Can you give us insight into the current situation at National Agricultural Development Fund (NADFON)? Is its creation delivering on government’s target?

Well, we were in the creche before the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADFON) came to being. We were there at the public hearing.

In fact, it is a baby of AFAN. At NADFON, where I am the BOT Chair, a former BOT chair and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, I was the one that actually sponsored that bill.

And our take on it is like for it to work like the PTF or TELFUND, so that you have a lot of resources in it and then there can be interventions because we are complaining of funding. It is to enhance access to credit as well, since the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) is not working the way it should be.

But I think you should ask the government why the BOA is like that and not working. But all I know is that I am not in government. All I know is that the bank should sell equities to farmers so that the farmers would own it, just like we have, the Rubber Bank in Netherlands, it is owned by the farmers.

Once we have equity, we will borrow money and pay back so that other farmers will benefit. So that it will be managed properly and it will be seamless and sustainable. So based on the question you asked me on NADFON, it is just beginning and it is a work in progress.

And from what I have seen, I have had meetings and where they also attended. And I know that they are already intervening in some areas and we are going to do farm sensitisation on farm machinery that would come from agric stakeholders, and the agric minister is very clear about it.

From what I know, they are part of the financiers of that machinery purchase. And also, the fact is we are supposed to meet with them, AFAN is a member of the Board and why we are there, we are going to make them understand that the evolution of the development fund, so that it makes it easier for the farmers to access credit.

So I believe it is work in progress and the young man that is there is everywhere. I see him in every place and he has got a good team and he is working and I wish them success.

What is the potential in the country’s agric sector that Nigerians can tap into for adequate food production?

I believe that there are so many things we as farmers can key into to really get the benefits. We are businessmen. I am the President of Nigeria Agric Business Group (NABG) in Nigeria. So we don’t do agriculture for subsistence. We do it as a business.

Again, let me clarify one thing, it is only agriculture or farming that is allowed in the public service. It doesn’t matter whether you are this or that. Even when President Muhammadu Buhari was at the helm of the country’s affairs, he was a farmer.

When President Obasanjo was the President of Nigeria, he was also a farmer. So you can be a farmer while in civil service and nobody can query you. In fact, you can explain a lot of resources that will come to you through agriculture and all that.

So agriculture and food security is everybody’s problem. Everybody should work to ensure there is food for all Nigerians.

What is your take on the recent creation of Ministry of Livestock Development by the administration of President Bola Tinubu? Do you think it will catalyse the country’s livestock sector positively?

I am very happy that the government of today created a new ministry called Livestock Development Ministry. The existence of this ministry in Nigeria is a good one.

I think if you look at whatever that is happening in the sphere of agric sector in the country livestock sector is not considered as much as crop production.

They emphasise more on crop production than livestock. Now that there is a Ministry of Livestock Development, I think what the Minister will concentrate on is how we can improve on our livestock production and how we can engage the farmers, and how we can also educate the people that livestock business is not a Fulani man’s business.

Because how people are looking at it is like if you mention livestock they will just consider it a Fulani man’s business. But it is not like that. What about the people who are doing it overseas, are they Fulani?

They are not! And they produce and do it. You import your milk from Holland. Look at Brazil and other countries, are they Fulani? Of course, they are not? So if you talk about livestock they should stop think

I think NYSC members need to be put together to learn about livestock opportunities so that they will not be waiting for government to employ them

ing this is a Fulani business. When the former President, Muhammadu Buhari, introduced Ruga scheme, they were saying this was a Fulani agenda, they want to carry our land to give to Fulani. Of course, it is not like that.

It is because they don’t understand the concept behind the scheme. If they understand the programme, it is a nice scheme for the country. We are hoping the ministry will look at this very well. And thank God, Prof. Jega, who is the Chairman of the Ministry of Livestock Development, is person that likes to see things work well.

There has been some burning issues trailing the two million bags of fertiliser worth N100 billion released by the Central Bank of Nigeria to farmers? What is your view on the controversy?

Three fresh cases on fertiliser now in the country. The state governments on their own bought fertiliser and gave it to their people at subsidised price. Also, there is also fertiliser going directly to some selected farmers through a scheme initiated and supported by the AfDB and they distributed it to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

But two million bags of fertiliser, that is the one the CBN shared through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, that is the one that were supposed to go free to the farmers. So if a governor now abused the fertiliser he bought to give to a farmer at subsidised price, so you can’t say it’s wrong.

But if he sells the fertiliser that is meant to go free amongst farmers, that wrong. I want you to look at this, fertiliser selling at highest price is between N42,000 and N46,000.

Let us assume that for the sake of this conversation is N46,000, One, I want you to look at it, N46,000 multiplied by two million bags, so I want you to know the amount that is there. So if CBN values their fertiliser at N100 billion, then I want you to do your arithmetic on that and get the true answer.

Two, their (CBN) mandate is on monetary policy. See what they were doing with the Anchor Borrower’s Programme, they did a mess of it.

This government said they should not do ABP and at the beginning, we were coaching the CBN to even do the APB through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security for institutional memory, but they did not listen to us and now, you can see how people are now complaining about the failure.

The fertiliser they are talking about, how did they arrive at the fertiliser in their storage, for instance? And now, they want to give to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture a bad name? I will tell you why. What happened is that they gave their friends to supply the fertilisers. So their friends did not supply it on time and it hit the rocks.

So they want to cover it up because they want to cover the money that they got. That is why they are now talking about N1 billion worth of fertiliser. Is it N1 billion they are talking about? So I want you to justify N100 billion from two million bags of fertilisers.

But that is not our point, our point is for them trying to say that they had used N100 billion and they had set aside N100 billion for two million bags of fertiliser for farmers, that is wrong and that is what they want to cover up.

And this fraud was perpetrated by former CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, and not by this current governor, please get it right. But I don’t know how the story of manipulation or inflating fertiliser prices would even help our food system in moving forward. I mean it is like gossips.

Yes, it is not going to help our food system. The fertilisers are for logistics purposes and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture really distributed it all over Nigeria.

And they used the state government because the states are taking interests in playing mind games in what the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is trying to do and achieve with the nationwide fertiliser distribution. And that is why the Federal Ministry of Agriculture gave these fertiliser out through the state government.

Now, the state governments want to hide the truth and paint the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security bad. Let me tell you, for political reasons, some of the state governors know the fertiliser are from the Federal Government, but they want to get cheap political credits from where they did not sow.

Some of them are even claiming they used their state funds to buy it for their farmers.

Are you saying you have doubts about the two million bags released to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to farmers?

For me, the issue of the fertiliser from the CBN, I am not sure that they had two million because if they had it, where is the storage for it? Two million bags of fertiliser is not small. So where did the CBN store it in this country?

Let them name the place and the state for all Nigerians to know and verify it? For me, I want to dismiss the claims by the CBN that it gave Nigerian farmers two million bags of fertiliser worth N100 billion.

On Federal Government’s150 days window for food importation, would you say it is yielding the desired results with regard to bringing down the prices of food?

Now, we can have a conversation around that. But let me tell you what it is today. You know, since they opened the window of bringing in some of these food commodities without Customs duties and tariffs, as time goes on, these things they are importing will flood the market and it will force prices to come down.

Now, we have started seeing some downward in the prices of some of these food items that have started coming out now. Like in Kano, Kaduna and probably Jigawa, you will see some slight reduction in prices, even the National Bureau of Statistics mentioned it.

So for this to be sustainable is what we are praying for. Because right now, there is a gap in food availability in the country and we need food to flood the markets. But we don’t want to experience hoarding of food with this 150 days free food imports, it’s not good for our economy and food sufficiency.

Any advice on ranching to the Federal Government?

What I will say again is let government try to encourage farmers to go into ranching. It will begin by giving them loans.

You know to build a ranch you have to do it in a way that it will look good and serve the purpose. It is when we have the ranches that we will be able to get our fertiliser as at when due.

Should NYSC members be given some lessons about livestock business nationwide?

I think NYSC members need to be put together to learn about livestock opportunities so that they will not be waiting for government to employ them or looking for white collar jobs up and down in the country.

So that while serving they will learn livestock business for themselves.

Still on the Ministry of Livestock Development creation, will fish farmers play active role in this new ministry?

Now we are very happy that there is now a creation of Ministry of Livestock Development. Now, fisheries and aquaculture are under livestock. So, it will be very clear on what you want to do if you want to venture into farming.

Like me, I also do fish farming and there are many support windows in fish farming. So fish farmers should rest assure that when the livestock ministry takes off a lot of things will be opened and everybody will be part of it.