When the
story of 10 million phones costing 60 billion naira for Nigerian farmers first
made the headlines, I immediately put out a press release denying that the
Ministry of Agriculture was planning to spend such a huge amount of money on
cell phones.
Since
then, I have read several comments on the Internet and in the newspapers and I
find that it is necessary for me to enlighten the public about what the
ministry of agriculture has been doing to help our farmers. It is also
important to explain why it is necessary for farmers to own cell phones and how
we intend to finance our plan to distribute cell phones to them.
When I
came on board as minister of agriculture in July of 2011, I found a corrupt and
totally inefficient fertilizer sector. The government was spending huge amounts
of money on direct procurement and distribution of subsidized fertilizer, but
less than 11% of farmers got the fertilizers. Some of the fertilizers paid for
by government were never delivered to the warehouses.
Some of
the fertilizer delivered contained more sand than fertilizer while a large
portion of the fertilizer subsidized by government found its way across our
borders to neighboring countries where it was sold at prevailing market prices.
Middle men and rent seekers were the ones benefiting from the billions of naira
spent every year on fertilizer subsidies.
The same
applied to the seed sector. Middle men and briefcase contractors masquerading
as seed companies were doing brisk business supplying seed to government. The
problem was a large portion of the seeds being sold to government was grain
bought on the open market corruptly sold as certified seed.
It was clear to me
that we needed to end this corrupt system if we are to have any hope at all of
freeing Nigerian farmers from the shackles of rent seekers and opportunists who
have for decades disempowered the farmers and hampered the growth of the
sector. The more government was spending on fertilizer subsidies, the more
rural poverty increased and the more agricultural productivity declined.
The
system of direct government procurement and distribution of fertilizer led to
massive leakages and in short, government was simply subsidizing corruption not
farmers.
A new
system had to be found that would end this corruption by reaching legitimate
farmers directly. The system needed to be one that would foster transparency
and accountability. I am happy to say that we indeed developed such a system.
With clear directive, support and determination from President Goodluck
Jonathan, we ended four decades of corruption in the fertilizer sector within
90 days of my assumption of office as minister. How did we do this? We were
able get subsidized high quality fertilizer and seeds to our rural farmers by
introducing the GES (Growth Enhancement Support) scheme in April of 2012.
The
GES scheme delivers inputs (fertilizers and seeds) to farmers directly by using
farmers’ cell phones. We created an electronic platform (e-wallet) on which we
registered farmers and agro dealers who own shops that sell farm inputs all
over the country. To date we have registered 4.2 million farmers and about 900
agro dealers.
We
developed the first ever registered data base of farmers in Nigeria, which we
will upgrade every year. For the first time ever, we can now base policy
decisions on data, not guess work. We now know and can identify our customers,
the farmers. Registered farmers are sent electronic vouchers directly from the
federal government to their cell phones.
This
voucher or e-wallet informs the farmer that he or she is entitled to buy two
50kg bags of fertilizer at 50 per cent of the purchase price. The voucher essentially
serves as cash on their phones and this cash covers 50 per cent of the market price of
the fertilizer. The farmer therefore pays only 50% of the cost of the fertilizer
to the fertilizer retailer. Fertilizer and seed retailers no longer supply
seeds and fertilizers directly to government. They now sell directly to
farmers. Government helps the farmer to buy inputs by providing direct support
through their cellphones (e-wallet).
In the
first year of the GES scheme, 1.2 million farmers received their subsidized
fertilizers and seeds via their cell phones. We expect to have reached 1.5
million farmers by the end of the dry season. Let me say, that this singular
effort to get inputs to farmers directly resulted in the addition of an
estimated 8.1 million metric tons of food to the domestic food supply.
This
addition helped to mitigate the effect of the flood on the nation’s food supply
and we were able to avoid a food crisis. For the first time in Nigeria we can
tell you the names, addresses and phone numbers of each farmer who received
subsidized inputs from the government. The GES scheme provides us with a fair,
equitable, accountable and transparent means of distributing farm inputs to our
rural farmers.
Similarly,
for many years government was also directly procuring tractors for farmers. But
just as it was with fertilizers, contractors bought old refurbished tractors
instead of new tractors. These old tractors would work for a few months and
thereafter would stop working and then be abandoned in all sorts of places
because there were no spare parts to repair them with. We also ended the
corruption associated with tractors.
The
federal government no longer buys nor distributes tractors. Plans are underway
to use the GES scheme to help farmers access tractor hiring services. Instead
of the government procuring tractors for farmers, the government is encouraging
the private sector to establish tractor hiring centers. Farmers can hire
tractors from these centers and the cost of hiring tractors will be subsidized
by the government through the e-wallet using farmers’ cellphones. Some people
are asking questions like, “Why cellphones
for farmers?”
“Will
the fertilizers and seeds be attached to the cellphones?” “Will tractors be
attached to the cellphones”? As you can see from the above explanation the
answer is “Yes!” It is actually the cell phone that has provided us with the
tool to directly access each farmer thereby saving them from corrupt middlemen
who make their fortune from exploiting the poor.
Some
people think that our farmers are uneducated and cannot use cell phones. The
evidence does not support that. Under the GES scheme, we made it possible for
farmers to transact business in their own local languages using their
cellphones.
From
data we collected based on farmers’ use of cellphones to access fertilizers and
seeds last year, we found that the total number of transactions done by phone
with respect to the GES scheme was 4.9 million. Of these, 1.2 million were in
English, 620,000 were in Pidgin, 2.2 million were in Hausa, and 854,000 were in
Yoruba and 344 were in Igbo. From this data, we have no doubt that our farmers
are well able to use cellphones. Nigeria is the first country in Africa to
launch a GES scheme that delivers farm inputs to farmers using cellphones.
We are
very proud of this achievement. Several other African countries now want to
adopt the same system. As I said earlier, last year we reached 1.2 million
farmers with subsidized inputs via their cellphones. This year we have plans to
scale up to reach 5 million farmers. These plans cannot be based on
guesstimates or wishful thinking or noise.
It must
be based on evidence from data. In other words government policy must always be
based on evidence and well analyzed data. We carried out an analysis of our GES
work based on a large sample of 426,000 farmers from various local government
areas in 13 states. We found that 71% of farmers sampled did not have cell
phones.
This shows that many of our farmers in rural
areas are quite poor and are excluded from the benefits of the mobile phone
revolution going on in Nigeria. These farmers cannot access the GES scheme
without cellphones and we must find a way to include them. They must not be
left behind. Some are asking how we arrived at the figure of 10 million
farmers.
Some are
even saying we do not have up to 5 million farmers in the nation. The national
bureau of statistics has estimated the number of farmers in Nigeria as 14
million. The FAO also has reported a similar number. From the result of our
sampling which showed that 71 per cent of farmers do not have any phones, we
can project to the larger population of 14 million and arrive at an estimate of
10 million farmers who probably do not have phones. Of course we cannot get 10
million phones to all farmers who do not have phones this year.
This is
impractical to say the least. Our plan is a gradual scale up. We intend to get
about 2 million phones to farmers who do not have phones this year. How will
these phones be paid for and how will they be distributed? We ended four
decades of corruption in the fertilizer and seed sector by ending direct
procurement and distribution of these inputs by the government. We also ended
the ineffective and corrupt direct procurement and distribution of tractors by
government. It will therefore be inconsistent for government to now start
direct procurement and distribution of phones. Let me say this loud and clear:
There
will be no direct procurement of phones by the federal government. We are also
not going to give anyone contracts to import phones from China or anywhere
else. Let me also state loud and clear: there is no 60billion Naira anywhere to
be used to buy cellphones.
The
Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Communications Technology are
partnering together to implement this policy.
We
intend to use the GES scheme to distribute these phones. To be entitled to a
phone, farmers must be registered on the e-wallet platform. Paper vouchers will
be issued to farmers who do not have phones.
This
simply subsidizes the cost of the phone directly to the farmer. Government will
work with interested mobile phone service companies to achieve its goal. We
intend to start by first targeting farmers who live in areas where there is
network coverage already but who do not have phones. We will then encourage
phone companies to increase their coverage and as they do we will target
farmers in those areas.
By so
doing phone companies will have the incentive to expand to rural areas because
our program will assure them of customers in those new areas. Cell phones in
the hands of our farmers will do more than deliver government subsidized
inputs. It will provide them access to market price information. They will be
able to bargain better and save themselves from the middlemen who currently
exploit them by paying them very low prices for their produce.
Cellphones
in the hands of our farmers will allow us to reach farmers with extension
information such as what crops to plant, when to plant and other agronomic
practices that will help them improve their productivity. It will allow farmers
to better deal with shocks such as drought and floods in real time.
Simple
alerts to farmers’ phones can help them avoid catastrophes while saving lives.
Majority of our farmers are excluded from financial services. 78.8 per cent of
Nigeria’s rural population are unbanked according to the report by Enhancing
Financial Innovation and Access, EFInA. The cost of reaching them in rural
areas is high for financial institutions. No bank can afford to build branches
in every little village.
Cellphones
provide financial institutions with a low cost and efficient way of providing
financial services to our farmers. The use of cellphones to provide financial
services in rural areas is not new. It is already being used in several African
countries. For example the M-Pesa mobile money system used in Kenya, moves
millions of dollars between urban and rural areas every year.
Farmers
can also participate in agricultural commodity exchange by using their cell
phones. This will allow farmers to know if there are buyers interested in the
crops they wish to sell, where these buyers are located and the quantity and quality
the buyer is looking for. If the farmer can satisfy the requirements of the
buyer a deal can be initiated and the buyer and seller can arrange to meet to
complete the transaction. Many African countries have successfully introduced
the use of cell phones and ICT to enhance agricultural productivity and access
to markets. Nigeria must position herself to do the same.
As
Minister, I cannot use hype to guide policies. I must use evidence to guide
policies. When the floods occurred, there was panic in the land. Some derided
our efforts and said Nigeria would have famine; that there would be massive
food shortage; and there would be food riots. Those who wanted to import food
and get waivers from government sponsored such media hypes.
I was
not moved. We used modern technology to guide our decision. Using remote
sensing and satellite imagery, we mapped out the extent of the flood and
determined that no more than 1.17% of our total cultivated area was affected by
the floods. Our detractors wanted the world to believe the opposite, that food
crisis was imminent. They were wrong. Today, five months after the floods, we
do not have a food crisis.
The same
way these detractors have misled the public about the relevance of cellphones
in Nigerian agriculture – they do not know that we are already using cellphones
to distribute fertilizer and seeds to even mitigate the impact of the flood. We
are already using cellphones to reach 232,000 farmers for rice production in
the dry season, each getting 3 bags, across 10 states of the north east,
northwest and north central regions. To reach farmers affected by the flood, we
are also using cellphones through the growth enhancement support. We are
reaching 98,000 farmers affected by floods across the country with 2 bags of fertilizers
per farmer, plus one bag of agrolyser micronutrient to replace some of the soil
micronutrients that have been washed away by the flood. Such is the power of
cellphones revolutionizing agriculture today in Nigeria.
Our
future lies ahead of us. We will rapidly modernize the agricultural sector. The
days are gone when town criers were used to transmit information in our rural
areas. This is a modern world. 8
Several
African countries are accelerating the pace of use of cellphones in
agriculture. Nigerian farmers will not be left behind.
I
brought to this job many years of successful and impactful global leadership
which have helped other countries implement innovations that improved their
agricultural sector. In 2000, while at the Rockefeller Foundation, I helped
Kenya to develop the Kenya Agriculture Commodity Exchange, which posts market
information, including prices and bids and offers to buy produce.
These
are easily accessed by farmers using their cellphones. In 2001-2002, I helped
to do the same for Malawi, with the development of the Malawi Agricultural
Commodity Exchange, which also uses cellphones to reach and empower their
farmers. Why should my own country, Nigeria, be left behind?
Agricultural
Commodity Exchange is much needed in Nigeria. The basic foundation for an
agricultural commodity exchange is access of farmers to market price
information via cellphones.
I will
not be distracted. We will rebuild the broken walls of Nigeria’s agriculture
and unlock wealth and opportunities for our farmers.
For
those calling for my crucifixion, let me say that when Jesus was before Pilate,
they had accused him falsely. Pilate, after listening to his case, found no
cause for condemning him. Nonetheless, should anyone still want me crucified,
let me say this, along my faith: “I am crucified with Christ already.
Nevertheless,
I live and the life that I live, I live by the grace of the son of God, who
died for me”.
I have
stolen no man’s silver, nor demanded any man’s gold, and will continue to drive
bold innovations and reforms to fully modernize and transform the agricultural
sector. That is my remit from the President and that is exactly what we will
do, as I continue to serve my nation with the highest level of vision, passion,
personal integrity and dedication.
God
bless the farmers of Nigeria.
*By Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Minister of
Agriculture contributed this.
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
No comments:
Post a Comment