Malam Suleiman Salisu is the President Arewa Young Farmers Initiative (AYFI) and the CEO of Greenchamber Integrated Farms Ltd. At a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja last week, Daily Trust on Sunday interviewed him where he talked about the role of the youth in building the nation’s agricultural sector and some of the critical adjustments needed by the president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sustain the gains made by the outgoing President, Muhammadu Buhari.
As a young farmer, what’s your assessment of the outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari, in terms of agriculture?
If President Buhari will not be remembered for anything else, he will be incredibly remembered for his accomplishments in the agricultural sector. Since he introduced the Anchor Borrower Programme in November 2015, the sector has seen a significant increase in commitment, awareness and investments. For the first time, we have witnessed cautious and deliberate government efforts to boost the domestic production of crops that are now considered a source of national pride, such as rice, maize, and others. As the programme was going on, our borders were closed to imports, and domestic production of rice went up rice. So, there was little or no room for smugglers to thrive, as a result, there were many private sector-led investments in processing mills in places like Kano, Kebbi, Taraba, Niger states and others. Millions of jobs were created along the value chains. That is one. Two, through the presidential fertiliser initiative, many comatose and moribund blending plants were resuscitated. Even though prices are higher today than most farmers expected, it is a global issue caused by COVID-19 and geo-political tension caused by many sanctions slammed at Russia—a major raw material producer, by the West. Three, for the first time in the history of this country, we had massive funding of the sector through many financial windows – whether those resources all ended up in the hands of real farmers is another thing, but you can see that there is deliberate policies backed by actions of government to support the sector. Let me quickly tell you something, because people saw that the president has shown much interest in the sector, a lot of politicians rushed to set up farms – perhaps to impress the president.
Having said that, I think one of the problems he had with the policies is lack of coordination among agencies implementing those programs. ABP, which is domiciled in CBN, was implemented without the federal ministry of agriculture. The presidential fertiliser initiative is also with another body, the livestock transformation program and so on. This lack of synergy created a podium where people who are not true farmers, who do not own a piece of farmland, poultry or any processing facility in any of the commodities, could exploit these gaps at the expense of real farmers. Again, in all of these, young farmers and women who are the major producers were not brought to the forefront of this epic journey for agro-economic prosperity.
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Do you think the young people got enough space to excel in the sector?
To be honest with you, most of the agric programmes designed in the country did not give enough room for the young people to excel. Take access to credit, for instance, it’s a major concern because of the issue of collateral. How many young people today in the country have houses in Abuja or Lagos or their state capitals to acquire loans? So those who are getting the loans are those who have these collateral and they are no longer young. But if we must make progress, we must have thoughtful, robust and well-coordinated policies and programmes that will attract young people in any end of the value chains of crops. We all agree that youths are the future of tomorrow, yet they are not carried along today. There are so many farms I know personally that have collapsed in Nigeria because either the owners are too old or have died. When I was in the UK for Food Security and Development, I came to understand how the sector worked in those climes and why we are where we are. Their system encouraged young people who have an interest in the sector. You will see young farmers in their 20s growing their agric ventures, spending more time in their farms, which in most cases are mechanized. Government must make such conscious effort.
A new government will take over the affairs of this country tomorrow. What do you think they need to do with regards to the youth and agriculture in the country?
They should recognize that youth are the future of this country; therefore, they must make conscious efforts to allow them to drive the sector. The largest segment of this country’s population is the youth, the largest percentage of those involved in agriculture as labourers today are youth and women and their numbers are growing by the day. We must create an emerging environment where these young people will thrive. Do you know why the cities are congested with a lot of young people today? It’s because there is practically nothing that attracts them to stay in the villages and take up activities that will put more money in their pockets. Once that is done, they will stop going to push wheelbarrows or do okada in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and other places. They will think of how to grow their farms. Therefore, government should create a special fund for youth and women, bearing in mind that they don’t have the kind of collateral banks are look for.
In practical terms, what would you like to see the in-coming president do to modernize the sector?
I know the incoming Vice President comes from an agricultural background, so I believe the incoming administration will not jettison the sector. However, whether we like it or not, one way to make the sector attractive is to be mechanized. We don’t have any option but to do that. Young people are not ready to use hoe and cutlasses. In fact, when I see advertising pictures with people holding hoes and cutlasses in papers, I tell myself who are these people trying to appeal to? Those pictures in fact peeve the youth. They want to see modern kinds of farm machines and not those hoes and cutlasses. We must encourage places like the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanisation and private sector investments in mechanization systems. Two, we must look at the funding mechanism and make it such that people who are actively involved in the sector can access these funds at most five or even 3 percent, and remove all the hurdles to accessing it. There is no nation that will develop its agricultural sector with high interest rates, which in some cases here is up to 27 percent in some banks. Three, climate change is real; therefore, government must also invest in resilience agriculture to mitigate the impact of climate change. You can see that our farmers are yet to recover from last year’s flood. Four, like I earlier mentioned, we must make conscious efforts to put the youth at the forefront of any agricultural policy. Identify those who are actively involved in the sector, those who are on the ground doing something in agriculture. If you bring them on board, it will incentivize the system and many will come in. I also think that state and local governments should invest more in agric. It seems they are not complementing the efforts of the federal government enough. They should set up offices where, for example, a young farmer who is experiencing a problem in his farm can walk in for consultation. This is how it is done in other climes. Five, the issue of irrigation infrastructure has to be looked at holistically. We will not go anywhere if we rely on rain-fed system. We must be producing food all year round. In some climes, production happens in three cycles. If we invest more in irrigation believe me, our food production will increase drastically because in the rain-fed system, you cannot control the elements of production like rain, draught, floods etc like we witnessed last year. But in the dry season, we control the elements, which is why yield in the dry season is higher. The incoming government must deal decisively with insecurity too, otherwise, we are going nowhere on food security.
Talking about insecurity, what are your concerns and how should it be tackled?
Look, I live in Kaduna; with farms in Kaduna and Niger states. I can tell you what it is like to face insecurity. At a point, we have to abandon our farms because of insecurity. I know what people are passing through in the whole of the north. Something must be done to decisively deal with this conundrum. For instance, between 2011 and 2022, Nigeria’s conflict with Boko Haram has killed several thousands. While we are still dealing with that instability, there was another upsurge in banditry, which also affects many rural areas, and the continuous conflict between farmers and armed herders is another headache. In the heart of all these, unfortunately, food production is hampered because agriculture is one of the key sources of opportunity in rural areas. It is quite challenging to grasp the bigger picture because of what farmers are going through. The incoming administration must look at the key drivers of these conflicts and tackle it with all sincerity of purpose. I know the outgoing administration tried, but farmers did not see the kind of result they wanted with regards to security. The entire north is an agrarian region, and the largest voting bloc. If insecurity is allowed to stop agricultural productivity, then the nation is doomed. These young people who have been used should channel their energy to the sector instead of going about hacking farmers to death in their farms or for ransom. So, the new leaders, Bola Tinubu and Shettima, have a tough job at hand, nevertheless, I believe they will work hard to deliver the country from the hands of these evils.
Tell me the kind of person you want to see Tinubu appoint as a minister of agriculture?
The person should be someone with a proven track record of expertise in the sector, someone who will match his words with actions and willing to drive the country agriculture away from politics, not people who will learn on the job. The person must have a clear understanding of the dynamics of the sector, who can champion and realise the dream of the country to become one of the biggest agro-economy in Africa.
