NEDC: Pursuing Regional Food Security Through Irrigation Farming
By: Musa Abubakar
The North-East region which consists of 6 states and is administered by the North-East Development Commission (NEDC), setup to lead development interventions is home to farmers cultivating all kinds of crops. “These farmers rely on agriculture for their own food security, survival, wellbeing, and development. About 80 percent of the population of the region are farmers, majority of whom are subsistence small holders, implying that there are more subsistence farmers in the region than large scale commercial farmers”. This fact, according to the North-East Stabilisation & Development Master Plan (NESDMP) 2020-2030 “is attributable to lack of scientific knowledge of farming and high yielding farming technologies as well as how to harness agriculture to fight endemic poverty in the sub-region”.
As a result, “the subregion has remained the poorest… because” most of the farmers do not see agriculture as a business. Hence the drive and motivation to increase productivity has remained low. Higher productivity always stems from investment in research and extension services… There is also absence of technology for processing agricultural products and the skills required for processing, packaging, and sales. The region currently lacks modern agripreneurs who are supposed to be the drivers of growth in the sector through emergence of MSMEs”. It is against this background that NEDC had envisioned the Leadership in Agriculture, Agribusiness and Food Security as the second Pillar of the NESDMP.
The main thrust of Pillar two is to reimagine agriculture in the region. This would involve amongst others, a deliberate investment in knowledge and capacity distribution among farmers in the region while mainstreaming the switch from crude farming to mechanised farming. This is even as the market for many farm inputs like fertilizers must be stimulated through timely interventions from the regional body. Since coming on board, the Goni Alkali led management of NEDC have remained consistent and firmly rooted to the goal of achieving food security not just for the region, but also to plug the food gap across the nation with farm produce from the region. The end game is of course, regional economic prosperity through agriculture and agribusiness.
The most recent demonstration of NEDC’s commitment to pillar two manifested in the distribution of farm inputs to aid dry season farming in Gombe state. Among the input distributed include over 40 mini walking tractors, 500 pieces of 3-inch Water Pumping Machines, 7000 litres of agrochemicals, 5000 litres of liquid urea among several others. The choice of Gombe state is strategic in that Gombe state is home to the Dadin Kowa Irrigation Farming Scheme, one of the largest irrigation works in Nigeria under the auspices of the Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria Project (TRIMING). Aside Gombe, over 1500 farmers from across the 17 local governments of Yobe state have also benefitted from NEDC dry season farming inputs, the distribution of which was flagged off by Governor Mai Mala Buni.
Concentrating dry season farming in both Gombe and Yobe, but especially Gombe, reflects the desire of NEDC to harness every comparative advantage within the region to deliver on its mandate. Verily, Gombe state has more dry season farmers per square metre than every part of the region, therefore, it makes sense to focus strategies where expertise is not in short supply.
NEDC has been on this path to positioning the North-East region as a go-to destination for food security since inception, but most notably in 202 when it distributed large number of farm input to regular rainy season Borno farmers. Among the inputs include 1500 bags each of fertilizers, rice seeds, fungicides and 465 cartons of herbicides. That would be the beginning of a sustained intervention in the Agricultural sector of the region and already, the investment is yielding results. Grain markets in Potiskum, Biu, Alkaleri and many parts of the region have become national hubs for grain supplies to the rest of the country.
Besides farm input, most of the roads and bridges that have been constructed by NEDC were deliberately conceptualised as catalyst for mechanised agriculture, agribusiness, and food sufficiency. The roads and bridges include the 54km Mutai-Ngalda Road in Yobe State, Alkaleri-Futuk Road, 53km Gombe Abba-Kirfi Road in Bauchi and Gombe. Also, 22.5km Zabarmari-Ngowom Road in Borno State, 32km Dabna-Garkida Road in Adamawa State, and the Jabbi Lamba-Belel Transborder Road, also in Adamawa State as well as the 22.5 km Mafa-Jere Road. Also, bridges at Kudzum, Dilechim and Wuro-Ngayandi in Adamawa State and the Mayo Ndaga Bridge in Taraba State.
The Mohammed Goni Alkali led leadership of NEDC is pushing the boundaries of impact one timely intervention after another. The result, as we have seen, is a resurgent region rising from the ashes of insurgency to commence a bold journey towards reclaiming its pride of place as the preeminent agricultural hub. Harnessing various comparative advantages in the region to define its approaches appears to be a game changer. And nothing has been so pronounced about NEDC intervention as the even distribution of impact all over the region.
With dry season farming focused on Gombe and Yobe state, perhaps as pilot states, NEDC is heeding the warning against relying solely on rainy season farming for food production. Indeed, no nation has achieved food sufficiency by relying on in-season farming alone. Leveraging the many Dams littered across the region, the North-East can cover a great deal of ground towards challenging irrigation farming hubs like Kebbi and the likes.
There is now a great deal of enthusiasm among farmers across the region, but especially Gombe and Yobe who may have been given a real push not just to overpower hunger within their families, but also to litter the markets with food products to put moneys in their pockets and eventually drive down the price of food. Even if all fails and this can be achieved, NEDC may have solved one of the greatest problems of a region climbing out of the vicious grip of terrorism induced food shortages and lack.
Abubakar write from Abuja.
