Exporters debunk yam export rejection stories

The exporters of yam to the UK and US have disputed the reports, initially aired by the Africa Independent Television (AIT) purporting that the yams exported after the official flag-off ceremony on June 29, 2017 were rejected at their export destinations.

The symbolic event, done at the Lilypond Container Terminal in Lagos by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, meant to boost the morale of Nigerian exporters and make a bold statement to the global marketplace, has drawn widespread criticisms on various media platforms based on the misleading reports.

The concerned exporters and other prospective exporters have expressed worries about the potential impact of the negative publicity on their prospects at the export market in the wake of federal government’s initiative on diversification of the economy through agricultural produce export.

Most commentators and analysts in the mainstream and social media have retailed the negative aspect of the laudable initiative and have played up the wrong versions of the export story. Discussions with the exporters have since shown the prevailing storyline as inappropriate and misleading.

First, the exporters to the UK and US have emphatically said that their consignments were successfully cleared at the ports and delivered them to their various warehouses. They said, although some cases of tuber spoilage were reported in both cases, these were separated from the good ones, and the good ones were distributed to the buyers. The exporters noted that Ghana, which has been exporting yams for a while, routinely records cases of spoilage, without making any public issues therefrom; and their yams don’t get rejected as a result.

Mr. Michael Adedipe of ADES UK Foods and Drinks for the UK, whose warehouse was visited by AIT, has deplored the AIT report and other subsequent commentaries about rejection of his yams by the UK authorities. Adedipe has said emphatically that the consignment was not rejected; “It was cleared.”

According to Adedipe, who confirmed that he spoke to AIT: “I’ve watched the (TV) programme which lasted for about two hours. All the positive stuff removed. We that decide to venture in this project are aware of the risks involved because, this fresh produce … we’ll expect five or 10 per cent damages. I don’t know why they said the product got rejected. I’ve sent my release note. I’ve sent video of loading. I’ve sent every documentation to say that there is no issue like that at all.”

On the spoilage of yam, Adedipe explained that “the failure has nothing to do with the ministry of agriculture, but the Nigerian Ports Authority. That’s where I see the failure.”

He expressed disgust at the mishandling of his comments by the AIT reporter, saying: “I told him, he is aware of it. He knew about the delay, I told him about all the consignment. He knew every single thing that happened. But what he did the most is to use all the negative stuff. We talked about other things. I told him how I came into the UK to go and fix our problem. All those were removed from the report.”

Adedipe, who has vowed not to stop yam export business, disclosed that “the other mistake was the shipping line we used. But they were the ones that were available.” According to him, in spite of the sour experience with media report, “I’m willing to invest. I still expect…at least to take a container from Nigeria every week.”

Managing Director, Wan Nyikwagh Farms Nigeria Limited, Mr Yandev Amaabai, has strongly disputed the yam rejection story and said it doesn’t even tally. “The story from AIT was focused on UK. So far, I am the only person who has lifted yam to the US.

Whatever we can do to clarify this issue will be good. We learn as we progress. The whole idea that government brought was to diversify the economy.”

“My goods actually got to the US on September 7, 2017. The ship berthed on September 2, 2017, but, because of the flooding in Texas, we couldn’t discharge until the 7th. They were cleared from the Customs and brought to the warehouse on the 7th. Yams are perishable items and, definitely, some may go bad on the way. But, this statement that says the American government rejected Nigerian yams, where does it come from?

Our yams were released to us and we took them to the stores. We sorted out our yams when they got there. We distributed them to the off-takers. So, where they got this story from, I don’t know. Nobody has ever called from anywhere, even in the US, to ask me question. If a few yams got rotten, and I am not complaining, why are people crying more than the owner? I have all the papers. The Customs cleared my goods on the other side. And these things went to my warehouse from where we distributed.”

If Ghana, which produces 4.8 million tonnes of yams, according to 2008 estimates, occupies a niche as the leading exporter of crop, accounting for over 94 per cent of total yam exports in West Africa, Nigeria which is by far the world’s largest producer of yams, accounting for over 70 to 76 per cent of the world production, producing 35.017 million metric tonnes valued equivalent of US$5.654 billion by the 2008 estimates should do better than Ghana in the export market

Ghana is the first country in West Africa to launch its national yam development strategy in 2013. The country aims at US$5billion dollars of exports by 2018. Nigeria, which produces seven times Ghana’s production volume, is beset with criticisms over attempts to bring it to the global yam markets. About 90 per cent of Ghana’s yams are exported to the US, Canada, UK and elsewhere in Europe. There are more Nigerians than Ghanaians in these countries, meaning more prospects for Nigerian exporters.

Chief Ogbeh has said that Nigeria, the largest producer of yam in the world, is not anywhere near the capacity to export and remains so much a nation of consumers. He stressed that “Nigeria must export” as the “country’s economy is increasing, and in ten years’ time, oil and gas is going to drop. Then we may have nothing to earn foreign exchange except we begin to diversify our export base now.”

With all these prospects in view, the Honourable Minister expressed surprise at the negative news trailing his laudable effort at putting Nigeria on the global yam export market, saying “we’re not going to stop because this is not enough to demoralise us. We have food to export. Never mind what so-called critics are doing.”

“In the ministry of agriculture,” he said, “we are not exporters. The ministry does not export. We’re going to talk to the port authority on cooling vans for vegetables and fresh produce so that exporters don’t lose money and we don’t lose face. We should begin to build cold trucks that are temperature-controlled to keep the yams till the time they have to go. We should invest in special containers for their storage.”

“If other countries are doing it, we too can do it. We’re trying to take over the market. We’ve come to nearly 70 per cent of raw output of yams. Why can’t Nigerians in Texas, Canada, London and Germany have access to the yams?” The Minister vowed that “we will go ahead with our efforts to export yam. We will not let this opportunity slip any further. We are determined to position our people to capture the investment opportunities and benefits in the yam export to these countries. We will fix the yam export value chain. We have the volume and the market.”

We will emphasise global best practices, engage with world class experts and international organisations as well as leverage the strength in indigenous knowledge. We will support investment in relevant infrastructure and facilities. We will revive the abandoned yam conditioning centres in Ekiti and Nassarawa states while we encourage the construction of new ones with appropriate equipment to boost storage and export prospects. We appeal to Nigerians, in the spirit of patriotism, to see the silver lining around the cloud of the week of misinformation about yam export.

We have commenced engagement with the National Assembly for the repeal of the 1989 law that prohibits export of yams and other agro-commodities. Currently, the bill has passed the second reading at the National Assembly. The continued existence of this law is an obstruction against the economic diversification and export initiative of this administration. We plead with the National Assembly to fast-track the repeal of the law and help us further unlock our export potential.

thank the Governing Council of this University, its principal officers and esteemed staff for granting me the honour of delivering the 23rd, 24th and 25th combined convocation lecture of this revered institution.
I share in your vision and passion to be a centre of excellence in knowledge generation for global development and the sustenance of an economically friendly society.

I have deliberately chosen the topic of this lecture as ‘Food and the Future’ because of the significance of food to the continued well–being of human society.

As the Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, my core business is agriculture and food security, especially at a very critical moment in our history when the agricultural sector is being revitalized under the Buhari Administration.

The renewed emphasis on the transformation of the agricultural sector, by this Administration, is to ensure that the sector becomes the new engine of growth for a vibrant, resilient and productive national economy.

But our business here today is to reflect on ‘food and our future’.
The Importance of Food
I do not have to stress the important roles food and eating play in our lives, as they are evident in a rich variety of ingredients, food forms, shapes, tastes and colours all over the universe. However, we often gloss over the business of food, with serious consequences.

Nonetheless, food is basic to human existence, irrespective of social or educational status, religious persuasions, race or gender. Survival is impossible without food. A sad reality, however, is that in spite of the fact that all human societies have been divinely endowed with the ability to produce all the varieties of food required for human sustenance, hunger is still a recurring decimal, and an on-going global phenomenon.

Hunger is real. The causes are diverse and complex. Yet, it occurs where increasing knowledge about food and the abundance of food are widely spread to individuals and places where scarcity and inadequacy are prevalent. Failure to know what to eat, what not to eat, how to eat and the right mix of what to eat at all times arise out of a wide variety of causes. The global inequalities in wealth, economy, politics and industrial development account for some of the causes. But tackling hunger remains an on-going task that must be done.

The demand and supply aspects of food have underscored the need for evidence-based interventions at various levels, and in various forms as the food industry increasingly crystallizes as an all-embracing sub-sector of the global economy. Increasingly, therefore, agricultural systems, land use systems, natural, social and economic environments are receiving greater attention under combined efforts to meet human needs for sustainable supply of food for both human and animal consumption.
Global Hunger Profile

Estimates by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) between 2014 -2016 indicated that about 795 million people are hungry in a global population of about 7.3 billion people. Expectedly, 780 million people (98.1%) of the hungry people live in developing countries, including Nigeria, a rather sad situation reflecting the deplorable condition of human wellbeing in these countries.

The World Food Programme has also provided some disheartening statistics about famine worldwide, with about 805 million people not having adequate nutrition. The highest percentage of undernourished populations, regretfully, is also in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Perhaps more worrisome is the manifestation of hunger in children, attested to in fetal growth restriction, stunting, wasting, and deficiencies of vital micronutrients –vitamins and minerals-including iron, vitamin A, iodine. The consequence is that poor nutrition has caused nearly half the deaths in children under five (5) years old. In addition, about 66 million schoolchildren across the world are also hungry.

Food Situation in Nigeria
In the case of Nigeria, the World Food Programme (2016) has provided some interesting details about the food situation in the country, which are instructive, including:

– the reality that we are a food deficit nation, and Africa’s largest importer of rice (until recently with the remarkable progress we have made to curb rice importation through local production);

– that one third of children under five years in the Country are stunted- twice the rate in Thailand and thrice the rate in Tunisia;

– a disturbing incidence of increased rates of both child and adult obesity; and
– that 48.5% of our women of reproductive age are anemic.

By the UN’s projection, the current dietary consumption patterns will continue on the same rising population trajectory. Feeding the more than 9 billion projected world population by 2050 will, therefore, entail producing more food in the next 40 years.

This is even more compelling for Nigeria given the fact that the UN has projected that we will be the third most populated country in the world by 2050. These present clear lines of opportunities for us hence the need to start taking adequate measures in the short, medium and long terms to feed the explosion of population which is already in our hands and the thunderbolt which we are anticipating especially from year 2040 through year 2050.

And so what are the measures that we have either put in place or will be putting in place to ensure food security for Nigerians now, and into the future?
Current Measures Towards Promoting Food Security in Nigeria
The first major step is the promotion of a culture of eating what we grow and growing what we eat. As aforesaid, nature in its wisdom has ensured that the best foods for our daily needs are clearly within our reach in our respective communities along all the agricultural belts in Nigeria. Indeed, they are with us-they have been grown over the years by our forebears, and through research, they can be produced with improved varieties, for higher yields, and with less stressful methods of cultivation. But what did we witness in the past? It was an addiction to foreign taste and food produced in other climes.

This is why we need to be grateful to God for the dollar scarcity in the economy which has made it practically impossible to continue with this culture of unbridled waste, and invariably exporting wealth and jobs to other nations while importing poverty into the Country. And, evidently, one of the benefits of the economic downturn in Nigeria is the recognition that we need to go back to the drawing board by growing what we eat and eating what we grow. We have the population that can thus be turned to an asset as a vibrant market for food.
Indeed, in our state of delusion in the past, we got so addicted to imported rice and wheat that a considerable number in our midst did not think they could be grown successfully in Nigeria. We have proved doubting Thomases wrong, however, with the remarkable success of our home-grown initiatives aimed at boosting rice production in the Country. It is consoling that even those who were permanently addicted to the consumption of foreign rice and wheat-based products are now patronizing our local rice and wheat, in recognition that they are more nutritious and safer for their health. The flour millers have embraced locally-grown wheat, and are now discussing with the wheat farmers on increased production and agreeable prices.
The second major step is a new policy direction for the agricultural sector, as outlined in the ‘Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP) 2016-2020- also known as the ‘Green Alternative”. Through the instrumentality of this policy document, we have consolidated on the successes of the agricultural programmes of past administrations in Nigeria

without necessarily embarking on policy somersaults or reversals.
We have enriched the process through the introduction of new initiatives including the agro export zero reject programme; emplacement of improved process of fertilizer usage, entailing matching of the right fertilizer with the right soil types, commencement of a cattle breed improvement programme; expanding the nationwide coverage of extension, and bringing back the three Federal Universities of Agriculture to the domain of agriculture, being the constituency to which they naturally belong in the first instance, and in which they were situated by the enabling law.

With the three Universities of Agriculture effectively under the oversight authority of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development (FMARD), we are confident that through their teaching, research, extension and innovation activities, the agricultural sector will be adequately supported in resolving the challenges of food insecurity in Nigeria, and meaningfully addressing the slow pace of agricultural development in the Country.

The APP/Green Alternative has effectively been incorporated into the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (2017-2020). In order to ensure focus, clarity and impact, the plethora of activities within the agricultural sector within the mandate of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture have now been streamlined and consolidated into ten distinct areas.

They are as follows:

(i) comprehensive livestock development,

(ii) input access and transformation,

(iii) expanded access to financial markets,

(iv) value addition and processing support and

(v) agricultural water management. Other areas are

(vi) agricultural education, research and innovation,

vii) agricultural manpower development,

viii) produce& commodity storage systems

,(ix) commercial agriculture expansion support and

(x) nutrition, quality control and standardization. The ten areas will henceforth constitute the priority areas of intervention and sustained support by Government in the agricultural sector in the coming years.