Don't Miss

We’re getting a lot of investments into agriculture sector – Adesina

By BusinessNews Staff on May 12, 2014

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, told Dele Ogbodo, that with the hosting of the World Economic Forum on Africa, Nigeria is attracting about $4 billion private investments into the agriculture sector

What is the ministry’s plan to forestall the likelihood of food shortage by 2015, due largely to insecurity in some parts of the North?

Well, first and foremost, we are producing more food than ever before as a country. In the last two years, we have produced 15 million metric tonnes of food which is compared to 20 million metric tonnes of food that we say that we are going to produce by 2015. For this year alone, we have achieved about 80 to 85 per cent in paddy rice production and we have been self-sufficient. We had produced 2.9 million additional rice paddy last year and in 2012, it was 1.4 million metric tonnes. If you look at what we are going to do this year, we should be able to do additional three million metric tons and in maize, we are hoping to do additional 3.5 million metric tonnes.
So in all that, we would tell you that we are ramping up food supply. This year we, are going to ramp up food supply quite a lot, taking advantage of the good rainfall that we have had. I do not anticipate any food shortage and we would not have any problem for next year. It is unfortunate the challenges are there. I think that the food production that we are ramping up is more than enough to compensate for any shortfall that we might have. We have strategic grain reserve that is going to buy back a lot of the food being produced so that we store it and be able to feed ourselves. We would get over the insecurity problem, but we are not going to have any food problem or challenge.

With the World Economic Forum on Africa, what should we expect that would be of benefit to agriculture?

This WEF is a huge success for Nigeria, it is a sign of confidence in our economy, a sign of confidence in the leadership of President Goodluck Jonathan. It tells you what the President is doing and the reputation that we have globally.
We just started this morning the ‘Grow Africa’ event which brought together big companies from all over the world, leaders all over the world to talk about agriculture as a business. Our President was remarkable; he laid out very clearly what he is doing and he is the one running it with all the political support that he is giving me to do that agriculture is a business and that we are getting a lot of investments into this sector. About $4 billion of private sector commitment is being attracted into the sector alone. We are sharing our success story with the rest of the world in terms of how much agriculture is changing in the country and changing the attitudes of Nigerians.
You would appreciate this in looking at the number of seed companies that we have in the country. The number of seed companies has increased from five when we started two years ago. Today we have 80 seed companies and you should look at this in terms of the volume of seeds that these companies will produce and are selling to farmers and not to government. It rose from 5,000 metric tonnes two years ago to 50,000 metric tonnes last year. And this year, they are going to do 78,000 metric tonnes this year.
And the banks are lending more than ever before to the sector and we have shared with the world our success story on the electronic wallet where our farmers now get improved seedling and fertilisers via the mobile phones. We are the first country in Africa and in the world to develop that system and countries like India, Brazil, Spain and China are coming here and several other African countries are coming here to learn from us. And so what are we getting from it? This is the great opportunity to showcase Nigeria and for us to showcase what we have done, a great opportunity to have investors look at what we have done and say we didn’t know that Nigeria is such a viable country in agriculture and we are going to invest here. Syngenta is the largest seed company in the world and here in our country, they just hired 38 members for their offices here in Nigeria. That tells how much that does for us and I think that is fantastic for Nigeria.

What is the position for the ministry’s push for Biotechnology and Genetically Modified Food at the National Assembly?

Well let me just say that noise is not equal to fact and noise is not equal to science. We must not be afraid of science and Nigerians will never be afraid of science because to feed ourselves we must use modern technology. I give this example: It is just as if you want to fly to Europe or London, you can decide to go on a donkey and say I don’t want the option of a plane. But when you chose a plane, and get on it, what do they tell you? Buckle up your seat belt. Well the truth is you are actually carrying a lot of risks because you are flying over 50, 000 km above sea level and you are sleeping as if you are very safe. What they have done in that industry is to reduce the risk so that it becomes normal to you. The fact with agriculture, is that biotechnology is a fantastic technology; there is nothing wrong with biotechnology at all. And biotechnology is not equal to genetically modified crops because people do mix it up and that is why I say noise is not equal to science.
If you take a look at what biotechnology offers us today, it allows to do what is called drought tolerant maize for Africa, which we are growing already in Nigeria. This is maize that will do well when there is drought. Maize generally is not drought tolerant, but now we have new maize that is drought tolerant and can actually stand in the field and does very well even when there is drought. Take a look at what is happening in terms of nutrition; people still do have some malnutrition in the North-east of Nigeria. And to solve that we have introduced iron-fortified Sorghum, we have introduced pro-vitamin cassava that is loaded with vitamin A. We have also introduced what is called orange flesh potatoes, which also has a lot of vitamin in it. These are crops that will allow us to deal with issue of malnutrition and improve the health of the population. This is called biotechnology but it is not genetically modified crops. Take banana for example, grown around all around the entire South-east and South-west of the country, banana bacteria wilt is a major disease that can wipe out 100 percent of the crop. Now we also have the tissue culture develop new banana type from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), that is resistant to that particular disease and so you can understand that these are the things that we are doing. Nigeria is not going to be a laggard when it comes to science.
What we are putting in place is biosafety bill that is before the National Assembly. What that biosafety bill does is to regulate how, the types of technologies that will be used and to reduce any side effect risk. I have had some people or read some really ridiculous things that some people are saying about GM food. I think here, people don’t just understand science, people make a lot of noise about what they don’t know about. Nigeria’s food supply is safe. We are advocating the use of modern technology. Nigeria is producing food that is nutritionally efficient, it is safe and can be preserved in our diversity. But what I refuse is for Nigeria will be food insecure and that is why I told you that you can decide to go to London via a donkey or you can use a plane. Now we are responsible in what we do. I as minister in the country, as you know, I’m very diligent in making sure that our food supply system is robust and that it is very healthy. Please forget people that create misinformation.

[This Day]

headline