National self-deception on agriculture

located are not ready for the hardships of that life; no power supply, no potable water, health care, and no fun. Serious as all these other considerations are, they pale by comparison with the major reason why the self-deception on agriculture will get us nowhere. In fact, they are likely to make things worse in two, five, ten or twenty years from now as this real case study will illustrate. Mr S earlier this year went to one of the banks he had been patronizing for over ten years intending to raise a loan of one million naira to start a pilot poultry project for two of his nephews, recent graduates, to help them with self-employment. At the time of making the request, he had two fixed deposit accounts totaling six million with the bank which he was prepared to offer as collateral. Prior to that, Mr S had borrowed N4 million from the same bank four years before to finance the purchase of a personal car. He had five million in his fixed deposit account. The car loan was approved; the agriculture loan refused. The Marketing Officer for the bank, during the last meeting with the client, finally broke down and made two confessions, begging not to be identified. One, agriculture loans take a long time to process even when the applicant has adequate collaterals. Two, the bank actually is not keen on loans to farmers this year; the primary function of the Marketing Officers is to mobilize resources. In other words, the bank would accept deposits from farmers after they have made the money from their own efforts. But, the bank will not help them to make it. That real case study and the CBN statement above summarise totally how we deceive ourselves. Before the CBN disclosure, which in actual fact is no news, the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, had made the same point months ago.