Afolabi Gambari
Lip service has robbed many of laudable programs in Nigeria from time immemorial. It was usually explained this way: the program is good and the plan was solid, but the implementation was just poor.
President Bola Tinubu has sought to be different to agriculture and food sufficiency. In June this year, just days after his administration clocked two years in office, he launched 2,000 tractors for nationwide deployment under the Renewed Hope Agricultural Mechanisation Programme, signalling the programme’s formal launch at the National Agricultural Seeds Council, Sheda, along the Abuja–Lokoja Expressway.
The president reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to transforming Nigeria’s agriculture sector by modernising farming practices and ensuring national food security, even as he described the initiative as a landmark moment in his administration’s food security agenda and a crucial part of efforts to empower farmers and stimulate rural development.
Upon assuming office, Tinubu sounded the alarm on Nigeria’s food security crisis and demanded “immediate and innovative solutions”, saying he recognised that agricultural productivity is synonymous with national stability and food sovereignty. He said the administration took the bold decision to establish this new agricultural mechanisation programme after envisioning Nigeria as a global agricultural powerhouse that could supply quality produce to international markets while ensuring that every citizen can access affordable and nutritious food.
He further disclosed that the 2,000 tractors and accompanying implements would be distributed nationwide through a service-provider model to support smallholder farmers with access to modern equipment, reduce manual labour and increase yields. He nonetheless acknowledged the contributions of international partners, especially the Republic of Belarus, which played a key role in procuring the equipment, transferring technology and providing training support for Nigerians. In two years, four key initiatives have been launched under the Tinubu administration’s mechanisation policy, comprising the John Deere Tractorisation Programme, the Greener Hope Project, the Green Imperative Programme and the 2000 tractors procured from Belarus. The Belarus Project, the single largest mechanisation initiative ever undertaken in Nigeria, is implemented in collaboration with AfTrade DMCC and supported by the Republic of Belarus. The programme is expected to cultivate over 550,000 hectares of farmland, produce more than 2 million metric tons of staple food, create over 16,000 jobs and directly benefit over 550,000 farming households. It would be complemented by mandatory operator training, GPS-enabled tracking for accountability, a structured repayment model and pro bono equipment allocations to research and training institutions. Ultimately, it will engage Nigeria’s teeming youths through new roles in equipment handling, maintenance, logistics, extension services and agri-tech innovation.
At a recent visit to Brazil, president Tinubu told his host, President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, that Nigeria is determined to removing all bottlenecks to improve food and agricultural production in the country, recognising that Brazil’s research and development services had been exemplary for most countries, with the south American country rated as one of the highest producers of food and agricultural products. While assuring that all agreements with Nigeria would be regularised with the memorandum of understanding also updated and signed without delay, President Da Silva said the lingering bureaucracy between both countries must be removed to achieve quick results.
All the foregoing suggests that a quality partnership is required to make Tinubu’s agriculture programme gain traction and achieve fruition. Therefore, it was not unexpected that a leading agribusiness in food, feed, and fibre in Nigeria, Olam Agri, volunteered action in this regard by committing over N6.5 billion to various Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CR&S) initiatives in a bid to significantly expand its investment strategy to deepen its social, environmental, and economic development impact within the country. The initiatives are part of the award-winning Seeds for the Future (SFTF) programme, which focuses on five key areas: supporting farmers and farming communities, enhancing education and skill development for young people, economic empowerment of indigent women, promoting health and nutrition, and reducing carbon emissions across its operations.
The expanded investment commitment will support Olam Agri’s purpose for sustainable development across its business portfolio of rice, wheat milling and pasta, animal feed and protein, sesame, cotton, and edible oils from 2024 through 2028.
In 2024 alone, the agribusiness invested about $1.07 million into initiatives, which have already seen the presentation of education grants to 15 qualified students from the University of Lagos in January, awarding scholarships to 87 underprivileged students in Nasarawa State in June, manual harvesters for wheat farmers in Jigawa and empowering 118 agri-extension workers in Kwara State in July.
Significant provisions in the four-year plan also include smallholder farmer capacity building in rural communities to strengthen food security, rural road rehabilitation to reduce disruption of the value chain, distribution of harvesters to reduce post-harvest loss, participation in public-private partnerships in seed and product R&D, among others.
In August 2024, Olam’s top hierarchy visited the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, during which a partnership was sought with the government to deepen investments for expanded food production and job creation, given the state’s strategic economic importance.
In June this year, Olam entered a strategic partnership with IDH and Arzikin Noma, a Nigerian agricultural development firm driving innovation and partnerships in rural farming communities, to strengthen soybean production in Kwara State. The agreement, which aims to unlock the potential of smallholder soybean farmers, particularly women and young people, through a comprehensive support programme, will empower 5,000 smallholder farmers across soybean-growing communities in Kwara State, and the empowerment will be delivered through the provision of credit facilities for farming inputs, mechanisation support, financial access, training in sustainable practices and crucial market linkage. It will strengthen agricultural development in the region alongside Olam Agri’s new 350,000 MT soybean processing facility in Kwara State, which is sourcing soybeans mainly from local producers, to meet the rising demand for high-quality feed and oil. This initiative for smallholder farmers in the soybean supply chain builds on the company’s Seeds for the Future project, which has supported farmers and farmer communities since 2021.
Director, Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, Olam Agri, Mr Ade Adefeko, says the company’s partnership with the government on food production derives from Olam’s strategic and intentional policy on agriculture.
Adefeko, who is also a member of the Presidential Economic Coordinating Council & Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform and Honorary Consul of Botswana in Lagos, says Olam’s deep involvement in the project owes to its philosophy that food security has so much to do with national security.
