The Federal Government of Nigeria said it has concluded arrangements to empower 10 million farmers in the rural areas across the country with cell phones. This is as part of its efforts to modernise agriculture, and the distribution of the cell phones worth about N60bn to the benefiting rural farmers is expected to commence by the end of the first quarter of this year.
According to the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, who disclosed this on Tuesday during a sensitisation and orientation programme organised in Igan Ipabi for farmers in Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State, the fund for the project had already been provided by the government. She also said that farmers would get 50 per cent subsidy on fertiliser and other necessary assistance from the government.
Odusote said that the plan was part of the e-Wallet project under which the ministry officials would be able to educate, inform and communicate with the farmers in the rural areas across the country on the latest and best agricultural practices, as well as the current prices of commodities in the market. She added that the provision of the cell phones to the rural farmers was being undertaken by the Agriculture and Rural Development ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication Technology.
Her words: “We are talking about 10 million phones. Each phone will be about N4,000 or N6,000 because they are in large quantities, we are not just going to buy them in pieces like that. Probably, we will buy direct from the manufacturing companies… As part of the e-Wallet, that is, electronic wallet, which we are promoting; the handsets will be the tool with which we will communicate with farmers in the rural areas. Deep into the interiors, we will be able to communicate with them.
“We are actually working with the Ministry of Communication Technology, which is talking to the network providers. We have agreed that they are going to expand their networks into the rural areas where normally they will say there is no economic viability. But because the Federal Government will be putting some support into this, they will go into the hinterlands and create and expand their networks so that we can have access.”
The permanent secretary also said because of the problem of inadequate power supply, the rural farmers that would benefit from the e-wallet project would also be provided with solar-powered lamps with which they could charge the cell phones.
Odusote said, “They (farmers) will be able to charge their phones because we are looking at the complete value chain concerning this matter. And the emphasis is on women and young people, the youth, so that the ageing population of farmers can actually rest and the younger generation that will understand what we are talking about in terms of electronic systems will be able to come alive and take over farming in Nigeria.
“We are creating awareness and as we are doing so, we are calling young people to begin to take interest in the rural areas and farms, and we are encouraging them by creating enabling environment for them so that they can now find it convenient to do what we are asking them to do. We look forward to getting good results.”
UPDATE: Agric Minister deny project
60 BILLION NAIRA TO BE SPENT ON CELLPHONES FOR FARMERS NOT TRUE.
My attention has been drawn to the issue of 60 Billion Naira to be spent on phones for farmers, reported in some media sites and papers. The information is absolutely incorrect. My Permanent Secretary was totally misquoted out of context.
There is no 60 Billion Naira for phones anywhere. As a responsible Minister, who takes public accountabilty and probity very seriously, there is absolutely no way in the world that I will even contemplate or approve such an expenditure. All our focus as Government is on creating jobs in Nigeria, not exporting jobs elsewhere.
Let me clarify and explain our policy.
Reaching farmers through phones:
The policy the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is promoting is to get mobile phones to farmers, as part of its agricultural transformation agenda, to connect farmers to information, expand their access to markets, improve their access to savings and loans, and help them adapt to climate change dynamics that affect them and their livelihoods. We are also rapidly modernizing agriculture, and have moved away from agriculture as a development program to agriculture as a business, so we must modernize and use new tools to reach our farmers.
The Power of information:
Agriculture today is more knowledge-intensive and we will modernize the sector, and get younger (graduate) entrepreneurs into the sector, and we will arm them with modern information systems. Whether small, medium or large farmers they all need information and communication systems. Connecting to supermarkets and international markets require that farmers know and meet stringent consumer-driven grades and standards. In today’s supply chains, the flow of information from buyers to farmers must be instant, to meet rapidly changing demands. Unless farmers have information at their finger tips, they will lose out on market opportunities.
Our goal is to empower every farmer. No farmer will be left behind. We will reach them in their local languages and use mobile phones to trigger an information revolution which will drive an agricultural revolution.
Why cell phones?
Nigeria has 110 million cellphones, the largest in Africa. But there is a huge divide: the bulk of the phones are in urban areas. The rural areas are heavily excluded. For agriculture, which employs 70% of the population, that means the farmers are excluded and marginalized. In today’s world, the most powerful tool is a mobile phone. As Minister of Agriculture, I want the entire rural space of Nigeria, and farmers, to be included, not excluded, from advantages of mobile phone revolution.
Below are some of them:
Access to inputs:
First, the mobile phones will be used to scale up the access of farmers to improved seeds and fertilizers to millions of farmers, directly. The federal government succeeded in 2012 in getting seeds and fertilizers to farmers, via the Growth Enhancement Support (GES), which used mobile phones to reach farmers with subsidized inputs. The system ended 40 years of corruption on fertilizers and cut off rent seekers and middlemen who – for decades – have entrenched massive corruption of the fertilizer sector. Government succeeded. The GES system reached over 1.2 million farmers in 120 days in 2012.
We succeeded because we used mobile phones to reach farmers directly and cut off the middle men and those who have cheated farmers for decades. We empowered the poor farmers, with many getting subsidized seeds and fertilizers from government for the first time ever. We brought transparency into what was perhaps the most corrupt system in Nigeria. We ended fertilizer corruption of four decades, in 90 days, because of mobile phone tools we deployed.
Revolutionary tool:
This is a revolution. Nigeria is the first country in Africa to develop such a system. The system has garnered international acclaim. Other African countries now want to learn from Nigeria. Major donors, including Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, DFID of the UK Government, USAID, World Bank, IFAD and the Africa Development Bank, want to scale up the GES system to other countries.
How we will operate:
From 2013, government intends to distribute 10 million phones, so we can reach more millions of farmers with the GES scheme for subsidized inputs. We expect to reach at least 5 million farmers in 2013 with GES for access to subsidized inputs.
So, farmers who get mobile phones will be registered and we will use their biometric information to reach them with electronic vouchers for seeds and fertilizers.
Second, mobile phones will allow farmers to have financial inclusion, as financial institutions such as commercial banks and microfinance banks will be able to reach them with affordable savings and loans products. The phones will make the financial inclusion of the CBN in rural areas possible.
Third, the phones will make market price information available to farmers nationwide. Farmers lose a lot in marketing their produce. Middle men make all the profits. Farmers end up selling their products at very poor prices. This is because farmers do not have access to market price information. There is asymmetry of market price information. For many farmers their only sources of market price information are the middlemen. Mobile phones will allow us to get market price information to farmers, improve market access and empower farmers. This will allow farmers to have countervailing power in the market place.
Fourth, we will use mobile phones to provide extension information to farmers, as part of our total overhaul of the extension system in the country. With a “Farmer Help Line” it will be possible to connect extension workers, colleges of agriculture, faculties of agriculture, and other experts to provide free extension services to farmers by interactive voice mail. This will include when to plant, what to plant, agronomic practices etc. At the dial of a number, the wealth of knowlege of experts will be connected to the farmers, anywhere they are in Nigeria – free of charge. Such a “Farmer Help Line” system is already in use in Kenya by poor farmers, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Fifth, the phones will allow the dissemination of real time weather information to farmers. It will be possible to alert farmers on drought or floods and reduce vulnerabilities to shocks. In case of the floods we witnessed last year, simple alerts over mobile phones would have saved many lives and helped farmers to know what to do.
Finally, the expanded number of phones in rural areas will support the expansion of rural telephony. Presently, the rural areas are not being served well by mobile operators, and are marginalized. With the expansion of mobile phones to millions of farmers, mobile phone operators will expand the number of base stations they have in rural areas. This will reduce the digital and communications exclusion of rural areas, where agriculture is the main source of income and jobs. The cost of calls in rural areas will also decline.
How will this be financed?
The distribution of the phones will be supported through an MoU signed between the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Communications Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the Ministry of Women Affairs. Out of the 10 million phones, 5 million will go to women. The Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), which supports expansion of mobile operators into rural areas, through a tax, will support this initiative, in partnership with Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. We intend to work with existing mobile operators in Nigeria through a public-private partnership.
Signed
Dr. Akinwumi Adesina
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