Indigenous investors who have made fortunes in other sectors of the
economy are now increasingly investing in agriculture under the new
dispensation of agricultural transformation agenda.
The new commercial farmers, seeing the prospects in the agricultural
sector, are putting huge investments into agribusiness investments.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi
Adesina, disclosed this to the audience at the Agribusiness Forum 2013,
an annual programme for Africa, organised by the European Marketing
Research Centre (EMRC) based in Brussels, Belgium. “Our billionaires
used to make money” from other sectors, including oil, “now, they are
moving back to the farm,” he noted.
The theme of the EMRC forum 2013 is ‘The Agri-Food Sector: A Catalyst
for Sustainable and Inclusive Growth in Africa.’ The minister was
optimistic about the prospect of agriculture, as he said “the future of
Africa is bright. We need to secure that future,” and “agriculture as a
business is what is needed to secure that future.” The minister gave
specific examples. “We have treated sorghum as a subsistence crop before
now. We are now turning sorghum into a cash crop,” he said.
The minister vowed that “Nigeria will be the largest processor of food
sorghum,” as he explained that “Dansa is investing 36 million euros into
the production of high energy foods,” using sorghum as one of the
inputs. “Food Concept,” a Nigerian investor, he added, “is partnering a
Rwandan counterpart in a $27 million investment in poultry.”
Adesina, concurred, however, that “investing in infrastructure is very
expensive, but, in Nigeria, to overcome that constraint, “we have
developed staple crops processing zones,” which are to set up food
manufacturing plants, a cluster of infrastructure “to close the missing
link between agriculture and industry.
Another example given by the minister was cassava, a low-value crop,
which is now being changed to a high-value crop. “We are working on
derivatives of cassava,” he pointed out, adding that “we can produce
lowland rice, irrigated rice and floating rice in Nigeria.” Among other
reasons why he said agriculture needs to be re-visited is the “slowing
down of the oil economy.” He emphasised that, on a continental scale,
“this is Africa’s time,” and “Nigeria is the fourth fastest growing
economy in the world.”
To make agricultural transformation impactful, Adesina said certain
underlying factors have to be fixed. “At the centre of any agricultural
revolution is what you do with your inputs,” he said. Referring to the
old unproductive system of government’s involvement in fertiliser
distribution, the minister said that “the problem of fertiliser
distribution is an elite problem.”
To bring the effect of the transformation agenda to bear, he noted, “We
decided to turn the comparative advantage in food production to
competitive advantage by adding values through processing.”
To make Nigeria more competitive in cassava industry, the minister
noted that processing has to be given attention. “Thailand produces 10
per cent of cassava globally, but adds value to 80 per cent of that,”
the minister observed, but added that, as a nation, “We must necessarily
become the largest processor of cassava in the world. By including 20
per cent of High Quality Cassava Flour in bread making, Nigeria will
“put $1.5 billion back into the hands of farmers and processors,
creating jobs at home.”
Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. Agnes
Karibata, disclosed that her country would take advantage of GES
developed and currently implemented by the Nigerian government. Karibata
advised that attention should be focused on untapped regional market
potential as the population in regional markets is also significant as
consumers. “We are consuming too much of imported processed stuffs that
we can process locally.”
President of EMRC, Prof. Pierre Mathijsen, had the following to say:
“Africa is visited by everybody. Africa attracts people. Africa has a
difficult past, a post-colonial past. After World War II, the only thing
Europe was thinking about was food. The Europeans started producing,
and produced too much. The over-production, we exported. As a result,
Africa’s agriculture suffered. Now, we need to help Africa regain its
strength by strengthening the small agricultural entrepreneurs.”
Prime Minister of Rwanda, Dr. Habumuremyi Pierre Damien, sharing his
country’s experience, pointed out that, “In recent past, it has been
noticed that investment in agriculture has reduced, leading to a decline
in agricultural productivity, food shortages and rising prices. The
ways to resolve agricultural crisis: all developing countries want to
move from subsistence agriculture to market-oriented. The way to do it
is to engage in agribusiness, adding value through processing and
marketing. The government of Rwanda realises the role of agriculture and
agribusiness to our economy, contributing 33 per cent of the GDP.”
“By 2009,” Damien said, “only a few African countries have supported
agriculture with 10 per cent budgetary allocation agreed to in 2003 (as
Maputo Declaration). If we want to grow agriculture in Africa, I urge my
fellow leaders in Africa to increase budgetary allocation to
agriculture.”
According to the Prime Minister, “In Rwanda, we have improved in our
doing business. Opening a business in Rwanda now takes only six hours,
increasing the investment coming from foreign investors and joint
investors in the last few years. People should move away from producing
raw materials and diversify into value addition. People should irrigate
the land instead of relying on the rains.”
Source - This Day Live
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