BY COMRADE HYGINUS CHIKA ONUEGBU
INTRODUCTION
I
was reading Michael Ross 2012 book entitled “The Oil Curse: How Petroleum
Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations” by the time your venerated
organisation asked me to present this paper. Ross had argued , along the
typical resource curse hypothesis that countries that are rich in petroleum
have less democracy, less economic stability, more corruption, less inclusive
growth and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil. He made
brilliant attempts to explain how developing nations are shaped by their
mineral wealth, especially petroleum and how they can turn oil from a curse
into a blessing.
Ross
in that book , traced the oil curse to the oil booms of 1970s, when oil
prices soared and governments across the developing world seized control of
their countries' oil industries. Before nationalization, the oil-rich countries
looked much like the rest of the world; today, they are 50 percent more likely
to be ruled by autocrats, much more susceptible to corruption and twice as
likely to descend into civil war than countries without oil.
Incidentally,
the year 1970 is a memorable year for Nigeria. It was the year we began to
witness the progressive decline nationally in the contribution of
Agriculture to the nation’s GDP . From the hey days of the famous groundnut
pyramids in the north, the Cocoa plantations in the West and the Palm Oil in
the East where Agriculture was the mainstay of the nation’s economy
contributing well over 80% of national GDP to the present where we have become
a net food importer spending trillions of naira on Wheat for flour, about 4
Trillion annually on Rice imports including having to bring in Palm Oil and
other vegetable Oil from countries that hitherto imported from us and depended
on seedling from Nigeria to jump start their own Palm Oil Industry.
As
all these were happening the Nigerian government was busy reeling out statistics
of how the economy was growing. They told us that the economy was growing ,
while the rest of us were gradually getting poorer. Poverty here is measured in
terms of quality of life, life expectancy, and human development index.
We
saw government at all levels in Nigeria rejoice over the growth indices.
Unfortunately in Nigeria the growth index is occasioned by rising oil
prices and quantity of oil sold. When prices of crude oil and gas are high and
it earns more money, to the government, that is increase or growth. Regrettably
this kind of growth, referred to by economists as ‘jobless growth’ , ‘growth
without development’ or ‘non-inclusive growth' does not trickle down to the
majority of the people and does not provide jobs for our teeming youths. For
instance, despite our GDP growth rates since year 2000, our rate of
unemployment is one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and this is a grouping
where we have countries like Somalia, Chad, and Niger etc. In fact we now
import refined petroleum products from Niger!
Again
as government continued to rejoice over the new found wealth, less and less
attention was paid to agriculture and manufacturing which are known to create
jobs all over the world. Also, within this space, greater emphasis was placed
on Petroleum, and in fact Nigeria became wholly dependent on the vagaries
of the Oil and Gas Industry. This over dependency meant that other sectors of
the nation’s economy were neglected creating a hybrid Oil and Gas sector while
accelerating the destruction of other real sectors of the domestic society.
The
consequences of this is the manifestation of the resource curse hypothesis in
Nigeria. Nigeria became a perfect example for students and proponents of the
resource curse hypothesis.
By
the way , the resource curse hypothesis was originally propounded
by Sachs and Warner in their 1995 study. I do not however completely
agree with the hypothesis because it did little to explain the transmission
channels by which this paradox occurred in developing countries. Also, the
industrial revolution of Great Britain and many other developed countries were
anchored on natural resources. Even the scramble for Africa was a scramble for
natural resources. And so I came to the conclusion, which I still
hold, that natural resources abundance is not a curse but the
inability to properly manage the wealth that it creates for the benefits of the
citizenry and the entire nation. Later studies including the book by Michael
Ross have also supported that position by explaining the transmission channels
and also proposing solutions that will reverse the curse and turn natural
resources to the blessing that God Almighty meant it to be.
Some
of these transmission channels include the dutch disease syndrome, neglect of
education and crowding out of human capital, reduction in savings and crowding
out of physical capital, fluctuations in prices of natural resources and
structural disorders, governance and institutional quality and the disconnect
between government main revenue sources and the governed. The fact however
remains that we can see the manifestations of all these in Nigeria.
If
we take agriculture for instance, we can all see how the ‘easy
money’ from petroleum led to the abandonment of agriculture,
changes in the fiscal federalism and the pursuit of ‘easy
life’ by the government and people of Nigeria.
At
the community level, we can see rural-urban drift led to the
abandonment of agriculture. We saw how new cities and
towns emerged, and how our young men and women were
lured away from the rural areas to the cities in search of jobs. We are all
witnesses to how this drift depleted the hands needed to continue with
agriculture as it became increasingly less fashionable . The immediate impact
of all these is that people became structural dislocated from
their occupations in the communities in which they had great skills into the
cities where they were forced to look or engage in jobs were they had less
skills to perform.
With
this, Agricultural production suffered and Nigeria gradually became a food
importer which finally led with the passage of time to her becoming dependent
on the rest of the globe for food imports. As Agriculture suffered, and as the
population increased, as the skill demand level for other jobs increased over
time and as lifestyle changed, more and more people found themselves
increasingly in the unemployment queue. These sets of people as a result of
certain factors were unable to go back to Agriculture and this worsened the
unemployment situation.
Unemployment
rate in Nigeria is burgeoning and presently stands at well over 30% of the
nation’s workforce but when segregated, the figures become more alarming especially
when the figure for the youth which stands around 70% in the urban areas and
60% in the rural areas. These numbers are increasing by the day and nothing
seems to be in the offing in nearest future to get anything done to reverse
this trend. The consequences of this both to the economy, polity and Nigeria as
a whole are dire and demands immediate response both for now and the future.
Agricultural
sector as one of the major real sectors of the economy ought to be one of the
basic drivers of employment creation in every society but that has not been the
case in Nigeria as a consequence of distorted national policies. As Agricultural development dwindled, the
nation’s unemployment situation worsened showing that there is a strong
correlation between these sectors. Our community being a rural community that
is close to a very large city and on its own is showing signs of a semi-urban
community is also not spared of this trend as majority of our youth have become
unemployed and are therefore denied participation in the economic processes of
the nation.
The
task before us in this paper is therefore to explore the relationship between
the nation’s Agricultural sector and unemployment in our communities exposing
why it has failed to play positive roles in reducing the problem of burgeoning
unemployment in the community and articulating how it could be used to create
jobs that would absorb our teeming youth in the communities into the productive
sectors of the nation’s economy. It is the hope that we see and things that
could be done through the instrumentality of Agriculture that brought all of us
here today to share ideas on how to solve this monster called unemployment
using our unique position as a rural community and our location as a community
very close to one of the major cities in Nigeria.
We
shall attempt to discharge our responsibility here today by first taking a
cursory look at the two key variables that have presented themselves in the
discourse, then, we look at the role of Agriculture in generating employment,
in any economy, some of the factors that have made it difficult for Agriculture
to grow making it difficult to respond to the needs of the Labour market. The
next thing to do would be to ask ourselves how we can make Agriculture grow in
this community to serve its purpose to the employment market and try to answer
the ultimate question that despite seeming availability of some of the factors
that may enable participation in Agriculture, our youth seems to have become
trapped in an inertia that makes it difficult for them to get involved and
finally we will try to make some suggestions as to the way forward. We hope
that at the end of the day we would have been able to answer some of the
questions and touch the heart of somebody here to take a step in making
Agriculture take its stand again especially in engaging the workforce in this
community.
KEY
CONCEPTS
It
is important that we explain the key words in this discourse to enable us
situate them properly within the context of our analysis for a clearer
understanding of the path we have chosen to tread in the paper. These key words
are:
·
AGRICULTURE:
For
the purposes of this discourse, we shall see Agriculture as that which involves
the planting of crops, rearing of animals and the various processes that enable
these activities. It is both a science and a practice which provides food, raw
materials, processes, medical and ornamental materials. It is essentially an
activity which has its roots on the tilling of the ground. It constitutes the
primary industry that is, other sectors of the national economy is dependent on
its dynamics. The production of Food and Cash crops, Poultry, Piggery, Fishery,
Aquaculture, horticulture etc are all the products of Agriculture.
·
UNEMPLOYMENT
A
situation where the quantity of Labour supplied is greater than the quantity of
Labour demanded at the given terms and conditions of service prevailing at a
given point in time gives rise to surplus quantity of Labour in the Labour
market. This gives rise to unemployment which then can simplistically be
defined as that quantity of the labour force which is currently not engaged in
the productive process.
The
International Labour Organisation {ILO} however defines unemployment as that
number of the economically active population who are without work but are
available for and seeking work, including people who have lost their jobs and
those who have voluntarily left work {World Bank Report 1998:63}.
This
definition however hides the issue of underemployment which is a measure of
those who are in jobs that are below their skill level or capacity and
capability. For the purposes of our paper here today, we want to see this
phenomenon as that number of people who are willing and able to work but cannot
find jobs.
This
number is measured in both absolute and relative terms. When viewed as a static
quantity, it becomes a percentage of the population but when viewed in relative
terms, its dynamics or rate of growth becomes central. It is this rate of
growth and its segregation that worries economists and policy makers alike.
If
you look around our communities today, the worrying trend in the growth of the
number of the unemployed is pervasive. It used to be more of an urban
phenomenon but it has become a very virulent reality in our communities. More
and more youth and adults alike both professionals and non-professionals,
skilled and unskilled, University educated and non – graduates are becoming
jobless. This is the trend that we have come here today to seek ways as a
community to find explanation and solutions to.
THE
ROLE OF AGRICULTURE IN GENERATING EMPLOYMENT
Our
excursion thus far has shown that there is a clear direct relationship between
Agriculture and Employment in every Society. In the rural areas, the rise in
unemployment in the urban centres was mitigated by spaces available in
Agriculture both in Fisheries and Crop production. Agriculture provided the
platform for the absorption of the people who could not get job in the formal
sector thus shielding the communities from the vagaries of unemployment but as
more and more people return from the cities because they could not find jobs or
lost their jobs, the spaces in Agriculture are becoming stressed as more spaces
are not being speedily created to quickly absorb these new entrants.
How
has Agriculture been able to play these roles in the past? Answers to this
question would enable us seek ways mapping out strategies for effective
tackling of the present unemployment challenges.
1. CREATES NEW WORKPLACES
Agriculture
is the first occupation known to man. It engages a large percentage of the
population directly in its various processes. Farmers engaged in land
cultivation for crops both in small and large holdings, those engaged in
Poultry farms to raise fowls, Piggery for Pigs and Dairy farms for Milk
production etc. The larger these workplaces are, the more the number of people
employed in them.
In
Nigeria, agriculture accounted for a larger percentage of the number of people
in employment and this accounted for about 70% of those in employment but with
the emergence of Oil revenue which distorted the economic allocative processes,
more and more people left the land for white collar employment.
Agriculture
can therefore generate increasing workplaces in its various stages and
processes from the preparation of the Land, the planting of the crops, tending
and caring, harvesting and storage and processing into various end or semi-end
products. The same with the other segments of the Agricultural sector. The
agricultural value-chain is long and can be stretched to accommodate more and
more workers seeking jobs. The more new farms come on stream, the more new
hands are needed for their operations.
2. CREATES NEW BASES FOR JUMP STARTING MANUFACTURING
ACTIVITIES
Manufacturing
activities depend very much on the raw materials provided by the Agricultural
sector. It provides the bases for individuals to become manufacturers. The
technology involved in some of the early stages of the value chain in
Agriculture is often simple and is easily assessable to the interested
entrepreneurs. This therefore generates a basis for jump starting manufacturing
which has the capacity of generating workplaces thus increased employment. A
process like turning fresh tomato from our farms into puree involves grinding
into pulp by machines readily available locally, removing the water and
blending with additives and packing in a suitable packaging for the
marketplace.
When
manufacturing activities increases in any economy, new workplaces are created
making new demands for labour. This generates employment. Agriculture being an
enabler of small scale manufacturing not only employs the entrepreneurs
involved in it but also allows them to become creators of jobs thus increasing
employment.
3. GENERATES ABSORPTIVE CAPACITIES FOR NEW ENTRANTS
INTO THE JOB MARKET
New
entrants into the job market especially fresh graduates from both the tertiary
institutions and Secondary Schools presently do not command high level of skill
needed in the highly technologically driven Industrial processes and most of
the demands of the Service sector like the Financial institutions, the Telecoms
etc. This allows for the existence of the syndrome of “unemployable Nigerian
graduates” meaning that even where there are vacancies, you may not readily
find Nigerians to fill such vacancies.
However,
the Agricultural sector because of the low skill demand in the lower end of the
business provides a readily available platform for the absorption of these low
skilled new entrants into the labour market. This is either as entrepreneurs or
as employees. With a vibrant Agricultural sector therefore, it becomes easier
for fresh graduates to participate productively in the nation’s economic
processes.
4. SOURCE OF SEED MONEY OR CAPITAL FOR INVESTMENT IN
OTHER BUSINESSES
Every
economy needs investible capital however sourced to start new businesses.
Agricultural sector if properly directed serves as a ready source of seed money
for aspiring entrepreneurs to invest in other areas of the economy. The capital
needed to start a small scale holding farm is often not above the means of the
average family and when the right crops are planted and income generated at the
harvest season, a reinvestment of a proportion of this over some few years
would serve as a capital to go into other businesses that demand greater start
– up capital.
The
availability of start-up capitals creates jobs both for the business owner,
eventual direct employees and some others that may be engaged indirectly as a
result of the spin-offs generated by the business thus established. This will
impact positively on the unemployment situation.
5. CREATES HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL MULTIPLIERS
We
did say from the beginning that Agriculture is a primary industry thus many
other industries are dependent on it for their operation. If Agriculture is
boosted, other sectors both the ones that depend on it for raw materials and
the ones it depends on for supplies are reinvigorated.
If
we use fisheries for example which most of us here can identify with or Cassava
cultivation which is also prevalent here, the business chain that will be
created out of these alone can turn this whole environment into an
industrial/commercial hub. Starch can be made from Cassava which will attract
both other food and pharmaceutical industries, flour for bread and other
confectioneries, animal feeds by extension a vibrant Poultry sector, the
associated businesses to service and enable the sector will all come in with
the attendant boom in the real estate sector. Just stretch your imagination and
see what can happen to employment generation if we can carefully and
consciously regenerate Agriculture.
Having
examined some of the roles the sector could play in reducing the present
scourge of unemployment, it is imperative that we look at some of the factors
that have impeded the growth of Agriculture in Nigeria and especially in our
community so that the roadmap forward can easily be discernible.
THE
IMPEDIMENTS TO AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
Why
has Agriculture suddenly become a neglected sector in Nigeria despite the
understanding of its centrality in economic growth and the generation of job in
the country? That is the question that agitates the mind of every Nigerian who
knew the stories behind the various Agricultural exploits of the nation in the
time past and who also sees the vast opportunities for exploding Agricultural
growth in the country. The vast expanse of arable land for all manners of
crops, the properly located national drainage basins that has created one of
the world’s most fertile Deltas and the commensurate human resources yet, we cannot
feed ourselves and have people who cannot get involved in the world of work. We
shall attempt here to expose some of the reasons behind this apparent
contradiction. They are:
1. POOR ACCESS TO CAPITAL FOR INVESTMENT
Agriculture
like every other business needs funding for farm inputs and for Land. Without
adequate funds, it becomes difficult to start the business talkless of
sustaining it over time. Nigerian financial institutions are not presently
structured to extend loan facilities to farmers because of the Long gestation
period before returns begin to flow back into the business and the apparent
believe that investment in the sector is risky. Even where they are favourably
disposed to giving such loans, the requirements for security are often not
reasonable including the rate of interest which currently stands at well over
20% per annum. They are therefore discouraging to any farmer that wants to
approach them for funds.
These
difficulties make it rather herculean for farmers to expand their holdings,
diverse or deepen the value chain by moving into other extensions of their
businesses. A cassava farmer for example would make more money if he can
process his cassava into flour or Garri package them and sell to wholesalers
rather than selling the tubers. A fish farmer can process his catch, separate
the different products from it and supply them to the market. These can only be
done if he has money to buy the needed machinery and pay the needed hands.
Where
this is not available, he becomes limited to his small holding and if anything
wipes out the year’s harvest, he is immediately in danger of going out of
business completely as he is also dependent on the year’s harvest for his next
year’s seedling. This year’s flooding of the food plains of Nigeria comes to
mind because it has wiped away many farm holdings most of who may not be able
to return to farms next planting season if nothing is done to assist them
financially.
2. POOR TECHNOLOGICAL INPUTS
Most
of our Agricultural activities are still done through the old methods and
practices and has thus become laborious, back breaking and inefficient. Shovels
and hoes are still being used to till the ground, milking of animals still done
manually while smoking of fish remains the same way it was done over 2000 years
ago.
Modern
Agriculture that is designed to be productive is technologically driven even at
the small scale holder levels. Small farms of vegetables could yield what large
acres of farmlands yield these days if the right kind of technology is applied.
Without
appropriate technology, Agriculture remains a backwater business that would not
attract the right kind of investment and entrepreneurs. This is seriously
lacking in Nigeria today and that is one of the reasons that have made it
difficult for the average college graduate to aspire to participate in the
Industry.
3. INEFFECTIVE AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICES
In
the boom years of Agriculture, there was a clear interface between the farmers
and the various research findings from the Universities, the Agricultural
Institutes and infact information from the global community on best practices
in Agriculture through the Agricultural extension services. The extension
service officers provided the farmers with the latest methods provided them
with the best yielding stock either for planting or for rearing. This boosted
Agriculture and made it more productive and contributory to the nation’s quest
to development.
However,
Extension services have become rather non-existent and where they are in
existence, they are ineffective and this has greatly hampered agricultural
growth in Nigeria. The implications of this is that the small scale holder
would have to search for information himself, seek out the best species for
planting or for rearing and also take care of all other things that the
extension people would have done for him. This exacerbates his difficulties and
becomes a cog in the wheel of Agricultural development.
4. PAUCITY OF NEW ENTRANTS INTO THE INDUSTRY
The
Nigerian tradition is that we have to join our parents in the farm from early
age and learn the art and practices of Agriculture and you are expected to
carve your own niche one day in the business or take over your father’s holding.
This created a seamless flow of new hands into the sector without any
break.
However,
this became dislocated, as other pursuits began to occupy our lives and we
unfortunately looked away from Agriculture for sustenance. That unbroken cycle
of new hands into the sector traditionally is no longer there leaving a sector
without adequate manpower to operate. The implications of this is that the old
farmlands have all gone into unwitting farrow, small scale plantations grew
into bushes and traditional fishing grounds became abandoned.
This
is one of the major problems of Agriculture in Nigeria today which has created
a paradox in our communities especially here where the prevalence of easy money
has meant that young ones that should be engaged in Agriculture would rather
hope and dream dreams of the millions that would come through one deal or the
other. Instead of therefore engaging himself in productive Agriculture, he
prefers remaining unemployed dwelling under the illusion that one day, as they
say “money go drop”.
5. SMALL SCALE HOLDINGS
Small
holding units still dominate Agriculture in Nigeria and this has become a
serious impediment to the development of the sector in the country. This is
economically inefficient and does not allow for economies of scale thus making
the business less attractive to investors and the application of appropriate
technology.
A
small scale holder would find it difficult to buy things like tractors,
harvesters, planters, Milking machines and other mechanised processes. Without
this, modern Agriculture which is practised on integrated scale becomes
impossible and which allows every outcome of the process both the ones that
would have gone into waste to be used in other sectors of the same farm.
Countries
like Israel thrive on integrated farms where a farm is involved in all facets
of Agricultural activities; generating its own power from the waste of animals,
its own feeds from crop wastes, fish feeds from animal droppings etc.
Simply
put, it is very difficult to do mechanised farming in Small Scale holding units
and this makes it challenging for growth in the sector.
6. LAND USE ISSUES
Access
to Land is also problematic. Without having access to the kind of land
required, it becomes difficult to practice Agriculture. The Land use act that
places ownership of minerals beneath the Soil on the federal government and
control of lands in the State Governments makes it possible for farmlands to be
lost to other interests that do not have anything to do with Agriculture
because there is underneath, the existence of Minerals. The State Government
can acquire your farmland for overriding national interests.
We
know that some people in Government years ago have appropriated expanses of
communal land in the guise that they were undertaking projects with overriding
national interests which turned out to be overriding personal interest.
However,
because of the traditional system of Land ownership prevalent especially in
certain regions of the country especially in our community, it is difficult to
acquire large expanse of land without having to go through different
individuals, families and entire communities before such parcels could be
transferred. This makes it difficult for an intending large scale investor to
access the land for the purposes of embarking on large scale mechanised
farming. It is one of the issues that must have to be resolved for Agriculture
to begin to play its economic roles again especially in the area of employment
generation.
7. WRONG HEADED POLICIES OF GOVERNMENT
Governments
at various levels of governance have found it rather difficult to embark on a
comprehensive Agricultural master plan and design appropriate policies to drive
such plans. It is all about policy somersaults here and there, ad hoc measures
to solve problems piecemeal and this has impeded growth in the sector.
If
we cast our minds back, we would remember when the federal government banned to
importation of vegetable Oil in Nigeria to encourage Nigerians to process
vegetable Oil from our farms. Many Nigerians especially from this part of the
country embarked on small scale vegetable Oil processing. Am sure we still
remember that as we could see the Plants all over the place processing palm
kennel into different grades of Oil and Cakes but just after three years, the
Government at the centre gave Import License to Dangote, then an unknown
quantity in the economic sphere to import vegetable Oil. This serves as a death
knell on the sprouting local processors. The businessmen that invested their
money in that Agricultural venture lost their investments and the Jobs that
went with it, Nigeria as a country lost the opportunity to encourage greater
investment in farming and deepen the value-added in the Industry.
This
is just one example of wrong- headed policies that have set our Agricultural
sector backwards for years as they abound everywhere you look in the
Agriculture for Brewery sector, the Cassava Bread imbroglio and the rest.
We
must not only develop comprehensive plan for growing Agriculture but we must
remain consistent to its predicates so that investors would have confidence in
Government pronouncements and policy directions.
HOW
TO BOOST AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
It
is always said that we find easy to talk about the problems facing us as a
nation but that we have failed to point out the alternative workable solutions.
This is not true as Nigerians have over time proferred alternatives to issues
without those in Government giving such suggestions the attention that they
deserve. The question becomes how then do we enhance the potentials of
Agriculture so that it can provide a greater platform for the employment of our
youth both as entrepreneurs and as paid workers?
We
have listed below some of the things we think should be done to Agriculture
generally so that we can get the result that we all are yearning for both in
Nigeria and in our community. They include but not limited to:
1. AGRICULTURAL LOANS TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO FUNDS
There
is an urgent need for a deliberate policy of creating funding pools for the
development of Agriculture. The Central Bank of Nigeria presently through the
Banks have set aside this pool of resources for investment in Agriculture but
the problem is that these funds are not accessible to especially small scale
holders. The collaterals are very tough, the thresholds very high that the
small scale are easily excluded for participation.
A
system of rebates and tax holidays should be devised to encourage banks to lend
to small scale holdings and the Government should be able to guarantee some of
these loans so that the issue of stringent security requirements would be
mitigated making funds readily available for Agriculture.
I
know many young entrepreneurs who have ideas of what they want to do in
Agriculture but are hindered by funds. If funding is made more accessible,
their creative energies will be unleashed on the Agricultural sector. However,
these young men remain frustrated and may unfortunately go to their graves
without showcasing their ideas. Without funding, ideas will remain in our heads
and atrophy.
2. PROVISION OF INCENTIVES – VIA PRICING, SUBSIDY ETC
Conscious
and deliberate effort need to be made by our Policy makers to make investment
in the Agricultural sector more attractive to both old and budding
entrepreneurs. Duty waivers or reduction on imported equipment and other inputs
for direct use in Agricultural projects, tax holidays to such organisation
involved in Agriculture, Price guarantees for certain products of Agriculture.
Subsidy
on major inputs or products to make the sector both locally and internationally
competitive may be adopted to encourage more investment in Agriculture. When a
farmer knows that the price at which he will sell his products are already
guaranteed even before planting, this reduces exposure to various associated
risks and encourages him to expand his output. It allows him to calculate his
probable returns with certainty and makes the financial sector to invest in
Agriculture. Subsidy on power and Oil may also serve as a boost to Agricultural
production.
3. CREATING GREATER INTERFACE BETWEEN GOVT AGENCIES,
SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS AND FARMERS
When
research findings from our various Research Institutes, the Colleges and
Universities are left to gather dusts on the shelf, it becomes useless as they
are not brought close to the areas where they will be made operational.
However, when these information are made available to the farmers and non- farmers
alike, farmers would be encouraged to adopt the new methods which would
guarantee greater returns on investment. New investors may also be encouraged
to come into the sector to take advantage of the new findings.
The
best way of doing this is to create platforms for the various Agricultural
Agencies, Research Institutions and farmers to interface with one another. The
creation of this interface enables ideas, information and experiences to be
shared which would serve as an avenue for solutions to problems to be
generated.
4. SETTING UP OF MODEL FARMS OR FARM SETTLEMENTS
The
old farm settlements that were set up in the old eastern region though has been
revisited by some administration in the past with little success, should be
reviewed and restructured to meet modern demands.
We
believe that when small scale holdings operate together in one location, they
take advantage of their numbers thus internalise costs and maximise profit
through economics of scale. Governments at all levels should set up this type
of far clusters and sell each lot to young or individual entrepreneur under
certain agreements that would make them work today. This encourages the farmers
as they learn to pool their resources together and penetrate markets that were
hitherto not available to them as small holders.
5. CAPACITY BUILDING
Finally,
we would ask that series of continuous but periodic trainings be organised to
boost the capacity of farmers in the techniques and methods of Agriculture.
With adequate training, farmers would be able to easily adapt to technological
changes and other applications to enhance practices in the sector.
On
farm trainings to talk to the individual farmers and group trainings to teach
new techniques and reinforce good old ones would assist the farmers greatly in
successfully navigating through the Agricultural business.
Overseas
training, Fairs and Exhibitions would be critical in increasing the capability
of farmers in the Agricultural sector. It affords them the opportunity to
access international best practices, network and exchange valuable ideas and
information with other farmers from all parts of the globe.
WHY
THE DISCONNECT THEN?
We
have however observed a very funny contradiction in our respective Communities
and that is that people especially the youth would rather prefer remaining
unemployed to working the Land. It is an established fact mostly in the urban
centres that the more the number of the unemployed, the greater the number of
the people engaged in Agriculture but that is not the observed trend in our
communities.
Finding
answers to this question will also form a critical part of this discourse
because no matter how critical Agriculture may be painted to be in the
resolution of the unemployment challenges facing our Communities, if we do not
attract the people to get involved, it would have been an exercise in futility.
It is therefore also critical that we seek ways of encouraging the
participation of the people especially the youth in Agriculture. We have taken
liberty to outline some of the factors that may have separated our people from
the Land. They are:
·
NO PATIENCE TO WAIT FOR RETURNS
The
Pay – back period for most of the Agricultural projects is high on the average
while some take up to 5 months, others take years. This long gestation period
before returns on investment starts coming in is one of the basic factors
responsible for discouraging our youth from engaging in Agriculture.
Presently
our youth lack the needed patience to work the Land and wait for it to yield
its bounties. This jet age requires as they say “now, now miracle”. Everybody
is in a hurry to move on and the determination to patiently stick to it and
wait is no longer there especially with the lure of the alternatives around.
What
will you tell a youth who has set his mind on showing his mates his
achievements within some few months to go and invest the small money he has in
his hands in some crops or poultry; continue spending more money to weed the
farm or feed the animals for some months or a year as the case may be. That
will blow their minds away and will definitely discourage them from looking the
way of the business.
·
AGRICULTURE NOT ATTRACTIVE TO THE YOUTH
Youth
in our Communities still unfortunately see Agriculture as the business of our
progenitors and is therefore old model and nothing to be aspired to especially
by a forward looking, cyber-compliant fresh graduate from the University or
Secondary School.
This
unfortunate psyche has kept a lot of our youth remaining idle in the midst of
clear and easy opportunities to become active participants in the nation’s
economic process and to bring the much needed development to our communities.
·
SEEN AS A DIRTY BUSINESS/DRUGGERY
The
old picture of a farmer in his tattered clothes and hat with his hoe slung over
his shoulder still haunts the memory of our youth today. Nobody wants to
clearly identify with that image despite being projected as the symbol of a
hard worker of the Land.
This
reinforces the erroneous belief that Agriculture is dirty and the work hard and
laborious. This is however not the truth but that is unfortunately the picture
that this elicits in the minds of the people and has kept them away from the
lucrative business. A dirty person would always be said to be dressed like a
farmer and nobody wants to be associated with that.
·
A ONE WAY TICKET TO POVERTY
Farmers
began to be associated with poverty and a job for those children who are not
smart to make it to school. It is believed that being involved in Agriculture
is condemning oneself to perpetual poverty. So after seemingly escaping being a
farmer by going to School and proving that he is smart, you want him to go back
to it?
All
you needed to describe the poverty level of a person is to say, “He is just a
farmer”. Once this description is attached to you, everybody pities the poor
farmer albeit erroneously. Farming still remain one of the most lucrative
businesses the world over and in advanced Societies, the consistently richest
men are always the ones involved in Agriculture.
The
fear of becoming perpetually poor has kept the young out of Agriculture. It is
just fear but just like in other businesses where you have poor persons but it
is important that we state that there is no other business where we have
greater chance of success than in Agriculture.
·
THE LURE OF EASY MONEY FROM POLITICS
The
present political arrangements which has provided platforms for people to come
into easy wealth overnight by looting public coffers either directly or were
settled through a share of the loot has diverted the attention of our youth
from Agriculture.
A
man who had nothing much just like the other people presently unemployed
becomes a councillor after winning an election and suddenly comes into great
wealth building houses all over the community is only telling others that it
pays to be involved in politics. Everybody’s attention is therefore focused on
doing what that Councillor did to make it. Politics become the mantra. They all
want to win elections by hook or crook while the Land that could sustain them
and even put them on a better keel to become better politicians is neglected.
·
THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF HANDOUTS FROM OIL
ACTIVITIES
Some
of us have become used to the pittance that come from Oil companies and
associated activities of the Oil and Gas Industry. We have unfortunately built
our lives around the sharing formula thus spend most of our days organising
around its activities.
That
some of these hand outs come in once in a while means that resort to
Agriculture is a no hoper since money is flowing from these other sources.
·
POOR UNDERSTANDING OF THE DYNAMICS AND
STRUCTURE OF AGRICULTURE
Our
analysis thus far has shown us that our people do not understand the nature and
structure of the Agriculture that we are urging them to become part of. They do
not understand the extent of the Returns on Investment attainable through
Agriculture.
This
poor understanding has meant that wrong decisions to stay away from the
Industry have persisted no matter the number of people out of job. Perhaps, if
they had known, more and more people would have flocked to the Industry during
these lean times to seek succour thus dealing with the unemployment situation
that has tasked Nigerians and especially our communities.
SUGGESTIONS
AND CONCLUSIONS
As
we conclude this Paper, it is important that we make some suggestions that we
believe would guide us in dealing with this impasse – knowing that Agriculture
will resolve greatly our unemployment challenges and that it is readily
accessible but refusing to engage in it. Some of our suggestions are:
·
Advocacy to generate interest: Policy makers, NGOs and our Community leaders must
as a matter of urgency embark on advocacy campaigns to open the minds of our
youth on the endless possibilities that Agriculture presents to them as individuals
seeking to excel. All the psychological issues will be addressed through this
medium encouraging them to be involved in Agriculture. We must in this
community create a team peopled by knowledgeable individuals to promote
Agriculture in the community.
It
is through advocacy that most of the obfuscating shibboleths would be removed.
A mind that is conscious or aware of the opportunities in Agriculture and is
convicted would be willing to surmount all obstacles to succeed in the sector.
·
Youth empowerment programme: while we urge the Government at levels especially
the Local Governments to embark on special programmes that are targeted at
reducing youth unemployment through Agriculture, we urge our community to take
the lead in setting up youth empowerment schemes that would return our youth to
Agriculture.
The
same way the federal government recently set up the YOUWIN programme, we should
as a Community embark on such project however small it may be to begin to
empower our youth so that they could go into Agriculture.
·
Agricultural Cells: We should set up different Agricultural Cells
or clusters in the community which would be engaged in different aspects of the
Industry. These Cells will become centres of Agricultural development and will
absorb our youth and as they grow, more people will be needed to work in the
expanding Cells which will drastically reduce unemployment in our communities.
When
we cast our minds back to those days when we use to have the “School to Land
Programme”, it attracted many of our youth. This type of programme should be
revisited in our communities in a small scale with modifications so that the
youth will be engaged as entrepreneurs.
·
Training in Agriculture: Previous generations imbibed the practice of
Agriculture by following their parents to the farms from childhood but because
the new generation lacks this basic understanding of Agricultural technics, it
becomes our duty as a community to design programmes for training our people in
Agricultural production. When our youth are taught the basic rudiments of the
Industry, it becomes easier for them to get involved. The chances of people
practising what they have been taught are higher than one who has not been
taught at all.
·
Agricultural cooperatives to attract
funding and other inputs: We
suggest the setting up of Agricultural Cooperatives that would help our youth
pull their resources together in a structured manner to engage in Agriculture.
This enables them to leverage on size and share on the pool of ideas, skills
and information that becomes available as a result of the cooperative.
The
Cooperative makes it possible for large funds to be attracted to the Community
not only as Loans from the Banks but as grants from Governments and Donor
agencies. We should leverage on this to create new workplaces and get more of
our people working and contributing to the development of the community.
·
Creating community based, designed and
driven Agriculture venture capital: Start-up
Capital is always one of the biggest challenges to any business and Agriculture
is not left out. A fresh University graduate or School lever would be hard put
with the challenges of the seed capital needed to venture into Agriculture.
We
therefore suggest that we set aside a special fund in this community that would
serve as a pool for our youth to draw from after meeting some agreed criteria
for disbursing such grants. This will be specifically targeted at youth
interested in going into Agriculture. When this is done, more people will go
into the industry and this will not only reduce unemployment in our community
but with time will turn this community into a developed society.
· Intending entrepreneurs should be encouraged
to work in partnership: We
call on those aspiring to go into Agriculture and who does not have the
required funds or small funds to start to, instead of waiting, go into
partnership with others. As they work together, associated risks are reduced
and spread out while more resources are made available to do the business in a
more expansive way.
Conclusively, We want to state that we must take bold steps
to check the ugly phenomenon called unemployment that has unleashed deprivation
and poverty in our communities with its attendant socio-economic consequences.
The Community belongs to us and it is our duty to make the needed move no
matter how small it may be so that when we call outsiders for help, they will
know where to start from.
Agriculture
provides us the needed platform or starting point towards mitigating
unemployment. We must leverage on it and the segment of our population that
would drive this process is the youth but the community must support them by
creating the needed platforms to propel them into participating in Agriculture.
That is the way to go and the only reasonable direction.
Thank you for finding time to listen to us!
[1] Comrade Chika Onuegbu JP, FCA, is the State
Chairman Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) Rivers State , the
National Industrial Relations Officer of Petroleum & Natural Gas Senior
Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Chairman, PENGASSAN
& NUPENG National Joint Committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB),
Labour laws and Local Content . He is also a member of International Labour and
Employment Relations Association (ILERA), a Fellow of the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), an Associate of Chartered Institute of
Taxation of Nigeria and a Justice of the Peace (JP). He can be reached
on: Email: chikaonuegbu@yahoo.com. Please note that opinions and comments
expressed in this paper are strictly made in my capacity as State Chairman,
Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) Rivers State.
