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Crime / Re: MD Of A Ponzi Scheme In India Hiding In Nigeria For 3 Years Has Been Arrested by OOAS(m): 10:00pm On Feb 04, 2017 |
frankobaba: Nice breakdown. Bravo |
Business / Re: Nigeria Aims To Be World Largest Cocoa Producer by OOAS(m): 12:59pm On Jan 15, 2017 |
COMPAQ: Thumbs up. I posted something about that sometimes ago https://www.nairaland.com/3514954/agriculture-alone-not-nigerias-solution |
Agriculture / Agriculture "Alone" Is Not Nigeria's Solution by OOAS(m): 2:41pm On Dec 12, 2016 |
I saw this post somewhere and I thought it wise to share "Anytime I hear Nigerian presidents, ministers, governors, economists, analysts and commentators declare that agriculture is the alternative to oil, and that the solution to Nigeria’s economic woes is to return to the farm, I am tempted to jump up and ask at full volume: “Who agriculture alone don epp?” Some states have hilariously declared work-free days for civil servants to go to the farm. It would be nice to see those farms and how well the emergency farmers are doing. We’ve been told again and again that agriculture, as Nigeria’s biggest employer of labour, is the magic solution to unemployment, that we will export agricultural produce and earn plenty forex. Well done. I’ve been hearing this fairy-tale all my life. When I was a primary school kid, Lt. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, then head of state, asked Nigerians to tighten their belts because the oil boom would not last forever. He added drama by tightening his military belt on TV. He launched Operation Feed the Nation. My grandfather responded by setting up a garden in our backyard. President Shehu Shagari did Green Revolution. The structural adjustment programme (SAP) of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida was basically about diversifying into agriculture. In different shapes, forms, sizes and packaging, we have been talking about agriculture, agriculture and agriculture forever. Since we love glamorising our exploits in the export of cocoa, coffee, palm oil and groundnuts before the oil boom/doom, I will pick on just cocoa to dispel this ill-conceived notion and never-ending campaign that agriculture is the magic wand. We used to be the biggest producers of cocoa in the world. Chief Obafemi Awolowo utilised cocoa revenue to develop the south-west when he was premier of the region in the 1950s. But we dropped the ball along the line and Cote d’Ivoire overtook us. And now we are lamenting that we are nowhere to be found. The solution, therefore, is for the south-west to revive the cocoa farms. Oh, the good old days! Okay, let us talk about Cote d’Ivoire’s fabled cocoa wealth. Cote d’Ivoire produces 33% of world cocoa and exports to manufacturers such as Hershey’s, Mars Inc. (both in the US) and Nestlé (Switzerland). You know what Cote d’Ivoire earns yearly from exporting raw cocoa? A whopping $2.5bn. I repeat: a whopping $2.5bn! So Mars buys Ivorien cocoa and makes several products from it: Bounty, M&M, Mars and Milky Way, to name a few. You know Mars’ net income from chocolate products alone in 2015? According to the International Cocoa Organisation (ICCO), Mars made a pathetic $18bn, compared to Cote d’Ivoire’s whopping $2.5bn. Agriculture, indeed. If you are wondering how just one company, which manufactures chocolate, can earn seven times more than a whole country, which farms and exports the cocoa input, then you are asking the same question with me: Who agriculture alone don epp?brig On ICCO’s list of the world’s top 10 companies in net revenue from chocolate, you have three from America, two from Japan, two from Switzerland, and one each from Luxemburg/Italy, Argentina and Turkey. None from Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Indonesia — the world’s three biggest producers of raw cocoa. There must be something that Hershey’s, Mars and Nestlé know that we don’t know as we keep planting cocoa. To be fair, Cote d’Ivoire is waking up. In 2015, French chocolatier Cémoi opened a plant in Abidjan, the economic capital, to produce chocolate. President Alassane Ouattara, on touring the plant, said: “We want to be able to make chocolate for Ivoriens, for Africans and especially West Africans.” Ouattara (pronounced Wa-ta-ra) understands what we still don’t understand here: that agriculture without industry is dead, being alone. How could I buy cocoa worth $1m from you and make chocolate worth $10 million from it — and you think you are smart? If you are smart, you will start making the chocolate yourself and stop romanticising about the “good old days”. There was a video that went viral sometime ago. CNN’s Richard Quest visited a cocoa farm in Cote d’Ivoire. Come and see poverty written all over the faces of the farmers, who have been told for decades that agriculture is the magic solution to their problems. Quest gave the farmers bars of chocolate. They were eating the sweet stuff for the first time in their lives! Compare their lives to those of the executives of Mars Inc., who buy the cocoa beans from Cote d’Ivoire. They are flying private jets and holidaying in the moon, while the Ivorien farmers are fighting off flies and bees in the bushes of Koffikro. For your information, Mars Inc. has no cocoa farms! Don’t get me wrong please. If I have created the impression that agriculture is useless, I do apologise. That is not my intention. After all, agriculture is our culture. Millions of Nigerians are farming rice, beans, cassava and corn. That is huge employment. Also, we certainly can produce many food items that we are importing and burning precious forex on. But is that why governors are declaring work-free days for civil servants to go and plant melon and maize to solve Nigeria’s economic problem and stop the dependency on oil? If only these governors knew that Switzerland does not grow one tree of cocoa, yet makes the world’s most elegant chocolates! Let us break this whole agric logic into pieces. If we really want to diversify from oil and create proper value, agriculture must give birth to industry. If agriculture currently employs, say, 5 million Nigerians, agro-allied industry can employ 15 million in the value chain. So why do we spend so much time discussing farming and not industry? For example, how many graduates can a tomato farm employ compared to a factory making tomato purée? The factory will employ or engage the services of engineers, technicians, chemists, marketers, accountants, communicators, lawyers, administrators, drivers, and so on. It may even have a sick bay and employ doctors and nurses. I’m not done. A basket of tomatoes sells for N800 in Kaduna. A 400g tin of purée sells for N300. Look at how many bottles of purée you can get from a basket, and how much value you will be getting. Who, then, is making the real money? The factory will pay company tax, its employees will pay PAYE and the consumers will pay VAT. That is how government will boost its revenue. The purée bottle makers offer a different business altogether that employs workers and pays all kinds of taxes too. And if we are good enough, we can begin to export purée to other countries, and earn forex. This is just purée. Think of a thousand agro-allied factories. Think of our huge population. Sure, agriculture is very important in a primitive economy like ours. But we always miss the bigger picture. One, we need full optimisation of the sector to enhance productivity. A country like the US knows this much better: the percentage of the population engaged in farming is insignificant, but it is so optimised that the output is out of this world. For instance, the US produces enough rice for local consumption, for export, for aid and to dump in the sea to “stabilise” market prices. Two, processing is where you find the massive job opportunities. The agro-industry will yield far more output, more jobs and more economic value than Benue Friday Farming. These things look so simple and doable, but commonsense is not common. Our agricultural output can be far better in quantity and quality than currently obtains. We can do with better technology, storage, conditioning, packaging and transportation. Most importantly, our brains should focus on how industry can bring out the real value of agriculture and spark off a chain of economic activities that will create millions of good jobs and generate billions of dollars in revenue to investors, employees and government. But we seem excited only about preaching and promoting the export of raw produce, and we feel so smart we think this is the way out of our oil dependency! But how can we add value when, despite the billions of dollars we have made from oil since 1999, we don’t have the basic infrastructure to inspire an agro-based industrial explosion? Where are the roads? Where are the rails? Where is the electricity? Where is the security? Where is the finance? Yet I can point to uncountable private jets, mansions and customised cars that politicians and their friends have acquired since 1999 with proceeds from the oil boom , while they keep preaching stone-age agriculture to Nigerians. So if your governor joins this craze of declaring work-free days for primitive farming, just ask him politely:Your Excellency, who agriculture alone don epp? " Source:http://blackboxnigeria.com/who-agriculture-alone-go-epp-by-simon-kolawole/ 3 Likes 2 Shares |
Business / Re: 250 Graduates Establish Toothpick Factory In Ondo by OOAS(m): 1:47pm On Dec 12, 2016 |
This issue of tribe whatever, I hope it only happens on nairaland because it doesn't make sense at all. At least I believe this is going to reduce the demand on dollars.Please let us focus our energy on the right things and not on giving a nice reply to a tribalistic comnent |
Education / Re: Oni Babajide, OAU's Best Graduating Student (Photo) by OOAS(m): 5:04pm On Dec 10, 2016 |
dreezybines:it is a five years course 2 Likes |
Education / Re: Oni Babajide Graduates As OAU Best Graduating Student with 4.86 CGPA by OOAS(m): 10:12pm On Dec 08, 2016 |
Chrisrare: Common, is that your definition of good? Please change your mentality. |
Education / Re: Oni Babajide Graduates As OAU Best Graduating Student with 4.86 CGPA by OOAS(m): 10:09pm On Dec 08, 2016 |
Jacko1:Na so!!! For your mind!!! |
Education / Re: Oni Babajide Graduates As OAU Best Graduating Student with 4.86 CGPA by OOAS(m): 10:02pm On Dec 08, 2016 |
goingape1: What is all this? Must you write? |
Religion / Re: David Ibiyeomie Gifts Hyundai Cars To Members (Photos) by OOAS(m): 11:32am On Oct 14, 2016 |
danbrowndmf: Great reply |
Romance / Who Should Pay When Having a "Date"? by OOAS(m): 5:01pm On Oct 06, 2016 |
I believe in gender equality but I just want to ask how do you feel when you go out on a date and you both "Go dutch" (each person pays half of the expenses). I believe men are naturally made to give and women are naturally made to receive. #No offense to anyone #I respect your opinions 1 Like |
Politics / Re: Dino Melaye Buys N180Million Rolls Royce From US (Photo) by OOAS(m): 4:34pm On Oct 06, 2016 |
Will this car be used on Nigeria roads? just thinking |
NYSC / Re: Project Management (PMP) Lectures Is Going On Watsapp Group...join Now by OOAS(m): 2:07am On Jul 26, 2016 |
08168209666 |
Romance / Re: Do Ladies Still Appreciate Beautiful Flowers? by OOAS(m): 5:53pm On Jul 03, 2016 |
ehix89:. Smiles. Glad to hear that |
Romance / Re: Do Ladies Still Appreciate Beautiful Flowers? by OOAS(m): 5:52pm On Jul 03, 2016 |
[quote author=KingCheezyPuff post=47169649]❤NO ...... Wow. Good to know that they don't |
Romance / Re: Do Ladies Still Appreciate Beautiful Flowers? by OOAS(m): 5:51pm On Jul 03, 2016 |
BoboFashion:. Hmmm, you have a point |
Romance / Re: Do Ladies Still Appreciate Beautiful Flowers? by OOAS(m): 5:51pm On Jul 03, 2016 |
Habiodunz:That is +++ to them absolutely |
Romance / Re: Do Ladies Still Appreciate Beautiful Flowers? by OOAS(m): 5:50pm On Jul 03, 2016 |
charijee:Smiles. I would really love to |
Romance / Re: Do Ladies Still Appreciate Beautiful Flowers? by OOAS(m): 5:49pm On Jul 03, 2016 |
emotions1:You have a point but seems like it is a general mindset in movies |
Romance / Do Ladies Still Appreciate Beautiful Flowers? by OOAS(m): 4:51pm On Jul 03, 2016 |
Seriously, this has been on my mind for sometime. We have been exposed to a certain "school of thought" through films across the world that ladies appreciate beautiful Flowers but does it work that way in this time and age? Please sincere comments would be appreciated and beneficial to some people I believe. |
European Football (EPL, UEFA, La Liga) / Re: Wales Vs Belgium: Euro 2016 Quarter-finals (3 - 1) On 1st July 2016 by OOAS(m): 8:54pm On Jul 01, 2016 |
kabman:Belgium defending is trash especially that guy@Jordan Lukaku |
European Football (EPL, UEFA, La Liga) / Re: Wales Vs Belgium: Euro 2016 Quarter-finals (3 - 1) On 1st July 2016 by OOAS(m): 7:14pm On Jul 01, 2016 |
Lawcurrent:They will really need it this night |
European Football (EPL, UEFA, La Liga) / Re: Wales Vs Belgium: Euro 2016 Quarter-finals (3 - 1) On 1st July 2016 by OOAS(m): 6:59pm On Jul 01, 2016 |
adeoyetayo1:Lol. I don't hate them. But seriously, they really got lucky last match. Let us see how it goes today |
European Football (EPL, UEFA, La Liga) / Re: Wales Vs Belgium: Euro 2016 Quarter-finals (3 - 1) On 1st July 2016 by OOAS(m): 6:49pm On Jul 01, 2016 |
Lawcurrent:For where!!! They got lucky in their last match. |
European Football (EPL, UEFA, La Liga) / Re: Wales Vs Belgium: Euro 2016 Quarter-finals (3 - 1) On 1st July 2016 by OOAS(m): 6:45pm On Jul 01, 2016 |
Vermaelen is on suspension. He is not going to play |
Religion / Re: I Wonder If There Is A God by OOAS(m): 5:51pm On Jul 01, 2016 |
One thing I know is that argument doesn't solve the problem of whatever religion because everyone leaves with the same idea they brought into the argument. OP, why did you start this conversation? Do you want to learn? or you just want to establish your point and nothing else counts? 1 Like 2 Shares |
Religion / Re: I Wonder If There Is A God by OOAS(m): 5:36pm On Jul 01, 2016 |
Christianity is NOT a religion,it is a way of life. Until that is established, you might just not understand What it means to be a Christian. #Shalom. 1 Like 1 Share |
Agriculture / Re: My NIAS (Nigeria Institute Of Animal Science) Exam Comes Up This Saturday. by OOAS(m): 3:25am On Jun 29, 2016 |
Your contributions has been wonderful. I am currently an undergraduate studying Agricultural economics and I would like to take this exam. I just want to confirm if it is possible to write the same exam animal scientist write or I will write a different exam. Your contribution will be gladly received. Thanks in anticipation. |
Education / Re: #OutBreakInOAU: Disease Out Break In OAU Trending On Twitter by OOAS(m): 8:11pm On Feb 29, 2016 |
Vanquay:. I smell beef |
Education / Re: Pls Help My Sis Check Her Jamb Result 55066984DJ by OOAS(m): 4:06am On Apr 06, 2015 |
eniolaamoda: That is what you will see in any jamb result slip. So, Don't be scared |
Education / Re: Can I Still Make A Second Class Upper? by OOAS(m): 9:02am On Mar 28, 2015 |
Different universities have their own system of grading and calculating grades. Just sit down, get all the course units you are going to do, then calculate it yourself. |
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