Obasanjo points to ICT for food security

By Emmanuel Edukugho

Obasanjo

Delivering a keynote address on the applications and benefits of ICT in Agro-allied and food industrial systems for national food security, at an international conference on ICT for Africa, attended by scholars and experts from Africa and USA. Titled “Empowering Africa for Food Production in the Information Age,” former President Olusegun Obasanjo talked directly from the heart, preferring to recall and explain his experience as a farmer since 1979 when he handed over power as military head of state to an elected civilian leadership, instead of intellectual discourse in a university setting.

Obasanjo said that from time immemorial, man has tried to devise ways and means to provide solution to food and environment. These two issues confronted man. tools of stone were used for food and security to fight against anything that will attack or inimical to him.

“So man has started to apply some form of technology to improve his life especially in respect of food, shelter, warding off enemies, animals or human beings. He has made tremendous progress in the last 200 years when we have explosion in technology. Today there is technology in all sort of things.”

The former Nigerian leader told delegates that man has gone to the moon, to mars and came back, and wondered what man still wants to conquer.

“But ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is what will overwhelm the world. The greatest impact on how we live and die is ICT. If it is so, how can ICT be applied to the basic needs of man, which is food?”

He explained that Bells University of Technology came about because “we appreciate there is gap between what is possible in technology and what we are doing in production – food,” adding, “there is a university in the vanguard of integrating technology and production.”

Saying he wants to put it in a crude form as a farmer, “how can we integrate technology with production and get our life better. Simple, it’s food.”

He asked whether food production in Africa has any problem? His answer was affirmative “yes.”

“Nigeria imported N155 billion worth of rice meaning $1 billion Us dollars. A country with 150 million people, with vast land, no where in Nigeria that you can’t plant rice. But imported so much. Why? It should not have happened. It has happened. can we stem the tide, if so, how?”

Obasanjo submitted that the country has abundant land, but land will not grow anything unless well prepared. That only the most stupid person will plant on unprepared land. Do we have equipment and tools to prepare the land for cultivation? What about the peasants who should own the land and can pledge it as collateral to get money.

Water – We have rain water, river, in fact have the longest rivers in Africa – Niger and Benue. Level of irrigation not ideal.

“We have water problem because we don’t manage our water properly. If we depend on rain – fed agriculture, then will have problems – failure, inadequacy, climate change. The rainy season starts in April, May, June and don’t know when it will stop.

Manpower – Nigeria’s population has tripled between 1960 and today. Previously about 50 million, it’s now about 160 million. “That population should be either an asset or liability. But today, it is a liability. Let us not deceive ourselves. Growing up in the early 1940s, there was no university in Nigeria. Only University of Ibadan I grew up to know. But today, there are 117 universities and are still growing. It is good.”

According to him, with plenty of education, a person must have two meals a day.

“The youngest farmer in my village is 68 years old, my cousin. When I asked students what they want to become in future, they will raise up their hands and say head of state, doctor. Those who said they wan to be teachers were few, but farmers none. then I will ask: Have you eaten and they will answer, yes. A disconnect in food.”

Technology — Research has done a lot in different areas.

Finance — It is a problem, especially micro finance. “Unlike industry, if you don’t have money, you can switch off the machines and come back later. But in agriculture, it is not so. You’ve to clear up the land which might have overgrown with weeds and start again. Money needed in agriculture is time-bound. If a farmer wants to buy fertilizer in May, he cannot wait till August or any other time.” Processing/storage is problem. Marketing is a problem.

On the solutions, Obasanjo said: “finding the solutions is what we are doing here. First, having a feel of Bells University of Technology and also coming together from across the Ailanthic, rub minds together to solve the problems.”

He added: “Solutions are here, just access and package. A conference like this is very good. But having a conference like this is one thing, getting something out is another. if you are able to inspire two or three students of Bells University to become farmers, then the conference is successful.”

He asserted that solutions will start with individuals – commitment, desire, community, then government – state and national.

“Empower everybody who wants to get into agriculture. Nobody is too old, too educated, too elitist, no gender, whether man or woman. Best practices must be applied. Operation Feed the National (OFN) worked, but there was no continuity. It was rejected because of the word ‘operation’, which seemed military, killed, replaced with Green revolution. But nothing green at last.”

As regard technology, Obasanjo said there is no limit to the technology that can be passed.

“Keep giving me information that we can pass around. Information to serve as incentive – information about how chicken can lay ore eggs than the number they are laying today, information about new seeds, new inputs to increase yields, new markets, new processes. GSM is one thing that can change life. GSM and Radio … will give explosion.”

Obasanjo continued: “In this age of information, nothing that cannot be passed. Anything secret, confidential, Wikileak will make it non-secret, non-confidential. Even research has to be passed, be disseminated. Age of information should be the golden age of agriculture, if ICT is brought in.”

Earlier in his welcome address, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Isaac A. Adeyemi, said in this present information age, no meaningful development can be achieved without the full applications of ICT. “The challenges of human security stare us in the face, not only in Nigeria, but also in Africa an the Asian countries. These include food scarcity, deficient healthcare, epileptic power, inadequate housing and climate change. it is becoming glaring that there is need for a paradigm shift.”