Farmers and food producers have been complaining that many government agaencies are not patronising them enough. Experts say expanding the public procurement system will not only encourage agricultural productivity but also reduce poverty and help to meet the goal of food security, DANIEL ESSIET reports.
THE Chief Executive, Thy Consulting Limited, Ismail Abdulazeez, is one farmer whose life has improved, thanks to his discovering of the hidden fortunes in agriculture.
As a child, he had a passion for agriculture, having been involved in subsistence farming with his parents. He developed so much interest in the occupation that he had vowed that he would be a big farmer.
Having suffered several misfortunes, including the loss of his job, Abdulazeez retired to his village Ewupe Ijaniye, Sango Ota, Ogun State. Incidentally, it was at that point that the journey to his dream job of being a big time farmer started to materialise. His success story has proved that young agro entrepreneurs can make it.
For him, government procurement of food is an appropriate policy to foster agricultural development and support small farmers.
Abdulazeez believes a lot of farmers will be successful, if the government supports them through its public procurement programmes. According to him, the approach to sustainable procurement is too limited, as it does not consider farmers and food producers. Therefore, Nigeria needs a public procurement system that will encourage farmers in produce trade and commerce.
An effective market intervention, through a public procurement system, he noted, would help keep prices under check and boost food security. The Executive Director of Development Dynamics, an Owerri-based non-governmental Organisation (NGO), Dr. Jude Ohanele, described public procurement as a tool for sustainable development if the government decides to increase strategic spending on goods and services to drive agricultural development ambitions.
Ohanele is among food production advocates who see an increase in public food purchasing, having a correlated increase in farmland by enticing more producers at the local levels expanding their operations.
He said his organisation, in partnership with Rotary Club, distributed pro-vitamin maize seeds to farmers to improve food security.
Impressed with the impact of the exercise, Ohanele wondered how far such programmes would go on the fortunes of farmers nationwide if the government drives it using the public procurement system.
According to him, integrating agricultural growth in public procurement policy is a good strategy for boosting food production, and the sector requires a relatively well-functioning government system to meet surging national demand for food.
He added that he supports a public food procurement system that aims to provide a market channel to smallholder farmers by removing key barriers to entry.
For farmers to benefit from the system, Ohanele proffered that that public spending must be transparent, traceable and accountable and the authorities seen as useful partners to ensure that procurement remains as competitive as possible.
The Chief Executive, Multimix Academy, Dr. Obiora Madu, said public procurement could be used to serve several development goals, including agricultural and industrial growth.
To favour small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in agriculture, Madu said the government could create more contract requirements that give them preferential access to public procurement markets.
Madu said small businesses in the food industry tapping the public procurement opportunities would provide a springboard for advancements in economic inclusion and market participation.
According to him, Nigeria needs a dynamic procurement policy that links public food procurement to domestic food production that can used to encourage the development of SMEs.
Such strategies, according to him, would spark investments in social and economic developments as well as poverty reduction.
He said a public procurement system that supports agro exporters will help raise incomes for farmers.
Without the government support, he maintained that the business of agriculture was not sustainable. Madu explained that the idea was not that the government had to buy everything. But rather that farmers needed some support to come up to some minimum level of payment.
An expert reacts
A former Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Prof Emmanuel Babafunso Sonaiya‘s research is centered on sustainable smallholder poultry production for poverty alleviation, income generation and community development.
He said a push for expanding the public procurement system would help the country meet its food security goal.
He explains: “Agriculture can be supported by providing input to farmers, either at regulated prices, subsided or free. It can also be supported by the purchase of the produce of farmers, which can be used for strategic grains or food reserves.These two aspects lend themselves very well to a public procurement system. A public procurement system can be used to support farmers with input, seeds, and fertiliser. Services such as tractorisation, and irrigation can be supplied through a public procurement system as a support for farmers. The same thing can be done for livestock farmers, particularly poultry farmers in the procurement of maize, soybeans, vitamins and minerals.”
Under a country-wide procurement system, the government purchases crops from farmers at a pre-set value, known as the minimum support price (MSP).The MSP is designed to guarantee farmers’ incomes and encourage the cultivation of certain crops for dietary and sufficiency reasons, the don said.
Across the world countries have been using public food procurement as a strategy to promote smallholder market participation and strengthen rural livelihoods. Also, the there is interest among international institutions in using public food purchases to promote the integration of smallholders into markets and strengthen rural livelihoods.
During the outbreak of COVID-19 last year, public procurement was adopted by many countries to tackle the crisis.
The crisis forced governments to find new, innovative approaches to engage farmers in purchasing food products that were later distributed to citizens. In recent years, studies have shown that international institutions deploying public food procurement initiatives to generate positive synergies between smallholder livelihoods and food security and nutrition.
Sustainable public food procurement in Africa
Participants at the Africa Regional Workshop on Designing and Implementing Sustainable Public Food Procurement for Home Grown School Meals Programmes (HGSF) in November 2019 at the African Union Commission (AUC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia called on governments to enact legal frameworks and increase national investments to foster sustainable public food procurements for home-grown school feeding initiatives.
Participants were drawn from the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Education, Public Procurement Authorities, and Ministry of Social Protection in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Nigeria, among others.
In her opening statement, presented by Dr Laila Lokosang, the Adviser of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), AUC Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko said HGSF was embedded in the African Union Programmes, targeting hunger and malnutrition, local production and human capital investments.
“The African Union Commission considers HGSF as a key component in the implementation of the Continental Education Strategy (2016-2025), which aims at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, “ Ms. Sacko said.
Highlighting the collaboration among FAO, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the AUC in promoting school feeding programmes in Africa, FAO Sub-regional Coordinator for Eastern Africa and Representative to the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, David Phiri, noted that the engagement was the sign of the strong commitment these institutions had forged to achieve multiple goals by linking school feeding to smallholder farmers.
“Building the linkage between school feeding programmes and local smallholder farmers is an innovative approach to provide schoolchildren with food that is safe, nutritious and local, opening up an uninterrupted market for local farmers, leading to higher production and productivity. With all its expertise in food security, procurement, logistics, and school feeding, FAO will continue to work with governments and partners to develop national policies and strategies for HGSF programmes,” Phiri assured.
According to WFP, 66 million primary school age children go hungry daily, with 23 million of them in Africa alone.
Also, 75 million school-age children (55 percent of them girls) do not attend school, with over 35 million (47 percent) of them living in sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the need to reduce hunger while increasing school enrolment in these children is evident, and school feeding programmes have been developed to target these multifaceted problems.
As in many countries, the Schools Feeding Programme prioritises farmers’ participation. Unfortunately, the programme has left them vulnerable to the impacts of massive cuts in funding in recent years.
Experts see the potential for public spending on school feeding providing nutritious meals to school children as well as a source of income for smallholder farmers.
Schools Feeding Programme as a procurement policy
The founder/Chief Executive, JMSF Agribusiness Nigeria, Richard Ogundele, noted that public procurement and trade policies help to scale up their food production.
Ogundele, a former Group Intervention Manager, Department for International Development’s (DFID) Growth and Employment in States (GEMS), believes the Schools Feeding Programme, which a certain percent is produced by local farmers has helped to reduce hunger and create rural jobs.
He said public purchasing from local producers adds value to local markets by integrating small-scale farmers.
The National President, Poultry Association of Nigeria, Ezekiel Ibrahim, believes the school feeding programme can promote agricultural production and improve livelihoods and nutrition.
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