Communique: National Summit on Agroecology- Public Private Partnership on the Strategic Partnerships for Agroecology and Climate Justice in West Africa (SPAC-West Africa), Nigeria

COMMUNIQUE

Preamble

ActionAid Nigeria (Strategic Partnerships for Agroecology and Climate Justice in West Africa (SPAC-West Africa) Project and Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA II) Project) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Be The Help Foundation(BHF), Small-Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme implemented by UNDP organised the National Summit on Agroecology and Public - Private Partnerships on Agroecology held at Wetland Hotel, Abuja, 15th April 2024.

The Summit brought together stakeholders from both public and private sector, farmers’ organisations, and young people’s movements, NGOs, Donors, and Development Partners to promote agroecology and support the facilitation of Public Private Partnerships on agroecology that will further lead to adoption, scale to millions of farmers, and transition to sustainable agriculture practices. The Research and Documentation of Indigenous Seeds, Seedlings and Livestock for Agro Biodiversity Preservation and Promotion was presented while the Stories of Change on increased productivity and incomes from the field were shared and discussed to promote agroecology adoption and scale up.

A total number of 200 participants attended (150 physical while 50 participants participated actively through the Zoom platform). These participants included House of Representative Committee on Agricultural Production and Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), Representative of the Honourable Speaker, House of Representatives, Ecological Project Office, and Ondo, Jigawa, Ebonyi, Delta States and the FCT Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) Managers and Extension Directors. Also present were the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON), Be the Help Foundation, ActionAid SPA II Project team and partners, Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation, Danish Embassy, EU, World Food Programme, Small and Medium Enterprise Development  Agency  of  Nigeria  (SMEDAN),  ECOWAS

Commission, Nigeria Agribusiness Group, Activista Nigeria, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Media, Academia, Research Institutions & members of various Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

COMMENDATIONS

•  We commend the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) for being committed to achieving food and nutrition security and willing to collaborate with ActionAid Nigeria and other stakeholders all the time.
• We commend all the 36 States and the FCT Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) Managers for their commitment to scaling up agroecology across Nigeria towards our food and nutrition security.
• We commend development partners and donors on their work in Nigeria towards climate change mitigation and Adaptation.
• We commend the private sector and civil society organisations for their contributions towards Nigeria’s food and nutrition security.

• We commend smallholder women farmers and young people for their resilience.

   

KEY OBSERVATIONS

During the meeting, participants made the following observations:

1. Nigeria is faced with daunting food and nutrition insecurity caused by low public investments in agriculture, late budget releases, insurgency, armed banditry, farmers and herders’ clashes and when you add our high post-harvest losses of N3.5 trillion annually, the situation becomes more damning.

    

2. The Nigeria Multidimensional Poverty Index (2022) released in November 2022 further reiterates the need for us to rethink our approaches to achieving food and nutrition security in Nigeria. The report shows that out of Nigeria’s 200million population, 38.6% which is 77.2million citizens are faced with food insecurity, while 28.7% which is 57.4million are faced with nutrition insecurity and 50.6% which is 101.2million citizens lack access to cooking fuel which contributes largely to climate change and health issues. Remember the national measure of multidimensional poverty was conducted between November 2021 and February 2022 and things are worse than these statistics at the moment considering the fuel subsidy removal and the current hyperinflation. Hence, as many as possible of these types of projects on Agroecology and Climate Justice are needed to help communities to produce nutritious food sustainably.

    

3. This project is timely because although developing countries like Nigeria, use only 25% of chemical pesticides produced worldwide, we experience 99% of pesticide deaths. Research shows the World Health Organization estimates that 385 million farmers fell victim to acute poisoning in 2019, most of them in Asia and Africa.

    

4. 75% of smallholder women farmers surveyed in 2022 experienced some health challenges that they attributed to pesticide use. Symptoms like difficulty in breathing, dizziness, headaches, nausea, vomiting, eye problems, skin rashes, catarrh, diarrhoea, and respiratory problems were among the most common health effects reported.

    

5. Nigeria’s population is increasing, and the quantity of land remains the same, it is therefore extremely important that we take action to develop technology that will improve our farmlands, especially strategies to recycle nutrients within our lands to ensure sustainable agroecological management. Despite land degradation, the soil can heal itself and regenerate, therefore it is possible to grow our food 100% without chemicals.

    

6. Nigeria loses about $362.5m yearly in terms of foreign exchange to the ban on the exportation of beans in the last eight years, hence the importance of this project and other agroecology projects/interventions to help the country save money and export good and acceptable agricultural produce in the global market. Bearing in mind that every Nigeria’s food rejected is Naira lost and unemployment increased.

    

7. On access to Extension Services, smallholder women farmers have access to only 5.26% farm demonstrations and 19.47% of farmers field schools and these areas needs massive investments to scale up agroecology.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

1. We call on Federal and State Executives, National and State Houses of Assembly to scale up agroecology and extension services yearly budget, and ensure timely consideration, passage, and total budget releases as a strategic approach to increase food production, reduce hunger and poverty and achieve the CAADP Commitment to Enhancing Resilience of Livelihoods & Production Systems to Climate Variability and Other Shocks.

    

2. Federal and State Governments should urgently start the preservation and promotion of Nigeria’s Indigenous Seeds, Seedlings and Livestock for Agrobiodiversity.

    

3. The Ecological Project Office should support the scale up of agroecology across communities in Nigeria towards climate change mitigation and adaptation.

    

4. Nigeria needs a National Agroecology Strategy to be domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security for coordination and scale up of Agroecology Programmes in Nigeria.

    

5. As approved by the 44th National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development (NCARD); the three tiers of government should commit 10% of their annual budget to the agriculture sector to meet the 10% Maputo/Malabo Declaration required to support at least 6% growth rate for the sector as postulated in the CAADP framework. There should be political will to allocate at least 10% of annual budgets and actual of revenues to the agriculture sector with appropriate budget lines so that Nigeria will be on track in the next Biennial Reporting to the African Union Heads of States and Government in line with the Malabo Declaration and Commitments of 2014.

    

6. Federal and State governments should allocate more public investments in agriculture to address the strategic areas of investments that would increase the agricultural GDP to at least 6%. These strategic areas of investments include Extension Services, Access to Credit, Women in Agriculture, Youth in Agriculture, Appropriate Labour-Saving Technologies, Inputs, Post-Harvest Losses Reduction Supports (processing facilities, storage facilities, trainings, market access, etc.), Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA)/Agroecology, Irrigation, Research and Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, as well as Coordination.

    

7. Government should strengthen Extension Services with mobility, incentives and resources for field visits and employ more extension agents especially women and youths.

    

8. The growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) should be re-introduced, focused on organic inputs, and the budget should be increased to address the inputs gaps experienced by smallholder farmers, especially women and young people and to provide access to early maturing seeds, seedlings, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture, and poultry, thus supporting agroecological practices, indigenous seeds, and agrobiodiversity preservation for increased farm yields.

    

9. The National Agricultural Development Fund should have a major component on supporting and scaling up agroecology across communities in Nigeria.

    

10. Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) should begin to develop pesticide policies and legislation that ensures that the most toxic pesticides are prohibited, and phased out in Nigeria, and a significant shift made towards sustainable farm systems like agroecology. To achieve this, the government needs to develop a safe sustainable food strategy that reduces the use of highly toxic synthetic chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030; 25% by 2040, a maximum of 5% by 2050 and strong support to be given to farmers in their transition towards agroecology.

     

11. The private sector through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) that benefit smallholder farmers especially women and young people should promote agroecology and play a robust role in facilitating market access for agroecological produced agriculture produce in Nigeria.

     

12. Development Partners and Donors should increase their fundings and programmes on agroecology and climate justice in Nigeria.

     

13. The Federal Government should invest more in Agricultural research and Innovation (Invest in Local Science), this will scale up Agroecological practices and improve food security.

     

14. Consumers and producers’ market on Agroecological produced food should be prioritized by government to aid scale up.

     

15. Government should promote Land Tenure Reforms, Resource Rights for smallholder women farmers (SHWF) and young persons, & access to farmland schemes for youths and women.

NEXT STEPS

• AAN to transmit Communique to relevant Policy Makers, MDAs, and Institutions as well as all participants.

• State teams headed by the 36 States and the FCT Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) Managers will lead advocacy and scale up of agroecology at state-levels.

• Donors and Agricultural Agencies to Collaborate with ActionAid for Scaling up Agroecology project in Nigeria and West Africa.

Endorsed By

List of Organizations, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, CSOs and Institutions that participated in the National Summit on Agroecology and Public-Private Partnerships on Agroecology.

1. House Committee on Agricultural Production and Services (National Assembly).
2. Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS).
3. ActionAid Nigeria.
4. Fresh &The Young Brains Development Initiative (FBIN).
5. Heinrich Böll Stiftung (HBS).
6. Small Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON).
7. All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN).
8. Nigerian Agribusiness (NABG).
9. Women Environmental Programme (WEP).
10. Small and Medium Scale Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).
11. National Agency for The Great Green Wall.
12. Ecological Project Office (EPO).
13. Guardian Newspaper.
14. Savanna Express.
15. African Independence Television (AIT).
16. Silverbird TV.
17. Ray Power FM.
18. Radio Nigeria.
19. Wazobia FM.
20. News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
21. Blueprint Media.
22. African Independent Television (AIT).
23. News 24 TV.
24. Plus TV.
25. News Agency of Nigeria.
26. Development TV.
27. The 4 Project States (Ondo, Delta, Ebonyi , Jigawa and the FCT Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) Managers and Extension Directors.
28. Organic and Agroecological Initiative in Nigeria (ORAIN).
29. Babe Azimi Foundation.
30. She Matters Foundation.
31. Environmental and Rural Mediation Centre (ENVIRUMEDIC).
32. Farm Radio International.
33. Ripple Heights Development Initiative, Ibadan Nigeria.
34. Nigerian Forum for Agric Advisory Services (NIFAAS).
35. Safe Food Awareness Initiative (SFAI).
36. Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACCIMA).
37. Rural and Urban Stewardship Initiative for Sustainable Development (RUSISD).
38. Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Cooperation (NAIC).
39. South Saharan Social Development Organization (Enugu).
40. Clement Isong Foundation (Akwa Ibom).
41. Inspire Youth Network (Lagos).
42. Green Rivers Organisation.
43. National   Environmental    Standards    and    regulations    enforcement agency (NESREA).
44. Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
45. German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).
46. Federal Ministry of Women Affairs.
47. Federal Ministry of industry Trade and Investment (FMITI).
48. World Food program (WFP).
49. Biodiversity Education and Resource Center (BERC).
50. Civil Society Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria.
51. Participatory Development Alternative (PDA).
52. Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN).
53. L&Z Farms.
54. Dangote Farms.
55. World Bank.
56. Center for Dry Land Agriculture (CDA).
57. St. Aloysious School.
58. Jigawa State Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (JARDA).
59. Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF).
60. TGL/WACOT.
61. Danish Embassy.
62. Federal Ministry of Youth Development (FMYD).
63. South Saharan Social development organization (SSDO).