By Adewale Kupoluyi

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Niger Delta is one of the most volatile regions in our dear country. Despite the abundant human, natural and material endowments of this important part of Nigeria, what has become recurring decimal in that region are restiveness, kidnappings, bombing of oil installations and disruptions in business activities. Series of interventions and programmes have been embarked upon by governmental and non-governmental actors to improve and increase the fortunes of the people and the states. These include the establishment of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Presidential Amnesty Programme, among others. Despite the existence of these administrative frameworks, agitations for restructuring and resource control have continued unabated.

This time around, it was good news when I received a press statement from Gavin Serkin, who is in charge of Frontier Funds’ Media and Intelligence, United Kingdom, saying that the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) would be having partnership with Alluvial Agriculture, a collective farming business grouping thousands of smallholders in Nigeria. What excited me was that another opportunity would present itself to addressing some of the agitations for better opportunities that would calm frayed nerves by promoting peace, security and development in the Niger Delta.

Serkin had disclosed that CIAT, a research centre for the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR); a global research partnership for a food-secured future, supported by private foundations, national governments and multilateral development agencies engaging in an important agreement with Alluvial on the opening day of the Feed Nigeria Summit, the biggest annual gathering that focused on addressing global food security challenges. CIAT is known to conduct research for development in tropical regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, is dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services.

Alluvial, on its part, has the largest collection of smallholder farmers globally that could reach move from about 2,500 to 100,000 smallholders on farms, spanning 120,000 hectares. Through the project, individual farmers can undertake self-financing lease agreements for the use of both tractor and driver as part of an overall package that includes collective agreements to reduce the cost of seeds, fertilizers and to increase the sale price of their crops.

Serkin’s statement was titled; “‘Feed Nigeria’ Spurred by CIAT Agreement with Alluvial on Groundbreaking Block Farming Initiative”. It added that CIAT Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Debisi Araba, and Alluvial Managing Director, Dimieari Von Kemedi, would address the conference in Abuja. For Dr. Araba, Alluvial is tackling systemic problems that would leave most African smallholders in poverty and food insecurity issues across the developing world by aggregating farmers to create a nucleus of minimum efficient scale and the necessary education, mechanisation, inputs and market access. Direct engagement of Alluvial with various value chain actors, including farmers, is expected to provide CIAT with an enabling platform, to rapidly disseminate agriculture innovations acquired and developed through partnerships activities around the world. CIAT is to provide Alluvial with the know-how, monitoring and evaluation framework to ensure that the investment in Nigeria is globally competitive and environmentally-sustainable by ensuring that the investment is able to evolve and respond to market signals.

In the new project, CIAT and Alluvial hope to establish a replicable model for scaling up the adoption of agricultural technologies and innovations to improve livelihoods across the food value chain and foster environmental-sustainability of agricultural development that should benefit all value chain actors, including those working in the production, distribution and consumption hubs of the food system. Dr. Araba disclosed further that CIAT’s initial five-year plan with Alluvial would centre on climate change adaptation, soil fertility and mapping, yield optimisation and strategies that would make markets work for the poor.

What are other benefits of CIAT working with Alluvial? Mr. Kemedi said it should touch the lives of the communities by providing scientific and social lessons applicable to CIAT’s extensive network across the tropical world. With reference to the United Nations report, poverty had reportedly been falling across the developing world while food shortages have been rising, based on the available evidence by increased malnutrition rates in recent years. In the UN Report titled; “World Hunger Again on the Rise, Driven by Conflict and Climate Change”, global hunger is on the rise, affecting 815 million people in 2016 alone, or 11 per cent of the global population and multiple forms of malnutrition are threatening the health of millions worldwide. About 155 million children aged below five are stunted while 52 million people suffer from medical abnormality in which their weight remain too low for their height, as an estimated 41 million children are now overweight.

The unpleasant UN report further revealed that anaemia among women and adult obesity are also cause for concern in the sense that these trends are a consequence, not only of conflict and climate change, but of sweeping changes in dietary habits and economic slowdowns. The report added that there are 243 million hungry people in Africa while malnutrition affects children under five years of age that suffer from stunted growth and the number of adults who are obese is 641 million people.

It was further stated that higher population growth puts Africa at particular risk of a food and humanitarian crisis with global dimensions in terms of unprecedented migration, as Nigeria occupies the epicentre and is the world’s seventh largest country that would most likely overtake the United States of America, as the third most populous nation by 2050. With these statistics, the imperative of putting in place sustainable food security programmes cannot be overstated. The product, Alluvial, is made of alluvium, deposits of clay, silt and sand that are left by floodwater in a river valley or delta that typically produces fertile soil for the Niger Delta vegetation that is less known for its rich soil that is capable of supporting abundant agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture.

However, as lofty as this collaborative project promises, there are certain issues that must be addressed in order for it to make the desired impact. These include appointment of only qualified beneficiaries, contractors and other personnel that would be required. Retrogressive factors such as nepotism and favouritism should be avoided, as much as possible. It does not give room for meritocracy and objective appraisal of competent and suitable persons. This should be tackled headlong. Whatever it takes to ensure that corruption does not intrude into the affairs of the programme should be pursued. Corruption has remained a great obstacle militating against the development of many countries in Africa.

Management of the project should also uphold the principles of transparency, accountability and due process. The officials should not forget local content requirement and embarking on genuine corporate social responsibility initiatives that would promote sound community relations. They should bear it in mind that most of the youth restiveness and apathy in the Niger Delta can largely be traced to the perceived injustice brought on the people by local and foreign investors. We should learn from past mistakes and forge ahead. That is what many people expect from new project, as stated in my earlier e-mail to Serkin that hopefully; the project ‘would spur national development’. It is envisaged that the initiative would boost the fortunes of Niger Delta and indeed, our nation.