Aja ti ko ba gbo fere odee, o nfi ku shere: the (hunting) dog that does not hear the hunter's whistle plays with its death.
Interesting that migrants are being invited from all over the world to help fulfil the agriculture component of this government's wretched NEEDS programme. Thought one should cast some detail on why Zimbabwe's outcasts should not be invited by the Akotileta to farm land anywhere in Africa and especially Nigeria.
Firstly, it is important to note the significance of the assertion that, on "independence" the colonials merely handed their estates for safekeeping to its house-servants. In Asia the field-hands are resuming control of their economies. Elsewhere, the colonials are reestablising proxy control of the assets they left behind.
Secondly, there is no reasoning with the Akotileta in government throughout Africa. Progressive people really need to rise above their s/elected governments who insist in looking to foreign "investors" at the expense of home sufficiency.
On to farming...
Firstly, it is important to note the significance of the assertion that, on "independence" the colonials merely handed their estates for safekeeping to its house-servants. In Asia the field-hands are resuming control of their economies. Elsewhere, the colonials are reestablising proxy control of the assets they left behind.
Secondly, there is no reasoning with the Akotileta in government throughout Africa. Progressive people really need to rise above their s/elected governments who insist in looking to foreign "investors" at the expense of home sufficiency.
On to farming...
Large-scale, commercial farming is a capital and labour intensive business. In the oyinbo countries in US/EU, farming is also heavily subsidised: it is estimated that the EU spends approx eight times more to subsidise each cow than it spends on aid in Africa, about Euro 300. Under the Common Agric Policy, EU farmers are paid to NOT grow food because they otherwise grow too much and further depress world prices. Even with these subsidies, a lot of their excess production is dumped in Africa or "sold" as aid to countries. The effect of this dumping is to remove market incentive of local farmers to cultivate land. One of the dump sites is Nigeria, which imports just about every foodstuff you can imagine apart from cassava and yam.
Much of the farming in US/EU is controlled by the big food processors such as Cargill and Del Monte, the Bigpharmas such as Glaxo and Roche, chemical companies such as Dow Chemical and ICI, and the seed producers such as Syngenta. The biggest 10 seed companies control some 30pc of world grain supply. They have invested in producing seeds that are pest-resistant, and require lots and lots and lots of chemical fertilizer and mechanically controlled irrigation systems, as well as expensive mechanical equipment for planting, harvesting, storage, and distribution investment. These seeds are known in the trade as "terminator seeds" because their root structures and their heavy addiction to chemical fertilizers prevent any other plants, so called weeds, from growing near them.
Terminator seeds also germinate only once. This means that farmers need to go back to the seed producers every year to get new stock. The farmers have contracts to buy seeds from seedCos; contracts to buy fertilizer from chemCos; and contracts to sell their produce to the processors who supply the likes of WalMart, KFC and McD. Needless to say, subscale farmers who do not quality for subsidies get a raw deal most of the time while large landowners are some of the richest peope in US/EU. Some smaller farmers band together to form co-operatives in order to afford seeds or processing machinery and exercise better bargaining power with customers.
What does this all have to do with Zimbabwe/SA farmers coming to Nigeria? When in southern Africa, many of these farmers were in cooperatives that have contracts to supply flowers or grapes or fresh fruit to the UK/EU market. Due to their contracts, they try not to produe any more than their processors can accommodate - hence the large tracts of "set-aside" land that created such rumpus in Zimbabwe. They did not farm the land or allow it to be farmed by the nationals. Their farming investments are not oriented to feeding their host communities. They produce few valuable jobs and retain very little capital in the local economy. The cooperatives refused to allow black farmers as members before or after apartheid in much of southern Africa.
The Akotileta in Nigeria have passed a lot of laws to attract FDI. Many of these laws impact very hard on progressive businesses and production capacity in the country. The little FDI that comes to Nigeria is now directed via the descendants of the Cecil Rhodes generation controlling MTN, Protea, AfricaOne, etc and their counterparts controlling the oil sector.
The s/elected wasters in power do not appreciate that Nigerians will have an incentive to produce their own food and drink if cheaper products are not dumped into the country. Even the farms and businesses belonging to these "leaders" are managed by asians or south Africans.
The cooperative business model is one that holds a lot of potential for progressive entrepreneurs throughout Africa. There is not-a-lot to learn from foreign farmers in the commercialised farm business because black farmers are unlikely to get supply contracts from EU buyers. Africans need to focus on food sufficiency and security within the continent. There is no need to destroy African farmland with the intensive methods described above. If you want to assist African farmers in resisting the antics of the Akotileta and their paymasters, organise cooperatives for your local farmer community. Invest in processing equipment to raise the value-added component. This will bring your community higher prices. Target the African market, and. . .
Do not allow bad seeds to set root in your ancestral land.
Remi-Niyi Alaran writes on enterprise and social capital.
ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES. Enterprising Communities.
Copyright (c) ALARAN DEVELOPMENT ENTERPRISES, 2003
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