Improvement of Nigeria Agric Sector Hope of Rebirth of the Nation

Toward A Reformed aNd RevolutioNalized Palm Nigeria While applauding your wise and enormous efforts at transforming the Nigeria agricultural profile the honourable minister of Agriculture I want to strongly suggest this measure to once and for all put to a stop the devastating effect of wild palm (Ogbanje palm) on Nigeria palm oil output and by implication the contribution of palm oil and palm produce on the nation’s GDP. You recall, Honourable Minister, that even up till this very moment the wild palms in the South East and South South and indeed the rest of Nigeria account for over eighty percent of the total number of palm trees producing in Nigeria! This {Ogbanje Palms} produce very sparsely when compared with the improved palm trees at time the improved palm trees produce between 2. Time to 3 times what an ogbanje palm tree produces. That is not all while it may take as much as ten years for a wild palm to start producing; most improved variety starts from as low as two and a half year to start productive life! What is more while the wild palm produces x amount of palm heads per production the improved variety produces between 1.5 Times to 2 times the number of heads! Is it surprising then why Malaysia outstripped Nigeria in palm oil production even though we have been on it for over a thousand years before Malaysia! Malaysia came to Nigeria and collected the very best species nurtured them and in no time; with the great advantages the improved verities have, It outstripped Nigeria in palm oil production even though its land exposure to palm trees are far more less than that of Nigeria! Call For Action My honourable Minister everything is now configured for you to once ad for all remedy the Nigeria nemesis on palm oil production. You just can’t have a more unique chance to make this one time remedy. All your steps so far in Agriculture are anything less than genius and what is more the president of the nation is as enthusiastic as yourself and is ever ready to follow you all through to any length both morally and financially so as far as I am concerned you have nothing standing before you all you need is your sanction and action so I strongly recommend that YOU CUT DOWN ALL THE OGANJE PALM TREES MAKING A MESS OF OUR PALM OIL PRODUCTION NOW! no matter the number of the improved variety distributed to farmers now, if the ogbanje wild palms are not destroyed it would continue to sprout newer similar ogbanje palm trees that would eventually make a complete mess of the ones supplied by the ministry of agriculture. The result of this is that palm trees would take more than enough land space that would have been used to maximise the production of other agricultural products and what is more get the lands wasted! Suggested strategy First, all palm trees are to be identified by ad hock workers to be engaged by the ministry of agriculture piloted by the members of NYSC. After this identification each farmer would be provided two improved verity of palm tree for one wild palm that would be failed. The improved palm would be planted months before the wild palm trees are cut down. The experts in the ministry of agriculture should work out the manner in which the old palm trees are to be cut down but cut down they must. Secondly the experts in ministry of agriculture should calculate the average yield of a wild palm tree per year and I recommend that apart from giving the farmers two palm trees to one to be cut down; the farmer, to further reduce the economic loss of their palms should be paid an equivalent of three years yield for each palm cut down since on the average the improved variety would start to yield from 2 years to 3 years. With this the farmer would have lost quite little. Here is the result of this exercise a) Only the improved variety of palm trees would be on the land. b) The farmer would have a more organized palm plantation instead of the scattered palm tree at random all over the available farm land, if a farmer for instance has 20 palm trees scattered all over his land wasting the soil, the farmer would opt to devote just a piece of land to cultivate forty improved palm variety and therefore free otherwise wasted land for other agricultural ventures! c) The ministry of agriculture would on the other had have a statistic of all the palms within the country and therefore be able to effectively predict the nations palm oil output and hence its contribution to the nation’s GDP. d) Our farmers would now be able to earn much more from palm oil and palm produce. To ensure that our farmers not only palm oil producers, earn more the nation’s export transaction must be decoded to the level of our local farmers , the ministry of agriculture must liaise with the ministry of commerce or whatever ministry that is in charge of customs exports and related miniteries to work out something to enable pour farmers to earn foreign currency directly. Where farmers are not able on their own to generate enough quantity of goods to export they should be organized into cooperatives furnished with information that is required to export their produce. All the necessary papers required for exporting their goods are to be filled by the farmers themselves and helped by experts from ministry of agriculture and export department to access those who require the various products overseas. Once papers are filled the goods are loaded at the ward level for shipment either through Lagos Port Harcourt or Oron port for onward export. With these the well being of our farmers are improved. These are the kid of moves that would impart directly the lives of our citizens where you say that economy grew at 7% and that 7% would be felt in the pockets of our farmers. That would undoubtedly once again create the much needed middle class. The overall result of this growth and other measures the agric ministry have put in place would create direct jobs and lead to growth of allied industries, preservation industry, value added industries, even more bank branches insurance, microfinance banks and a host of other industries. The overall result would be huge job creations and direct wealth to our citizens. My Honourable mister when you have done this cleansing of the wild palms you would have changed for all times the agricultural landscape of Nigeria. The Honourable minister sir I am sure you are considering the possible substantial outlay to carry out this revolutions in various agricultural products because it is not only palm trees, I am coming up with suggestion for cocoa, groundnut and even live stocks but I want you to bear in mind that without the necessary investments in agriculture by the federal government we would never get out of the circle of eking out our living depending on just one product, crude oil. I am confident that if the proper will and investment are exercised as regard agriculture we could raise up to 100 billion Dollars in agriculture alone that is when we could be talking of minimum national reserve of the country being a hundred or 120 billion Dollars over a five years period. You can imagine the stability such a reserve would, mean for our country’s currency but above all our poor citizens would benefit directly with improved livelihood. I am also aware you may be considering the execution. This is not the first time we are taking such a determined measure, when the bird flu showed its face several millions of birds, chicken turkey Guiney fowl were destroyed y the government to save the entire birds in the country from being completely destroyed and of course the government compensated farmers. So it is doable! Eye On Palm Oil Revolution in Nigeria2 The imperative of fixing the palm oil and palm produce industry to the nation’s economy cannot be over stretched. The Honourable Minister, sir I am very much convinced that when all the efforts and resources you had and will be pumping into palm plant yields their results you would discover that Palm oil alone is enough to push the nation’s GDP to a new enviable height and give crude oil a run on its influence on Nigeria economy. Honourable minister, sir have a look at this analysis: A barrel of crude oil of about 32 gallons of unrefined crude is on the average about 100 Dollars, when this is multiplied by about 160 you have about N16000, now a drum of red oil of about same 32 gallons of red oil is between N19,000 and N21,000 even in Lagos market! This means that even red oil is more expensive than crude oil. Lets stretch the analysis further, even the about 16,000 earned per barrel of crude oil does not all enter the purse of the Nigeria government when you consider the counterpart agreement with foreign oil producers. Let’s make it simple and say that only 30% goes to the foreign oil companies it means in effect, that less than N12,000 actually reach the hand of the Nigeria government and by implication Nigerians. However, the whole of about N19000 accrue to the Nigerians and what is more these are ordinary Nigeria citizens. The question, The Honourable Mister is why any stone should be left unturned if your quest to make Nigeria produce 2 million barrels of red palm oil per day!? It would sure yield far more than crude oil but most importantly put real cash into the government coffers ad most importantly into the pockets of ordinary Nigerians. Igwegbe Lawrence