‘It’s a pity, most of our farm settlements are still moribund’

professor Gabriel Farinu, provost,
Oyo State College of Agriculture,
Igbo-Oraprofessor Gabriel Farinu is the provost, Oyo State College of Agriculture, Igbo-Ora. Seye Adeniyi spoke with him in Ibadan recently on the problems facing agriculture in the country and how food can be cheap and abundant. Excerpts.

The bulk of Nigeria’s population are farmers. In fact, 70 per cent of the entire people living in the country, according to data, are practising farmers and they are living in rural areas. But despite the statistics, many people are still not practising agriculture as it should be. Even the few that are practising farming are not adopting modern technologies, while most Nigerians still see agriculture as a risky venture.

However, this attitude is having a negative effect on our economy. For instance, there is still hunger and poverty because food is yet to be abundant and many people are complaining of low purchasing power.

A typical nuclear family spends fortunes on food in a month, while some housewives are now pepertually at loggerheads with their husbands over housekeeping allowances.

Therefore, there is the need to intensify efforts to make agriculture an acceptable venture to the entire nation and to achieve this result, many things would have to be done with seriousness, commitment while sincere political will on the part of our leaders is also required.

This admonition was given by professor Gabriel Farinu, the provost, Oyo State College of Agriculture, Igbo-Ora, Oyo State, during an interview with Tribune Agriculture.

The don explained that what was happening in the agricultural sector of the nation today was a “sorry case” because things were not like this in the past, especially during the time the country was arranged into different regions.

He said, “Where is the cocoa that used to be the pride of the Western Region? What happened to the oil palm that the Eastern Region of the country used to boast of? What about the groundnut pyramids of the Northern Region? Can you hear anything again about the abundant production of a cash crop known as rubber, which the middle-belt region of the country was known for? Honestly, we have lost so many heritage and without mincing words, the agricultural sector of the nation has suffered a serious setback.”

Asked to explain what could have precipitated the setback that brought the nation’s agricultural sector to its knees and so much so that the government is now begging/appealing to the citizenry to go back to the farm, professor Farinu said many things could be traced to the decay and a lot of things are presently involved apart from the oil boom which caused distraction from the agricultural sector.

He also emphasised that availability of land to practise farming could also be said to be a factor, although this is not the major problem. According to him, “we no longer have enough land to practise farming in the south and this is the truth. Travel round the Southern region of the country, especially states in the south-western parts of the country, you will be able to confirm my observation or what I meant by unavailability of land in the south.

Many virgin lands are available outside the major cities but what you will see on those land are signboards with the inscription like: “This hectares of land belong to family ABC, trespassers will be prosecuted.” So tell me, how would food be abundant when people will not allow virgin lands to be used for agricultural purposes?”

He lamented at the deplorable and pitiable conditions at which many of the farm settlements established in the 70s are at present.

“The popular Iwo Dairy established during the time of Chief Obafemi Awolowo has been converted to something else, and I’m very sure it has been taken over by residential development. What about other farm settlements in other parts of Oyo State like those at Ijaiye, Akufo, Iresa-Adu, Lalupon and Eruwa. Why are we not developing them?

“Afterall, someone with a good vision and prospective foresight established them many years ago, so, why are we allowing the farm settlements to go moribund? This is not good at all.

“Do you also know that I lived inside the farm settlement at Ogbomoso during the Operation Feed The Nation (OFN) of General Olusegun Obasanjo regime? At that time, you won’t even want to go and live in the cities because farm settlements as of then were made attractive and encouraged agricultural activities. But it is not like that again.” he said.

He also identified rural-urban migration as a factor militating against agricultural development in the country.

On whether giving soft loans to farmers would change the belief and perceptions of people about farming and whether it was a good scheme that can lead to speedy agricultural development, professor Farinu said it was a welcome development and a catalyst, but the programme was still experiencing some problems.

He noted that many beneficiaries of government loans are not investing the money obtained from banks on farming, rather, they use such loans to do buying and selling business, which they believe would yield quick profit for them because they can’t wait for the period it would take to plant a crop and reap the harvest. Many farmers have also discovered that it pays to buy agricultural produce and re-sell to make better profits than planting crops like cassava themselves, do the processing and marketing which may not even be profitable.

Therefore, good processing and marketing of agricultural produce is another problem facing agriculture and solution should be provided in order not to discourage youths from going into the profession.

professor Farinu, however, advised that the government could make agriculture popular by copying or adopting the Libya’s experience, which according to him, would stimulate the interest of youths in farming and also curb the rural-urban movement that has been identified as a major problem of agriculture in the country.