Political Leader: “This is the farming season and we’re going to provide farmers with fertilizers, seeds, etc and everything they need to plant crops”.
Just as noted, politicians will visit farming communities and support them with seeds, fertilizers, herbicides and other necessary farm inputs.
But wait… once those farm inputs are provided, the politicians will think that the job is done. Then everyone relaxes expecting bumper harvests and food in the land.
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Unfortunately, that is an illusion. What happens is the root of Africa’s hunger: farmers will actually improve yields, but a part of the output will also go to waste.
In Tekedia Capital, we have startups which fight to reduce those wastes, and I get to see data. There was this case in Bauchi where a farmer needed a truck to move tomatoes within four days. The farmer begged, cried and begged, but unfortunately, there was no truck available. He lost the farm output!
Nigeria has about 100,000 trucks (of any standard) with Dangote Group controlling about 50,000 of them, leaving the rest for everyone to share. With no railway system, everything has to move via roads. So, guaranteeing your supply chain playbook involves closing the ranks on trucks.
At the beginning of the year, big FMCGs prepay with big truck owners to ensure their supply chain systems are not affected. Other players like farmers are left bare. Largely, there are many farmers who cannot get trucks at crucial harvest periods. The implication is that more than 37% of all farm produce go to waste, and on veggies and fresh produce, the number hits close to 50%: “Currently, Nigeria post-harvest losses are almost 50% for fresh produce. It is critical that we all come together to focus on ensuring that the hard work of farmers is not lost in post-harvest and passes to the consumers who are in need,” says the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
I repeat again, if Nigeria can preserve the little it produces, food inflation will not be as bad as we have it. Our strategic frameworks which do not include what will happen during the harvest period must be redesigned to be end-to-end, encapsulating required actions on the day of harvest besides the planting season which has been the focus. If we continue to fail there, we will continue to see hunger in the lands of farmers.
Political Leader: “This is the farming season and we’re going to provide farmers with fertilizers, seeds, etc and everything they need to plant crops”. Just as noted, politicians will visit farming communities and support them with seeds, fertilizers, herbicides and other… pic.twitter.com/sIQwEzbFqL
— Ndubuisi Ekekwe (@ndekekwe) April 23, 2024
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