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

BioDigester Project At Rije Village CONTINUATION

It started as a whimsical idea passed between two professionals over linkedIn and now two years later we are a team of almost 30 individuals working tirelessly across language barriers, personal challenges and differing work schedule to bring electricity to an off grid community. Rije residents are impatiently waiting for our innovation to kick off. The first phase of the project is finished. We have finished with the biodigester now waiting on our methane generator and the electric metres to start our mini-grids to the community.

We have managed to identify three individuals in the community who would be managing this project for their community once we up and leave them with their new innovation. Its been a beautiful struggle but we are just starting. there are still over 100 off grid communities in Kuje Area Council alone. With almost 600 families per community and preliminary energy audit showing that families use an estimated $20 a month on power needs, that equates to $12, 000, 000 worth of energy consumption not catered for by the national grid. the numbers are mind-blowing but what is even more mind blowing is how quickly technology can be adopted. the energy profile of this small community would triple in the first month of our grid going live.

KOA

AfDB Invest $300 Million In Agriculture

The African Development Bank (AfDB) in its continued efforts at providing fund for youths involved in agriculture would be investing about $300 million as part of innovative funding mechanism for youths in agric-led employment initiative. The funding as revealed by the Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobori would help develop the country and encourage youth in aghriculture.

This is news we can only hope the usual challenges of engaging the youth is overcome with this extra push coming into this critical sector of the economy. I would advice serious agro entrepreneurs to keep an eye out for some grant opportunities and loans from AfDB soon as they seek to achieve the mandate laid down with this kind of investment. Anyone with innovative social enterprise projects they wish to develop and possibly gain funding for, they should click here to get help incubating and accelerating such projects.

Have a productive day.

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

Meet The Modern Farmer From Uganda

Lanyero Family Plot
Gulu Region, Northern Uganda


Christine Lanyero was only a teenager in 1987 when Joseph Kony’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army occupied the Gulu-region village where her family farmed. After the LRA killed Lanyero’s father, she walked nearly 250 miles to a refugee camp outside the city of Kampala.

But in August of 2014, the camp’s land was sold for development. With financial aid from a U.S.-based nonprofit, Lanyero—along with 31 other women and their families—journeyed north to their ancestral lands, which are once again considered safe.


Lanyero, her husband, and her five children moved into a new mud-brick and thatch hut steps away from where she grew up, and she planted maize, groundnuts, cassava, and soybeans. Like the majority of women in Northern Uganda, Lanyero digs food (dig is the local word for farm) to feed her household, and often walks long distances to sell surplus at regional markets. Every day, she carries jerricans over a mile each way to the nearest borehole to gather water. “It is difficult to start over and make a life again,” she says. “This has not been easy. The digging is challenging, and the market is far away. Everything is far away.”

Christine is just an example of a growing trend of modern farmers who seem to be characterized by the sheer will to grow food against the odds of environment, social hindrances and lack of access to land either due to cost or land grab challenges. Christine's story shows us that there is a way and more importantly she isn't alone; there are many people in her situation and many individuals and organizations that have dedicated their time and effort to help work together and solve these problems.

Do you know any modern farmers around you that would benefit from support and a network to help improve their farming methods and improve quality of life, please contact me and lets see what we can all achieve together. Lets keep growing.
KOA

The nonprofit After the Bulldozers—founded by a 16-year-old girl in Danville, California—helped Lanyero and more than 200 others.

Kuje Community Solves Energy Problems With Innovative Waste Management

The off-grid community of Rije in Kuje Area Council Abuja, have an extra reason to be hopeful towards the future as a social enterprise initiates a waste to energy project in their community.

Ajima Farms and General Enterprises Nigeria Limited has embarked on the mission of solving the energy challenges facing off-grid rural communities. This mission is currently been achieved by the launch of their Waste-2-Watts Off-Grid solution in partnership with The United States African Development Foundation (USADF) under the Power Africa Challenge. The project would provide electricity, water and bio-gas cooking stoves all powered by the agricultural wastes generated around Kuje which happens to be the hub of farming activities in Abuja.






The project manager, Miss Fatima Oyiza Ademoh and her team of young experts in an interview with the newsmen stated that providing cheap and clean electricity to the community will improve so many aspects of their lives but more importantly it will boost their agricultural productivity because farming is their major source of income. The electricity will be used to process and preserve some of their agricultural produce, boast their productivity and spur several business ventures.’’ She noted.

Ajima Farms would provide bio-gas cooking stoves to help tackle issues of using fossil fuels and firewood which the villagers currently source by cutting down economic trees like shea butter to cook. The project would actively engage the youths in the community during the construction of the bio-gas plant and also trained to manage and operate the biogas technology.

The chief of Rije community, Mr Ibrahim Atakunyamwa thanked the company for choosing Rije to start-off this project while promising to secure and maintain the facilities adding that the project was a step in the right direction for his community.He said the project was a divine intervention after waiting so long for the government to provide such amenities but yielded no result.
``This organization came to us last year and promised to embark on this project but we didn’t believe it will come to reality because many have come with similar promises without yielding any result.
``We will make sure we secure all the facilities to be used for the project and will sensitize our women on the dangers of deforestation and climate change.’’ The chief said.

Ajima farms plans to expand this project to other off grid communities across Abuja and the country. Energy poverty is a massive challenge faced by the country, Kuje alone has 47 off grid communities while the amount of wastes dumped into landfills across the country continues to rise. This project would help address this challenges with their innovative approach to waste management