26/07/2011 (Business Day) - The statement by the new Minister of Agriculture and natural Resources  that Nigeria spent  a total of N98 trillion (about $628 billion) on food imports between 2007 and 2010 came with a bang and it is currently a subject of debate  in many quarters.

According to the reports, in 2010 alone, the country spent N635 billion on importation of wheat, N356 billion on rice which , amounts to spending about N1 billion per day; N217 billion on sugar imports as well as N97 billion on fish importation in spite of all the marine resources, rivers, lakes and creeks that the nation is blessed with.

Akinwunmi Adesina, the new minister of agriculture and natural resources who disclosed in his inaugural address at the official handing ceremony in Abuja, lamented that the trend posed a huge problem which according to him, is fiscally unsustainable.

We agree with the minister that Nigeria is eating beyond its means. Nigeria’s GDP is in the neighbourhood of $300 billion (GDP estimate for 2010 is $374 billion). Nigeria’s budget for 2011 is N4.7 trillion (N$27 billion). Put this against our food import figure of N98 trillion for three years, you will understand how ridiculous it sounds.

It would be recalled that in years past, Nigeria accounted for over 60 per cent of the global supply of palm oil and 35 per cent of groundnut. It also accounted for 23 per cent of groundnut oil and 15 per cent of cocoa. The quality of lives improved, children went to good school, Nigeria was food self-sufficient, and farmers fed the nation. This is now history.

But Nigeria is adjudged   to be the largest producer of cassava in the world, producing 45 million tonnes. In spite of this feat, the nation accounts for zero per cent of global value added, whereas Thailand which accounts for 10 per cent of cassava production has 80 per cent added value. And we have failed to use  this cassava endowment  in our bakery and allied industry.

An import-dependent economy has its drawbacks. For instance, only recently, price of bread went up by 10 per cent. Players in the bakery industry under the auspices of Association of Master Bakers and Caterers of Nigeria (AMBCN) in Lagos said this arose because they found it difficult to cope with the high cost of raw materials. The raw materials in question are wheat flour and sugar mainly which are imported.

It is the same story in the dairy industry. The disaster issue in China, Pakistan and Australia played out recently in  the Nigerian  milk business where prices went up. Milk prices globally, went up, very little product was available – perhaps a lot of speculative money buying up product caused the squeeze. So the high international prices, which our local milk manufacturers had to pay, meant higher costs for the plants and by extension a burden on Nigerian final consumers.

The price surge had to be because Chinese imports increased from 100,000 metric tonnes in 2008 to 330,000 metric tonnes in 2010 and it is expected to be 420,000 metric tonnes in 2011. Average price forecast for Whole Milk Powder in 2011 is $3,800 as against a historical average of $2,500.

More milk importation by China means a squeeze on global milk supply to a place like Nigeria where milk production and per capita consumption are at low ebb. Total estimated milk consumption in Nigeria for 2010 is 1.45 billion litres. Number of dairy cows required to produce 1.45 billion litres per annum is 243 000 cows producing 20 litres/day (6000 litres per 300 day lactation. And world per capita average is 78 litres per annum; dairy per capita consumption for Sub Saharan Africa is 25 litres per annum; dairy per capita consumption (calculated) Nigeria is 9.7 litres per annum; developing countries per capita average is 44 litres per annum.

We must put a stop to this needless spending on food import. We agree with the minister that we must accelerate domestic rice production and improve on processing to meet quality standards. We must tap into all the resources of our farmers across the nation and deliver a green revolution for rice that will make Nigeria self-sufficient in rice production. We must take a second look at how we can blend wheat flour with cassava flour for bread and allied foods production. We must also do more than we are doing now in fishery.