A few years ago, i think in 2005, Obasanjo leased some land in Kwara state to some white zimbabwean farmers who were kicked out of zimbabwe by Mugabe. These farmers were granted leases of up to 25 years to grow various food crops and breed cattle, they seem to have done well out of it so far and many of them have branched out into the production of other food products such as yoghurts, ice cream and fresh milk.

What i want to know is this, why hasnt the nigerian govt given more incentives to indigenous nigerians to go into the production of food? Surely it would make sense for this activiity to be carried out by indigenous people rather than allow foreigners into our country to adopt an activity which should be run and controlled by the indigenous people.

Does it make sense to have allowed people who have a track record of exploiting africans the right to come into our country to make even more money? If these people could treat black zimbabweans so badly and dispossess them of their own land in their own country what stops them from trying to do the same to us?

I would appreciate views on this.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umj8-U2sg4E

Incentives like?

why do you assume they are not given?

http://www.africanagricultureblog.com/2009/04/nigeria-establishes-agricultural-credit.html

I know the reply will be that it is a means to chop money.

cap28:

A few years ago, i think in 2005, Obasanjo leased some land in Kwara state to some white zimbabwean farmers who were kicked out of zimbabwe by Mugabe. These farmers were granted leases of up to 25 years to grow various food crops and breed cattle, they seem to have done well out of it so far and many of them have branched out into the production of other food products such as yoghurts, ice cream and fresh milk.

What i want to know is this, why hasnt the nigerian govt given more incentives to indigenous nigerians to go into the production of food? Surely it would make sense for this activiity to be carried out by indigenous people rather than allow foreigners into our country to adopt an activity which should be run and controlled by the indigenous people.

Does it make sense to have allowed people who have a track record of exploiting africans the right to come into our country to make even more money? If these people could treat black zimbabweans so badly and dispossess them of their own land in their own country what stops them from trying to do the same to us?

I would appreciate views on this.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umj8-U2sg4E

it was not obj

No Mind am . . .  Saraki invited them over and they have helped transform the face of Agriculture in Kwara State since then. And the leases IMPLY an agreement of some kind.

@Poster, what you ought to do instead is ask how people can enjoy the same.

LOL

Kobo dey speak broken.

Nice one.

What kobojunkie said. No need repeating it in a different form.

^^^^

who u talking to?

@OP,
It was actually Bukola Saraki that did that, not OBJ.
I hear some states are considering leasing land to some countries in the Middle East for farming purposes; there sin't anything particularly wrong with that. We're not utilizing the land well enough anyway. Even in Lagos where large tracts were ceded to bogus families for supporting the incumbent Tinubu government, they've not done anything with the land rather than try to sell at exorbitant prices to developers.

Not that there's no room for improvement though; these government functionaries should push for reforming the obnoxious Land Use act, and try to see how we can get land utilized via public-private sector vehicles. That's a more realistic approach than just distributing land for the sake of land itself. Our economy needs to finance housing for our population, provide jobs to the employable workforce, and also other amenities.

Of course, it's in the black man's DNA to 'own' land; even in medieval Europe, the standard for wealth was land ownership. But owning tracts of land is not wealth in itself; that can be clearly seen in the case of Zimbabwe. At the end of the day, the land has been distributed more equitably, but the country has significantly dropped in foreign exchange earnings on the export of cash crops like tobacco and cotton. The new land owners plant yams, cassava, potatoes, crops that cannot bring the country wealth, and cannot necessarily expand in production. Essentially, Mugabe has taken his country back two hundred years, to the pre-slavery era, when he could have gone the SA approach and forced the white farmers into some sort of BEE-style arrangement - you want to work the farms, go ahead. But we own half of everything, and you will still pay tax to the government.

At the end of the day, it's not about blind hatred of the white man.

AjanleKoko:

@OP,
It was actually Bukola Saraki that did that, not OBJ.
I hear some states are considering leasing land to some countries in the Middle East for farming purposes; there sin't anything particularly wrong with that. We're not utilizing the land well enough anyway. Even in Lagos where large tracts were ceded to bogus families for supporting the incumbent Tinubu government, they've not done anything with the land rather than try to sell at exorbitant prices to developers.

Not that there's no room for improvement though; these government functionaries should push for reforming the obnoxious Land Use act, and try to see how we can get land utilized via public-private sector vehicles. That's a more realistic approach than just distributing land for the sake of land itself. Our economy needs to finance housing for our population, provide jobs to the employable workforce, and also other amenities.

Of course, it's in the black man's DNA to 'own' land; even in medieval Europe, the standard for wealth was land ownership. But owning tracts of land is not wealth in itself; that can be clearly seen in the case of Zimbabwe. At the end of the day, the land has been distributed more equitably, but the country has significantly dropped in foreign exchange earnings on the export of cash crops like tobacco and cotton. The new land owners plant yams, cassava, potatoes, crops that cannot bring the country wealth, and cannot necessarily expand in production. Essentially, Mugabe has taken his country back two hundred years, to the pre-slavery era, when he could have gone the SA approach and forced the white farmers into some sort of BEE-style arrangement - you want to work the farms, go ahead. But we own half of everything, and you will still pay tax to the government.

At the end of the day, it's not about blind hatred of the white man.

thanks for your comments.

After watching the attached link what struck me about this arrangement was the fact that this sort of offer could have been made to indigenous people, the govt could have assisted them with subsidies similar to subsidies that the americans and europeans give to their own farmers and this would then mean that nigeria would not have to rely on importing dairy and other food products from europe and america.  I  just find it really odd that we can invite in white farmers to do somethihng that our own people are quite capable of doing.  Where do all our graduates from veterinary and agricultural colleges in nigeria end up?  surely dairy and cattle farming would be an area that they would excel in.

Another thing i discovered is that we import so much food ($1.8billion annually)  apparently we spend $150 million per month on cereals like rice, wheat and barley, - cant these be grown by indigenous people in nigeria?

My focus is on growing food for domestic consumption rather than growing of cash crops for export.  We have been tied into this harmful cycle of producing cash crops and exporting raw materials  without caring about domestic issues, this is economic policy which serves the interests of foreign multinationals and not the indigenous people.  we sell them cheap raw materials and cash crops  and in return we buy their expensive manufactured finished products - this is an extremely destructive cycle that needs to change.

Always a pleasure, cap28.
Again, this is the fault of the various naive and dishonest African governments, and not necessarily the fault of the investors.
The US is the largest importer of crude, and also owns the largest reserves. They import crude to power the consumer lifestyle of their people, but ensure they have enough in reserve should there be a crisis at some point. Nothing stops the Nigerian government and the clowns at the assembly from promulgating laws that guarantee our ability to use land as a tool for drawing FDI through the growing of cash crops as well as ensuring food security. We have enough arable land to make this happen. All we lack is the required foresight and thinking.

The original progenitors of the Land Use act, during the era of Gowon, and later Murtala/Obasanjo, had something like what you are talking about in mind. They believed that all land should be controlled by the government, and apportioned in appropriate measures, for industrial, residential, and agrarian use. It was this thinking that spurred in fact the establishment of Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta and Makurdi, as well as the Federal Colleges in Akure and Umudike. In fact, the 60s and 70s saw the setting out of various agricultural projects across the country. In many of the south western and south eastern states, there are many abandoned plantations which haven't moved beyond the time of OBJ. Rather, what we see now is 'entrepreneural' Nigerians lobbying to grab these lands and convert them into personal use, to be sold off to developers, for building useless estates and palatial playgrounds.