THE END SHALL TELL

The Honourable Commissioner for Agriculture,

Ministry of Agriculture & Natural Resources,

Edo State.

Sir,

THE END SHALL TELL

ACFA’S OVERTURE

Appreciation:

We, the members and executives of All Co-operative Farmers Association, Edo State, (ACFA) sincerely extend our thanks to you for finding time from your busy schedule to attend to us.

Preamble:

In our proposition to meet up with our responsibilities of closing the linkages between the government and those in the grass-root, so that they can be provided with the key institutional supports they required in order to succeed in the production and development of the product and services of the aforementioned group. We proposed these useful suggestions which we believe will help to eradicate poverty from those considered to be poorest of the poor (THE FARMERS), hence the need and usefulness of this All Co-operative Farmers Association.

Our Request From The Honourable Commissioner

We have elaborated enough of when, how, and why similar program set up failed. But All Co-operative Farmers Association, has assured the state government through the Honourable commissioner that if we are given the needed assistance and freedom to operate, by empowering us in the under mention ways, ACFA shall make Edo State a “Really Farmer State”

1.      To help us facilitate the release of one mile square farmland in any government reserve area in the state through the Ministry of Environment. So that we can conduct a collective/constructive co-operative farming program.

2.      Alternatively, counter-write a reference document for ACFA which will complement our request letter to the Commissioner for Environment, for our request of the 1 mile square from the ministry

3.      Assist this group to intervene before the Honorable Commissioner for Works to help us Bulldozer/Grade the road to the co-operative farm in Okokhuo village.

4.      Help All Co-operative farmers to receive the newly improved Cassava cutting assigned for Edo Farmers.

5.      Set up inspection team to verify the actualization of fadama III project in the state.

Finally Sir, we promised that if the aforementioned requests are considered, a practicable difference will be observed in this sector within a very short time. Precisely one year from the date the road was graded.

Purpose Of The Program:

The purpose of this program is to present an overview of the challenges and opportunities for Co-operative Farmers and youths who choose to venture into agriculture. ACFA also wish to use this opportunity to make recommendations that will result in encouraging other graduate youths who may have reasons to embrace agriculture because of the bright and beautiful picture designed for it, also to be a part of the great change going on in the agricultural sector around the world today.

It is developed to enhance residual source of income for communities rather than relying on the discovery of oil alone or on government’s allocation. The other side is aimed towards preparing the young people, women and the unemployed among us to have access to their own means of employment through agricultural development instead of youth and the unemployed invading the urban area to waste years and constitute nuisance.

It is possible that the chance of getting a white collar job is very minimal. With reasonable number of youths and well determined persons in the farming business, ACFA believes they have set the ball-rolling for the transformation of our locally made product into finished products and hereby, make for food security.

The Program Proper:

The All Co-operative Farmers Association (ACFA) Youth economic opportunity programming has increasingly endeavored to reach young people in rural areas, in particular to stem the tides of migration, reduce rural poverty, and to spur agricultural development. While there is a growing body of research and practitioner experience, there is much to learn. Practitioners, policymakers, funders, researchers, and educators largely recognize that the characteristics, assets and needs of young people in urban and remote areas are distinct. They are looking for proven practices, field-tested tools, and innovative approaches that can inform the development of higher impact and more scalable initiatives that can lead to more jobs and business opportunities for the youths, women and other unemployed in the rural areas.

Because of the efficacy of this design, similar projects were initiated by some regional governments in Nigeria and was a critical element of Western Nigeria Policy of Agricultural and Natural Resources of 1959. The main objective of this scheme is actually to make for food sufficiency and also to supplement the unemployment problems being faced by the various governments. It is also expected to address the rampant insecurity problems being faced by the citizens of the states respectively and the nation in general.

The structure of the program

This program is geared towards helping to bring well determined and serious minded farmers together in a way that they will be able to complement themselves in a convenient and suitable environment. It will also help to settle young school leavers  in  a  specified  area  of  land,  making  farming  their  career  thereby  preventing  them  from  moving  to  the urban areas in search of white collar jobs. These settled farmers will be able to design and develop a model in good farming systems. So that farmers residing in nearby villages can also emulate. 

ACFA Team believes that this community farming scheme will create a Spotlight on Opportunities for mainly Rural Youth. And it will highlight some of the critical issues facing youths, the women and other farmers in the rural areas; it will also address Urban/Rural migration. And the roles stakeholders must play in order for more young people living in rural areas to have access to (formal and informal) employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. Since this will break the cycles of poverty and transform rural economies.

It will also bring to the understanding of all, that if the various stakeholders in the agricultural industry support this development, they have lots to gain from working to support the youths. Additionally, this point up will convene a diverse group of stakeholders, ranging from youth development specialists, to agricultural specialists, to value chain specialists. These distinct communities of stakeholders will tackle complex challenges together, often for the first time, and define next step needed to be taken to increase the knowledge and technological advancement of the various participants/beneficiaries. While promoting a cross-sector collaboration.

The farm will include the following facilities;

1.      A warehouse

2.      Cassava/starch and plantain flour processing mill

3.      Administrative blocks

4.      Drying room

5.      Conference hall

6.      Packaging room

7.      Relaxation centre

8.      Sport/Recreation centre

9.      Others

Spotlight On The Opportunities of this program For Rural Youth

All Co-operative Farmers Association (ACFA), Youth economic opportunity program has been planned to reach young people in rural areas, in particular, to stem the tides of migration, reduce rural poverty, and to spur agricultural development. This will also make room for massive and well nourished farm products. While there is a growing body of research and practitioner experience, there is much to learn. Practitioners, policymakers, funders, researchers, and educators largely recognize that the characteristics, assets and needs of young people in urban and remote areas are distinct. Therefore this will give them the opportunity they have been looking for to prove this field-tested tool, and innovative approaches that can inform the development of higher impact and more scalable initiatives that will lead to more jobs and business opportunities for the youths, women and other unemployed in the rural areas.

Part of the focus in this design will be on agriculture development, improvement, and the restructuring of the sector through this program (both on-farm and off-farm); the opportunities and challenges associated with youth employment in non-agricultural sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, and services. The generating of TAX from the beneficiaries of these facilities by ACFA Team. This is a critical issue as agriculture alone is unlikely to provide enough employment, enjoyment and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people.

If this ACFA Community Farming and Educational Development Program (ACFEDEP) eventually Kick Off, the following questions may require answers.

They are:-

v  What are innovative approaches ACFA intends to apply, in order to increase the quality and relevance of different types and levels of education in rural areas?

v  How can young people be more effectively integrated into agricultural and other rural value chains in this scheme?

v  How is the government going to benefit from it, after the support?

v  What are some of the broad trends we observe in rural-urban migration, and what implications do those trends have for the economic opportunities young people have today and in the future?

v  How does ACFA intends to create farm, non-farm, and non-agriculture jobs for youth in the community?

v  How can different stakeholders be directly involved in the program, and what are some of the benefits they should expect?

v  What behavior change models exist for influencing young people’s (and their families’) perceptions of agricultural work? And how will ACFA prepare youth to undertake rural livelihoods?

v  What is the appropriate role for practitioners and Policy makers in this area?

v  What approaches have proven to be effective for improving the quality/relevance and interest of agricultural extension work for youth?

v  How will this program address the insecurity problem being faced in our societies today?

v  How are young people in rural areas engaging in decision-making related to policies and programs that affect them (at the community and national level)?

v  How do/could young people use technology in order to improve their employment and entrepreneurship opportunities? And how will stakeholders support in this regard?

v  How can we help protect young people in the rural workplace (especially in terms of their health and financial safety), and help them know their rights?

v  How will ACFA Community Farming Scheme address the causes and effects of migration, especially by looking at the pull-push factors that lead many young people to move from rural areas to the urban cities ones?

Aims And Objectives;

This Co-operative Farmers Association which was registered by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, has successfully meet up with all requirement by Law to be set up as an NGO with primary interest to bring together and coordinate, represent all co-operative farmers in the state.

1.            To create avenue for peaceful coexistence among all its members and individual Farmers in the State.

2.           To engage in any agricultural undertakings that will spur up the interest of all members of this Association into developing more concentration for this venture.

3.      To assist small scale businessmen/women with micro loan to boost their Businesses by organizing them into clusters to form co-operative entrepreneurial groups. And to bring the women together to form groups in order to care for the need of all women, affiliated to this Association.

  

4.          To undertake simple processing, packaging and marketing of co-operative farm products.

5.          To primarily operate on the principle of self-help in every aspect of our economy.

6.          To stock and distribute consumers commodities to the communities at reasonable prices. To engage in import/export, act as manufacturers’ representatives and to operate transport services.

7.          To provide effective and profitable agricultural services to all farmers in the state, by representing them appropriately. And to market/distribute fresh and original foodstuffs direct from the farm to interested customers, in our HOME service transactions.

8.         To be present in every Agricultural and Co-Operative Meetings, Seminars, Workshops and   Summit organized/held in the instance of promoting the welfare of all co-operative farmers in the state.

9.         To become a member of any National or international Association whose objectives are whole or similar to the objects of the Federation.

10.     To print, publish and distribute to members newspaper or other publications designed in the interest of promoting co-operative principles and practices.

11.     To Organize and Congregate, Represent and Protect the Right and Privileges all co-operative farmers in the state, by assisting them to Acquire Lands/Building for use, to affect the life of the general public positively too, and to undertake any civil works.

12.     To protect and defend all co-operative farmers in the state, by making meaningful representation to the Legislative, Executive and the Judiciary.

13.     To carry out any other activities designed to encourage the spirit and practice of cooperation, and to promote the business and lifestyle of all members of this Association.

The fact is that the Association is expected to operate in all 18 local government areas of the state; only about 7 local government areas have been fully represented. And they are: Uhun-Ode, Oredo, Egor, Ovia South West, Ovia North East, Esan Central. We hope to cover the entire state in style.

Why ACFA Can Be Trusted

In both developed and developing countries, there are examples of innovative producer organizations and cooperatives that have proven successful in helping small producers overcome different constraints. However, they too often remain limited in scale and scope. The main challenge is to build on these success stories, in order to achieve sustainable rural and agricultural development. For this, relevant stakeholders need to come together, with clear roles and responsibilities, to define the enabling environment where producer organizations can fit in.

National governments, international donors, development agencies, non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, and research and academic institutions all have a role to play in supporting the development of strong, efficient and equitable cooperatives and producer organizational project like this ACFEDEP Youth Empowerment Design.

Governments can provide favourable policies, transparent laws and regulations that are based on consultation with the developer of this beautiful poverty alleviating tool. They can provide the right business environment, and consultative forum. They can also support with the scaling up of successful and innovative cooperative models, provision of kick off grant. The donor community and NGOs can assist existing cooperatives through this Association, with other relevant materials, rather than create new organizations. Interestingly, experience has shown that it is better to support existing cooperatives than to create new organizations that may lack grassroots commitment. [See box in the last page]

As earlier written, similar program has previously been initiated by some regional governments in Nigeria and was a critical element of Western Nigeria Policy of Agricultural and Natural Resources of 1959. The main objective of this scheme was to settle young school leavers  in  a  specified  area  of  land,  making  farming  their  career  thereby  preventing  them  from  moving  to  the urban areas in search of white collar jobs. These settled farmers were also to serve as models in good farming systems for farmers residing in nearby villages to emulate.  Unfortunately,  the  dream  of  this  scheme  was  not materialized  because  some  of  the  settlers  were  too  young  and  inexperienced  in  farming  thus  causing  a  high percentage of drop-outs among the settlers (Amalu, 1998). Secondly lack of understanding of the meaning and implication  of  the  scheme  by  some  settlers  who  assumed  that  through  their  participation  in  the  scheme  they would eventually get paid job. They were discouraged and some withdrew as soon as the allowances were not given any more. Thirdly, the cost of establishing a viable farm settlement was too high in terms of cash and staff (Amalu, 1998). Finally, expenses made on  the scheme was incurred mainly on installation of infrastructure like construction of houses, schools, markets, roads etc for the settlers which did not directly bring about increase in agricultural output by the  participants as targeted. Most of such programs that were not sustained are:

1.      National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP)

2.      Agricultural Development Projects (ADP):

3.      United  Nations  Development Programme  (UNDP). 

4.      Integrated Agricultural Development Projects (IADP)

5.      Operation Feed the Nation (OFN):

6.      Green Revolution (GR)

7.      Directorate for Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI)

8.      River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs).

9.      Social Dimensions Of Adjustment (SDA)

10.  Better Life Programme (BLP)

11.  National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA):

12.  Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP)

13.  Family Support Programme (FSP

14.  National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).

15.  States’ Economic  Empowerment  and  Development  Strategies  (SEEDS)

16.  National, Special Programme on Food Security (NSPFS)

17.  Root And Tuber Expansion Programme (RTEP)

18.  National Fadama Development Project (NFDP)

Why Failure Previously?

Most of these programs fail to succeed because the primary beneficiaries (THE FARMERS) were never part of the decision making. They were called the basis for the program but treated as pets, immediately the program commence. The main request of the farmers are not meet. Instead, the civil servants decide and dictate how the program goes, without finding time to see to the welfare of the beneficiaries. Some persons who enjoy this benefit are not majorly a true farmer. They possibly don’t even have the interest of the farmers at heart. Most time the grants, loans or other incentive to this regard, goes to the pockets of those that are suppose to see to the success of the program. Other possible reasons are:-

a.       Farming was done on any available piece of land irrespective of its suitability for agriculture.

b.      Majority of the participants in the program had little or no farming background and there was no formal or informal preparatory teaching or advice given to them on how to manage their farms.

c.       They practiced mono cropping instead of mixed/relay cropping  and their cultivation is done in little piece which may not enhance rich produce. This led to reliance on hired labour to carry out their farming activities, which resulted in high input and low output /yield per unit of land.

d.      Preference was given to government establishments and individuals in authority/administration over the poor farmers (real producer of food) in terms of input supply.

e.       There was abundance of food in the market and less demand for the food because many people produced part or almost whole food they consumed without proper marketing design.

A TARGET SET

To speed up the reformation process which will in turn translate to the sustainability of agriculture as real business, the purpose ACFA was established for. The initiator/founder and other pioneers of this group are persons representing various co-operative societies in the state. So, it will be very easy for the body to operate in the principle of co-operative.

We are very confident that you will support this venture. There is no doubt that we are not making maximum use of our land. As most of the food we consume is imported from the neighbouring states. For example, we have a very fertile land that can be used for the cultivation of tomatoes. But because or farmers are not given the required assistant, it now seems or farmers are not qualified to produce the crop. The issue of yellow yam in our market has become a thing of the past. But is it really true that if our farmers aided that they cannot keep producing the yam (Ikpen). It’s like a dream to many that water-melon consumed in the state is produced right in this state. Before this era, Edo Farmers were deceived that water-melon cannot do well in the state. But with required support, farmers now cultivate water melon here, and they are ever willing to flock the market with this product at a cheaper rate, with the support of ACFA.

Benefits Expected.
We envisage a lot of benefits once this request is granted as this will enable the farmers in the area to be well organized. This can only be achieved if all farmers are encouraged to work together as a team. Be inform sir that in this proposed farmers community, every co-operative society operating within the local government area will be allotted a portion in this proposed Organized Co-operative Farm (OCF) in the farmers community farmland. The synergic impact of this cohesion will thus lead to increased output.

It will enable the farmers in the state access this land which in turn will support their re-organization for better produce.
It will help the farmers realize the reason(s) they must live within the farming environment.
It will enhance mass production, of agricultural products; thus leading to increased food supply. Which will in turn help in the eradication of middlemen from the agric marketing strategy, in foodstuff price.
It will help attract foreign investors to the state, to assist in our urge to project agriculture.
It will project the image of farmers in the area and also help them be fitted in their place in the scheme of things, as farmers from the most fertile land in the country.