thisday0520

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015 • THISDAY
CITYSTRINGS
Features Editor Adeola Akinremi
Email adeola.akinremi@thisdaylive.com
Bailing out Nigeria
Roland Ogbonnaya writes that the novel Desert-to-Food project, an agro-based programme,
which aims to address the menace of desertification in the northern part of Nigeria and convert
the affected areas into food baskets, is an important initiative that can help turn the tide for Nigeria
as the oil economy dwindles
With the tumbling oil prices
and the resultant measures
by government to be less
dependent on the dwindling
revenue from the sector,
experts say that there is
other time than now for Nigeria to embrace
agriculture for her food security and foreign
exchange earning.
And when you discuss, one of the ways to turn
to agriculture is by making the Desert-to-Food
and its subsets a reality because of its potentials
to displace the ‘black gold’ as the economy’s
number one foreign exchange earner.
An initiative of FramanAgridev West Africa
Limited, a Nigeria-Israeli private sector concern
and a consortium of 201 Israeli, European
and American companies, the Desert-to-Food
programme was designed to transform the
Nigerian economy in a manner capable of
surpassing oil earnings through revolutionary
agricultural techniques. The venture is expected
to significantly take care of the country’s food
needs and provide enormous opportunity for
foreign exchange earnings through exports.
Lending credence to this view, the Group
Project Co-ordinator, Mr Emeka F. Mba, recalled
last week while giving progress report to journalists
on the project that upon conception in
2006, the programme was well received by the
federal government sequel to its articulation
of a continental initiative christened the Green
Wall Sahara Programme adopted by the Africa
Union (AU) in Libya, as a continental approach
to the battle against the Sahara desert.
An integrated response to the ravages of
desertification in Africa, the Green Wall Sahara as
adapted by Nigeria, is aiming at not just saving
the arid and semi-arid lands in the affected states,
it is also using the Desert-to-Food project as an
economic engine that will ensure the conversion
of the affected areas into fertile farmlands and
give a boost to the economy, in addition to
ensuring the sustainability of livelihood.
The focus of the project is on the entire northern
region, comprising: The eleven frontline states
directly affected by desertification, namely Adamawa,
Katsina, Bauchi, Kebbi, Borno, Sokoto,
Kano, Gombe, Yobe, Jigawa and Zamfara States;
as well as buffer states of Kaduna, Nasarawa,
Benue, Niger, Plateau, Kogi, Kwara and Taraba
States.
It is a tripartite arrangement, involving
FramanAgridev, the federal government of
Nigeria, which is contributing counterpart
funds and international technical partners
with donor and multilateral organisations, who
have endorsed the various components of the
programme. In addition, they are providing
financial and technological back bone for the
implementation. With active support of Israel
and the United States of America, “the global
political weight behind this programme can be
easily determined.”
The Coordinator explained that the project
has two broad components, one of which
comprises large-scale commercial agricultural
development activities. This is designed to
cultivate about 35,000 hectares of land per state,
especially desertified lands, applying well tested
technologies. Furthermore, he stated that agro
industrial centres would be established in each
state with storage facilities (such as silos) for
food preservation, as well as processing and
packaging equipment and other factors needed
for the development of the commercial farming
centres. The produce from these centres, which
among others will include field crops, green
houses, dairies, animal husbandry, poultries and
fisheries are targeted at the local and export
markets.
Part of this component is massive afforestation
using commercial trees to promote renewable
A prototype of Framan Agridev industrial park in Bayelsa
energy and produce raw materials for the
pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Desertto-Food
is also anchored on community-based
agricultural activities, involving the establishment
of farm settlements across the affected states
where mechanised farming, irrigation and the
use of high-yield crops will be deployed to
aid the transfer of agricultural technologies to
benefiting communities.
In order to ensure sustainability of the
programme, critical infrastructures will be
provided for the development of the affected
areas. These will include electricity, water and
good road network. Also, building of schools
in the farm clusters and estates for the promotion
of education and techniques of modern
agricultural farming in the rural areas, overall
poverty reduction and women empowerment
will form part of the overall objective.
Providing more insight into the communitybased
component, Mba also said that low
cost housing estates of about 1000 units of
four-bedroom farm houses per state, would
be established, in addition to expatriate quarters
spread across each of the states to accommodate a
minimum of 250 experts who will, along with the
Nigerians, drive the implementation. Describing
it as very capital-intensive, he disclosed that
the project will gulp not less than $100 billion.
“It is expected that the Desert-to-Food project
While the industrial
park in the south-east
is expected to cost
about $18.4bn, the one
for the south-west will
cost $14.6bn, just as
about $25bn will be
invested in the Swampto-Food
venture, but
according to Mba, the
revolutionary impact
on the economy will far
outweigh the costs
will create about 250,000 direct jobs in its first three
years of operation per state and over 20 million
direct and indirect employment opportunities
when fully implemented.
“Apart from job creation and reduction in
crime rate, developmental projects, such as
real estate, factories, roads, and improvement
of airport services, railroad, and tourism services
will be seen with brand new urban centres
being created in these dry regions. The export
earnings from Desert-to-Food is expected to
be $40 billion annually in the first three years
and over $80 billion annually thereafter, as the
project gathers momentum. FramanAgridev
will leverage on the export markets while sales
teams will be deployed to carry out the local
vending of the produce which are projected
to generate annual income of over 6trillion
within the first five years of operation," Mba
told THISDAY last week.
The Co-ordinator was excited that after many
years of managing the diplomatic intricacies,
working out the technical details and getting
the international donor agencies committed to
the project, the good news is that following the
flag-off of the Green Wall Sahara Programme
in Kebbi state by President Goodluck Jonathan
on November 25, 2014, the Desert-To-Food
component is now ready for takeoff.
THISDAY was further informed that the
scope of the project has been widened to include
Swamp-to-Food for the south-south flank of
the country and industrial parks for both the
south-east and south-west.
The FramanAgridev's Mba, who has been
frequenting Israel and the United States,
facilitating summits, meetings and signing of
memorandum of understanding (MoU) between
Nigerian government representatives and the
international collaborators in order to move the
project forward, described the south-south segment
as “massive agriculture and aquaculture”
covering all the states in the region. The target
is large-scale export of shrimps, salmons and
catfish, as well as processing same for internal
consumption.
An Investment expert, Abdulahi Abubakar,
who foresees huge economic benefits of the
programme, is particularly excited about the
potentials of Swamp-to-Food subset, enthusing
that it is capable of substituting canned fish
import with local products.
Abubakar is of the view that if the venture is
seriously pursued, the benefits to the country
in terms of foreign exchange and employment
generation will be amazing.
The agricultural aspect, it was learnt, is aimed
Mba
at maximising the fruit growing potentials of
the region with modern mechanical techniques,
resulting in not just unprecedented harvests of
pineapples and other fruits for which the axis is
popular, but also the export of same for foreign
exchange.
A model of the FramanAgridev Industrial
Park for Swamp-to-Food displayed in Lagos
recently, showed that it is to be located less than
100 kilometres from the airport. The scheme
features factory complexes, residential estates
and educational institutions, power station
to generate 300 mega watts of electricity, 100
kilometres of access roads, top class shopping
malls, sports facilities, tourist attractions (manmade
lakes, game reserves amongst others),
modern communication station, helipad and
a long list of other facilities.
Mba told THISDAY last week that apart
from the generation of over 1million jobs,
Swamp-to-Food is also projected to earn for
the country about $5 billion in foreign exchange
and N600billion domestically on an annual basis.
Like the one for the south-south, the Framan-
Agridev Industrial Park plan for the south-east
features, among others, factory complexes, security
services, environmental and sewage management
systems, liaison offices for governmental
institutions, residences (15,000 housing units)
and 1,000 mega-watt power plant. Covering
about 12 square kilometres, the park will be
sited in the Ebonyi (Isiagu)/Enugu axis.“The
combined activities in both the South-east and
South-south will generate for the country not
less than $15billion in foreign exchange and
about N2 trillion locally.
In the same vein, the South West Industrial
Park to be sited in Ogun State will be a selfsustaining
industrial complex incorporating all
the facilities earlier mentioned while optimising
the state’s proximity to the ports.
“Factoring in the benefits of the industrial
activities in the south-west axis, Nigeria will be
earning no less than $30 billion and N3 trillion
annually in local and foreign exchange earnings”,
the Programme Co-ordinator remarked, even as
he disclosed that part of the plan to integrate
tourism development into each industrial park
are purpose-built modern buses that will be
providing shuttle services to the residents and
visitors.
While the industrial park in the south-east is
expected to cost about $18.4bn, the one for the
south-west will cost $14.6bn, just as about $25bn
will be invested in the Swamp-to-Food venture,
but according to Mba, the revolutionary impact
on the economy will far outweigh the costs.