adly, none of these is of concern to the government. What
they are rather interested in are shot cuts that eventually leads to
nowhere, except for the money that usually ends up in the pockets of
individuals.
Just when you are about to give him the benefit of doubt, President
Goodluck Jonathan always come up with something new. He takes pleasure
in providing his critics reasons to haul stones at him. For a president
who promised to surprise Nigerians in 2013, starting the year with a lot
of gaffes is definitely not a good not a good beginning, but those
gaffes are nothing compared to what would seem as the latest in the
series of pre-arranged scams his administration has penned down to
perpetrate in office until we booth him out in 2015, God willing.
Just 3 days into 2013, the Jonathan administration commenced the
unfolding of his baggage of surprises with a disclosure by the
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development, Mrs. Ibukun Odusote that the administration has concluded
plans to provide mobile phones worth about N60billion to 10 million
rural farmers in the country. The basis of the policy as advanced posits
that in the quest of the administration to make Nigeria self sufficient
in food production, the government took the decision so as to enable
the ministry of agriculture send sms on useful farming tips; such as
when to plant, irrigate, harvest farm products, when and how to access
fertilizers so as to maximise their yield on national food security.
In an economy where fundamental infrastructures like road,
electricity, etc have been taken care of, one can pass the policy as a
brilliant one, but not in a Nigeria where the least of the problem of
farmers is a mobile phone.
Deploying Mobile phones in agriculture services and rural
developments has proved to be very helpful in increasing the income of
farmers, especially in rural areas.
It has also helped to improve the efficiency of markets, reduce
transaction costs, and offer a great opportunity for innovative
interventions, especially in service delivery, but in order to realize
the full potential of enhanced communication of market information, the
use of mobiles must be coupled with additional investments (in roads,
education, financial services, amongst many others). This is definitely
not the case in Nigeria.
Am still wondering how exactly mobiles phone can assist rural farmers
in a country like Nigeria where lack of investments in roads,
education, financial services and so forth is complacent and am also
concerned about how it can help the government in attaining self
sufficiency in food production which the Jonathan’s administration
claims as its priority.
With the identified positive impact that mobile phones have on
farming and agriculture as a whole, how applicable is it within the
Nigerian context? First, you would want to ask how the Ministry of
Agriculture came about the 10 million rural farmers? Does it have a data
base of farmers in Nigeria? What criteria did they use in selecting the
10 million rural farmers? Well, I am not privy to whatever information
the ministry have at its disposal, but one thing is sure, my
grandfather, a very rural farmer is not among the 10 million farmers. I
doubt if there is even anybody in the corridors of power that realises
he exist as a farmer, even though it is a vocation he has practised all
his life.
Now to the basics. Majority, if not all of the rural farmers whom the
phones will be provided for live in settlements where electricity does
not exist. The government said in addition to the mobile phones, the
farmers will also be provided with solar-powered lamps with which they
could charge the cell phones, but this is not just wasteful but also
unsustainable. Realising also that most of these settlements or villages
don’t even have telcommunication services present in the area, the
federal government said they are talking with the telecommunication
service providers to go into the hinterlands and create and expand their
networks so that farmers can have access.. What they failed to realise
however is that these providers do not set up there services just
anywhere because the government wants them to, they do so because they
want to make profit. These two phenomenon leaves us with the challenge
of how the farmers will use their phones to communicate and power them
for use.
There is also the issue of the literacy level of the rural farmers
who are going to be the beneficiaries of the mobile phones. Since they
said text messages are going to be sent to the farmers on what to do to
improve their farm yields, the government is less concerned about how
many of those farmers are literate enough to read whatever text message
the ministry of agriculture will be sending.
Farmers are faced with the challenges of using modern farming
equipments to go into mechanised farmings and boost their yields, but
this has not got the attention of the government. Even at instances
where farmers strive to make outputs with the use of primitive farming
equipments, several other challenges like how this produce are stored,
how they are transported even to the nearest market stares them in the
face. In most of the rural areas in Nigeria, roads from farm settlements
to other places especially markets are nothing to write home about.
Farm goods are essentially transported primitively as they were produced
because there are no inter-connected roads that are motorable from one
village to another. What this means is that most goods, particularly the
perishable ones are destroyed before they get to their destinations. To
make matters worse, storage and processing facilities which would have
helped to preserve these goods at least for a given period of time
before they are finally transported are not available in those rural
areas, the resultant effect is that huge amount of money which ought to
accrue to the farmers from those produce are lost, with further effects
noticeable in areas like job creation and empowerment.
Sadly, none of these is of concern to the government. What they are
rather interested in are shot cuts that eventually leads to nowhere,
except for the money that usually ends up in the pockets of individuals.
Even though I have stated the benefits of deploying mobile phones to
boost agricutural production, and the needs for farmers to own one, not
minding other challenges that stares them in the face, the government
have absolutely no business in its provision. The N60 billion the
government has planned to purchase the mobile phones for rural farmers
will not add an inch to our sorry state of self sufficiency in food
production in this present circumstance. Such money should rather be
channeled into investments in agriculture which has triple effects on
the eventual output that are made in farming activities. Such
investments will not only make farming lucrative, it will lead to the
production of sufficient food for local consumption and even exports if
need be.
N60 billion naira for example can be channelled into opening rural
road that connect farmers from their farmlands to the market. Just as I
was putting this piece together, I watch the Nigerian Televison
Authority interview a rural farmer who specialises in the farming of
onion. The farmer said he can prodcue 8 to 10 bags of onion per farming
season, but because of distance and absence of market close to his farm.
he has to keep them at home for family consuption because he cannot
transport them to the market. How much of these onions do you think the
farmer and his family members can consume? A large quantity of it will
definitely be thrown away when they decay.
N60 billion can purchase a minimum of 1500 tractors which can be
distributed to all the local government in the country so as to aid
farmers in the cultivation of their farm lands rather than employing the
use of the conventional hoe and cutlass that produces low output. N60
Billion can also go a long way in providing processing facilities in
most of our rural areas, so that most of the perishable goods which
ordinarily cannot be transported in its raw form can be processed into
finished or semi-finished good to avoid loss. The government can do this
by making the fund available to investors in form of equity
contribution so as to encourage them to establish such processing
centres close to areas where the produce are harvested. The government
can use the money to provide storage facilities for the farmers so as to
prolong the life span of the produce. Ultimately, the government can
make the N60 billion it intends to use in importing mobile phones
available as low interest loans to farmers through micro finance banks
and co-operative societies with strict guidance on its application to
ensure the effective utilisation of the fund for the required purpose.
All of these do not matter to the government. What is more important
is how available money can be distributed among cronies under the guise
of awarding contract to would be supplies of the phones. Suffix to add
that most of these phones if they are eventually imported as we have
been told may not even get to a large percentage of the would-be
beneficiaries. After benefitting from the supposed importation of the
phones, it is the same set of people that will pop up imaginary names of
farmers whom the phones will be given to.
Our president has promised to surprise us in 2013 and given the
record of lows that has come from his plans, policies and programme,
Nigerians should only brace up for more heart breaking policies geared
towards ‘transforming’ the country.
Source: Daily Post
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