Of Red Gold and Our Food System

After the madness, the season after. As a few baskets of tomatoes are trickling into our market stands one can only hope that the lessons of this tomato scarcity are not lost with the euphoria of seeing the worlds most popular fruit on display again.

We all heard the stories, we all experienced it in our own unique way. In my house we replaced the efficient rice and stew with the festive jollof rice but we were not celebrating. A different kind of party was starting that would really make me take a hard look again at our food value chain. As a farmer and an avid foodie, the picture was grim. The tomato scarcity was buzzing on social media, conventional media and every neighborhood media. Some people started the Tomatoeless stew, Tomatoeless jollof and all sorts of Tomatoeless recipes. Bride price was calculated in tomato baskets!! It was just insane. I found it quite telling that the buzz about the scarcity was everywhere while not much was said two months earlier when tomato farmers and sellers were cursing their luck with the glut of products in the market. Big baskets of tomatoes were going for 2000 naira and nobody raised any alarm. Why was it so suddenly abundant,? How were tomato growers faring? Can this process be sustained? The truth is after every season of abundance invariably comes scarcity.

The main cause of the scarcity was attributed to a form of tomato disease ravaging the three key Northern states that grows majority of the countries tomatos and all other vegetables for that matter. Also there were stories of massive paste manufacturing companies opening up across the country competiting with the open market for tomatoes. All this factors combined to create the worst tomato scarcity that the Nigerian economy had experienced. The main lesson I drew from this scarcity was that 1. Today it's tomato tommorow it could be rice, ground nut oil, egusi, yam or palm oil 2. Large scale agribusiness isn't a silver bullet to solving the issues of food security.

Our politicians have collectively made our consciousness irritated by certain words. Food security is one of such words. But don't be fooled by the hype the threat is real. Our food systems needs to be designed to be able to withstand any disruption to the production or supply pattern. The continued emphasis on monocropping by big Agro firms is not just dangerous but diabolical. Monocropping increases the chance of pest infestations, disease proliferation and destruction of soil structure. The other more serious issues is of our disjointed food systems. When the food we eat comes from miles away, their is a high level of threat to our food security. Not only is food with high mileage bad for the environment it creates a level of ignorance amongst the consumers leaving them susceptible to eating anything you put on their plates without thought of how it was produced, where and how the rice on your plate affects the livelihood of the grower. The disconnect between grower and food consumer damages our environment our economy and more importantly our health.

The tomato scarcity for one made alot of people start asking questions about Tomatoes, what is happening? Is this from Jos? Kano? Or a greenhouse down the road? I explained with relish the various cultivars of tomatoes their taste and texture differences with keen interest from buyers because tomato had suddenly become red gold. The various factors that shape our food prices became objects of interests to the consumers. Which can only be a good thing. Don't get me wrong, this scarcity was not a blessing but rather an opportunity to restructure our food system in this country and all over the globe to gain resilience. Various innovations are coming into agriculture which can help. The rise of Community Structured Agriculture (CSA) where farmers grow in smaller micro farms to cater for the need of a specific community is becoming popular and essential. These farmers boycott the traditional middletraders I. E. Supermarkets, distributors, wholesalers to sell directly to homes and restaurants. There is also a case for farming using urban spaces that lay to waste thereby distributing production closer to the consumer. This is very much in tune with the 21st century approach to production where the consumer becomes a prosumer - a producer-consumer. They dictate the production process and products to their own needs and tastes. Agriculture has adopted this model with high level of success. Feeding people locally helps create resilient communities and generate a deeper level of connection that is absent in the current food system. If you know the family that would eat your chicken, you would think twice about what antibiotics or feeds you use on the birds. The other rewarding aspect of locally produced food with low mileage is that food prices are relatively stable all season long and not subject to other factors like fuel costs.

There is no silver-bullet for food security challenges but a diversified approach and more public inclusiveness in the food systems would help avoid another tomato scarcity like the one we just experienced. It's time for our communities to claim back our food value chain.

- KOA

N12bn Worth of ‘Strange Projects’ Discovered in Agriculture Ministry’s Budget

Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh and his team have reportedly found 386 strange additions worth N12.6 billion in the ministry’s budget proposals – which were believed to have been inserted by the National Assembly.

The said projects were allegedly fixed into the budget after the N40.918 billion earlier proposed had been reduced to N31.618 billion.

A source told the Nation Newspapers that Ogbeh and his team were shocked at the strange inclusion found in the budget after they discovered about 3 projects that aren’t linked with agriculture in the budget.

Some of the projects are erosion control in Federal University, Kashere, Kwadon and Garin Alhaji at N200 million, N100 million and N45 million.

A source reportedly told the news outfit that: “In the Agric sector, 386 projects were inserted, which totalled about N12.6 billion.”

“While N5.3 billion of the main ministry’s budget is taken away, about N7.2 billion is infused into almost 40 agencies and parastatals of the agric ministry.”

Also, 58 boreholes for 29 rural communities worth N175 million as well as another 50 boreholes for 50 communities worth N150.4 million were also added to the budget.

According to the source “curiously, the communities are not named.”

“Similarly, of the N90 million allocated to the Cocoa Research Institute in Ibadan, various sums are allotted the following ýof the seven sub-heads: provision of rubber seeds and seedling in Igbotako, Okitipupa, (N5m), training and empowerment of youths in poultry farming in Oluyole, Ibadan(N20m) and provision of cassava processing plant in Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State(N10m).”

“Of the four sub-heads under the Rubber Research Institute, Benin, two areas are equally outside the focus of rubber. These are training and empowerment of youth and women in fish farming in Ndokwa, Delta State as well as fabrication and installation of cassava processing machines in Owan West Local Government Area of Edo State at N10m and N20m.”


“Also, N1 billion was allocated to two projects in Kwara South Senatorial District, including the construction of rural roads for N700 million as well as empowerment of women and youths in agricultural products for N300 million.”

Meanwhile, a member of the House of Representatives Appropriation Committee has revealed that the projects were fixed into the budget without the knowledge of the committee’s members.

“We are happy that the Speaker hinted that the issue of the budget will be revisited this week. But what some of us want is the understanding of Nigerians on this matter.”

“The issue of this controversial budget has to be carefully done this time around because some persons who think they were smarter had already led the entire parliament into collision with the executive and indeed Nigerians.”

“They have done this by inserting projects without the knowledge of others either in the appropriation or relevant sectoral committees and presenting same as the collective decision of the house or the entire parliament.”

“To the best of my knowledge, as a member of both the appropriation and agriculture committees in the House of Representatives, I did know that we reduced the ministry’s N40.9 billion proposal by about N9.3 billion.”

“But the surprise here is that while a decision was not taken where to infuse the reduced sum, some of us were surprised to see that so many projects were passed on to the President for assent, which he declined.”

“The implication is that if the President did not insist on details, most National Assembly members would not have had the opportunity to know what went behind them.”

The Budget Minister, Udoma Udoma is expected to meet with the president on Monday, April 18 to brief him on the impasse.


Article by

Adebayo Emuleomo for ynaija.com