COVID-19 Impact on Agric Sector not too scary for now – Stakeholders

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SunNewsOnline | 30th, March 2020

The coronavirus infection, otherwise known as COVID-19, whose outbreak was declared on January 30, 2020 by the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of the World Health Organisation, is assuming alarming dimensions globally, impacting all aspects of human life and shutting the windows of various economic sectors in most severely affected countries.

The disease, which was first detected at a large seafood and live animals’ market in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China in December 2019, has been declared a global pandemic by WHO, which means it is “in multiple parts of the world and constitutes something that’s above the baseline rate that you’d expect.”

So far, according to WHO reports, it has at least 681,706 confirmed cases globally with at least 31,882 deaths, a situation that has caused many nations to put their social and economic activities on lock down. This implies that inward and outward movements of persons, goods and services are highly restricted, which in effect means that inter-regional and international trades are taking a hit with several sectors of the global economy already bowing to the pressures of the disease.

For Nigeria’s economy, x-raying COVID-19’s impact on Nigeria’s agriculture sector reveals that despite being a sensitive and critical part of the economy, it is still relatively safe from the crushing effect of the disease. According to stakeholders, the sector, for now, is relatively safe and stable. As at March 28, Nigeria had 97 confirmed cases with only one death.

Commenting on the possible effect of the virus on Nigeria’s agriculture sector, the National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim, said it will be minimal.

Ibrahim said, “since this is a global pandemic, it will also affect us but it will be minimal in our case because they said the virus cannot withstand any temperature beyond room temperature.

“Right now, we are at the point of getting food-sufficient and our trade is mainly within Africa because of the no-go-areas in the Americas and Europe. The effect will be there but it will be minimal. We are comfortable for now; we don’t foresee that there’ll be an appreciable effect.”

Ibrahim further stated that, “as far as importing agricultural inputs is concerned, we already have a fertiliser bill that says you cannot import fertiliser. We are blending one million metric tonnes of fertiliser in different places in Nigeria. We have never imported hybrid seeds but what we don’t have competence in now is vegetable seeds, which we normally import from the Netherlands. So, there’ll be effect but it will not be huge.”

For his part, the General Manager, Project, Elephant Group Plc, Dr. Oluwarotimi Fashola, noted that the COVID-19 impact on the nation’s agriculture sector would be on two levels, positive and negative but that both would not be too devastating.

Fashola explained that, “if you look at it from the perspective of mechanisation, the nations we import from are on lock down so it means that because we are not particularly a manufacturing country, we can’t bring things in from these places which will impact on our level of input and mechanisation for our farmers. Right now, the impact should not be too serious because we don’t have the virus on a scale that is scary in the country at the moment.”

But looking at the long-term effect of the virus on the sector, Fashola noted that it might affect the cost of importation and availability of agricultural inputs needed for expansion in the sector.

According to him, “if you look at it in terms of expansion and development, which requires us using more input, which requires us being more mechanised, the countries we are going to get these from are on lock down, which means it’s going to impede on our ability to expand. On the other side is the impact on our foreign reserve because of our dependent on oil. Our foreign reserve is going down, which means we will not have enough money to bring things in that will help agriculture because if the speculation is that we are going to review the budget, the exchange rate, things might get more expensive bringing in.

“But the good thing about that is that it forces us to look inward and be creative. We probably need to do more about our blending plants. Even though they come from overseas, but at least the existing ones need to be maximally utilised. We need to go inwards and be more creative so that we expand from inside out. Let more people fabricate the equipment we need for small scale farmers to work with.”

In conclusion, he said, “we can look at it both positively and negatively; positively because it makes us to be more creative, negatively in the sense that things can get more expensive. Anything that’s going to be imported will get more expensive and relatively scarce.”

The Lagos State and South West Zone Chapter Chairman of AFAN, Dr. Femi Oke, is of the opinion that “for now, it’s not affecting our sector.” He, however, stated that if the pandemic makes appreciable inroad into the country, it could reduce agricultural production, especially with the approaching wet farming season.