THE CITY DWELLERS GRUMBLE WHILE THE RURAL FARMERS SMILE TO THE BANKS: HAS MONEY GONE BACK TO FARM?
THE CITY DWELLERS GRUMBLE WHILE THE RURAL FARMERS SMILE TO THE BANKS: HAS MONEY GONE BACK TO FARM?
By:
Nurudeen Dauda
29/11/16.
nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com
It is true that there is economic hardship in the country, Inflation rate has reached 18.33%. Fixed income earners are paying with their noise. However, our situation is not completely "hopeless ".As far as I know Nigeria is among the few countries on "earth" that when you eat a "MANGO" and carelessly throw away the "SEED" it germinates after awhile with no care,The fertilizer, no nothing at all ! "ISRAEL used to import "FERTILE " sand from abroad and spread it and then cultivates on it. Israel is among the best in terms of "AGRICULTURE" in the world today. ISRAEL has no drop of Iron in their country but they are the eight largest producers of Iron in the world.How come? What Israel does is to import the raw materials from abroad and refined it at home and later sales it.
Farming is our heritage, especially in Northern Nigeria. All the developmental projects brought by the late Sardauna of Sokoto such as: ABU,Zaria; KADPOLY; Aviation School; Hamdala Hotel, New Nigerian Newspapers, the defunct Bank of the North, NNDC etc were done with Agricultural money not "OIL" money. The famous Cocoa House, Free Education and Health Policies of the late Obafemi Awolowo were financed by Agricultural money not Oil.The legacies of Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe in the Eastern region were equally financed by Agricultural money.
The discovery of oil and the subsequent oil boom of the 1970s made us to foolishly neglect farming for petro-dollars. We became the importers of "Rice" from a tiny county called Thailand, "Sugar" from Brazil, Wheat from America, Eggs and Frozen Chickens from South Africa, Palm Oil from Malaysia that we gave its "SEED" to in the sixties, Tomato Paste from China etc.
Only Kogi state can give us the palm oil we need ( Benue, Akwa- Ibom,Rivers, Cross and all the 5 Igbo states have a lot of palm trees potentials),We consume about 6 million tons of rice annually which only Kebbi state can produce (29 states out of the 36 states of the federation can grow rice),Only Makarfi local government of Kaduna state can produce our sugarcane requirements, only Kadawa of Kura local government, Kano can produce tomatoes for our Tomatoes Paste requirements, and Kano state can also give us a lot of Wheat. (Sokoto,and with virtually all North Eastern states can produce Wheat.
In every crisis situation there is an opportunity! It is a known fact that our rural farmers are making huge profit at a time when the Urban dwellers are paying huge for the prices of food items.Our farmers are rejoicing while the Urban consumers are grumbling. Before the recent economic crisis in Nigeria our rural farmers have virtually neglected farming due to poor prices of their farm produce. The successive governments neglect of the Agricultural sector and the cheap imported farm produce from China,India,Brazil etc.,discourage our local farmers.The managers of our economy gave forex cheaply to importers which killed local farming.
If our local farmers make money the theory of circular flow of income has taught us that the "expenditure" of some group of individuals will automatically become the "income" of others. For years we have been empowering "white" farmers as against our own farmers. When a farmer makes money from the village he will definitely come to the city and spend the money in form of buying things that he does not have.
With the collapse of the price of crude oil price we do not have the "hard currency"(dollars) to continue to import our basic food even if we want to. Farming is a big business now globally. Let's take farming as business. Our rich men should embark on farming just like in other countries. Farming is only left to the rural poor. Farming should and must not be left with the poor.
May God bless Nigeria!