long they would use the Nigerian land, Governor Bukola Saraki, who signed the MOU on behalf of his government, said land leasehold to the farmers would last for only 25 years, saying however that the leasehold is renewable. “What we have done is to limit the lease to 25 years and renew it after that period.
Initially, we talked about longer lease but when we took into consideration people’s contributions and the issue of truth, we arrived at 25 years, renewable after 25 years”, the governor said. But the point we should also appreciate is the value we believe the land would bring.
We have land and most of the lands are expensive to government in terms of clearing for agricultural purposes. The main objective is making our land productive and reassure the royal fathers and seek their participation. I have reassured them and series of meetings have been held with members of the communities to allay their fears”.
Saraki, in a nutshell, explained what the white farmers project will achieve. His words: “Food production would improve and increase. We hope to see improvement in beds practices, we hope to see an increase in yield per hectare which has always been a problem of agricultural production in Nigeria, where farmers after all the hard work produce yields of just one hectare or one tonne per hectare. Meanwhile in many other places (countries) you could get about 5 to 8 tonnes per hectare.
Those are the key issues, if that can be one of the things we can achieve, showing the techniques at the farm bases, based on research taking cognisance of temperature, recording sunlight, soil test among others to determine the best type of seedlings for the area, this kind of technology could be passed on to our farmers. The most important thing is agro-allied –– every thing processed goes into agro-allied (e.g) dairy products for mill processing, rice production, flow export and vegetables processing.
Asked why the choice of the white Zimbabwean farmers among others options, the governor said: “They are the best farmers today in Africa. An alternative is the South Africans. The best farmers we have today with the best practices are the Zimbabwean farmers, who presently today due to their predicament are looking for alternative, and they want to stay in Africa, some of them have moved to New Zealand or Australia but some of them believe they have been here now as the fifth generation, so they want to stay in Africa.
They have the best practice, hence, we want the values transmitted here”. He continued: “By this action, processing is no longer the problem of government . The farmers would sell their produce somewhere. Majority of these farmers are commercial farmers, as they are producing, they are thinking of the processing, people are already thinking about setting up processing plants.
Tangible result
My concern is to discard the idea of government spoon feeding with huge amounts without any tangible result at the end of the day even with the good intention. If you look at how much we have spent, and I keep on making example with tractors, if you look at what each state military administrator spent on tractors, we should have no problem with agriculture in Nigeria. But that is not the case. So what we are doing now is finding the private sector to take the initiatives, and if they are successful, terms could differ.
The first farmers are getting this concession because they are the pioneer, we need the support of everybody. And I keep on saying it, how many of them, 10 to 15 compared to a state of population of 2.2 people million. I don’’t think they can take over land, let us look at it from that angle and give the required support in the interest of our own people.
We made it clear to them, maximum of years they must develop the land fully, the banks need to come and support the programme for the abundant benefit to the people”. Expectations are high that with the white farmers programme on stream, the nation would, in the not distant future, not only be self sufficient in food production but have extra to export.
