Literature Review

* Determine farmer average income and range of income per hectare. * Recommend marketing solution to the farmers. In like manner, for the other groups of beneficiaries, that is, processors, marketers, fabricators and agro-input-dealers, the study determined their needs

2.0: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1: Agriculture and the Nigerian Economy Globally, agricultural production is crucial to the overall wellbeing of the populace, especially in developing countries. This necessitates different countries to give high priority to agriculture and struggle to develop and sustain the sector, thereby ensuring sustainable food security, employment opportunities, and foreign exchange earnings amongst others. However, in Nigeria, where over 70% of the population, mostly rural dwellers, is involved in agricultural activities, yet accounting for less than 7% of the foreign exchange earnings, the sector remains largely traditional, subsistent and undeveloped. Mostly smallholder producers, who operate farmlands of no more than two hectares accounting for over 90%of agricultural outputs (Azih, 2008), dominate the Nigerian agricultural sector. The food crops dominate production and the major food crops are rice, sorghum, millet, maize, cassava and yam. These are produced in less than 50% of the 79 million hectares of available arable land area (Manyong et al., 2005). The sudden increase in agricultural growth rates experienced has been attributed mainly by expansion in areas planted to staple crops. Productivity has remained flat and yields of most crops are actually declining (Oni et al., 2009). Public intervention and investments under the National Food Security Programme and Agricultural Transformation Agenda were aimed at sparking off a sustainable Green Revolution in the country. As it has been observed, Nigeria may not be able to meet its food production and poverty reduction goals without a significant and sustainable production increase in the agricultural sector. Furthermore, the global food crisis of early 2008 has not removed Nigeria from the unpredictable shortages of global food and price spirals of the period thus worsening Nigeria's ability of making food available and accessible at affordable prices to the teeming consumers. Reliance on food imports to supplement local production and demand remains the only option unless the sector is given more attention and enabling policy environment to improve farmers' productivity and efficiency. As common to traditional agriculture, the returns to farmers are not attractive due to high cost of production and low productivity. According to Ojehomon et al. (2009), the only way out to achieving self-sufficiency in Nigeria is to have a policy mix that embraces institutional restructuring, strategic investments and coordinated efforts at all levels to empower farmers and provide improved conditions in rural areas. Such efforts would focus on rehabilitating degraded rural infrastructure, adopting productivity and efficiency enhancing measures and taking steps to stimulate competitiveness.

2.2: Staple crops production and consumption in Nigeria Nigeria is the largest agricultural producer of staple crops in ECOWAS. Production is thought to have grown by 30% to 40% between 2000 and 2009. The most important crops for Nigeria are root crops and tubers on the one hand, and grains on the other.

Root Crops and Tubers. Root crops and tubers dominate agricultural production, accounting for eighty-nine million tonnes in 2009, i.e. 69% of the regional supply. These crops amount to more than two-thirds of staples grown in Nigeria. Production is estimated to have tripled in the last twenty years because of an increase in the amount of land devoted to these crops. Nigeria is the world's leading producer of cassava, yams and taro root, and the second largest producer of sweet potatoes. Domestic cassava production has increased greatly since the late 1990s, rising 44% in seven years to attain 44 million tonnes in 2009.

Grains. Nigeria alone grows about 50% of the grain crops produced in West Africa. Production has doubled over the years. As is the case in nearly all West African countries, the rise in grain production is due more to the extension of cultivated land than to any significant improvement in yields. Millet and sorghum (59% of total grain production by volume) yields have either stagnated (sorghum) or progressed at a very slow pace, putting the average yield for these two crops at 1-1.5 t/ha over the 20002006 period. Production increased by a factor of 3.8 (millet) and 3.4 (sorghum) between 1980 and 2008, and now stands at approximately 9 million tonnes for each of these two crops.

Rice and maize stand out, attaining yields of close to 2 t/ha. However, while maize yields have risen from about 1 t/ha in the early 1990s to about 2 t/ha in 2006, rice yields have stagnated at around 2 t/ha since 1990. Maize has performed well in Nigeria, and its production volume rose from around 1 million tonnes in 1980 to over 7.5 million tonnes in 2008. The volume of rice produced increased by a factor of 3.4 between 1980 and 2008, reaching 4.2 million tonnes of rice in 2010.

Legumes and Oilseed Plants. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cowpeas, with about 3 million tonnes grown in 2008 (58% of regional production). The country also produces 3.9 million tonnes of groundnuts, or 57% of all groundnuts grown in West Africa.

While the overall trends of agricultural production in Nigeria can be ascertained, very little is known about the structure of the demand for staple crops. This demand is strongly influenced by a number of factors, and divided between domestic needs and demand from neighbouring countries (in particular for grains). This relative lack of

knowledge about import and export flows with neighbouring countries makes it difficult to establish an overall food assessment. Nigeria's food regime is based essentially on two foods: grains, which provide 46% of calories and 52% of proteins consumed, and root crops/tubers, which provide 20% of calories and 8% of proteins consumed. Consumption of grains and root crops/tubers amounts to 150 kg and 214 kg respectively per person and per year in 2013.

2.3: Value Chain Review Some of the current literature and published information on the value chains of interest, namely, rice, sorghum and cassava are reviewed below.

2.3.1: Rice Value Chain A baseline survey of the Kano Rice Value Chain identified three major types of rice production ecologies, namely Upland, Lowland and Irrigated perimeter (PrOpCom, 2007a). According to the report, in the Kano clusters, 26.8%, 33.2% and 40% of farmers were operating in the upland, lowland and irrigated perimeter production systems, respectively. By contrast, in Jigawa clusters, 84% and 16% operated in the irrigated perimeter and Upland systems, respectively. Factors limiting optimum output and quality included: (i) Water availability and level of input utilization at the farm level, and (ii) High cost of inputs, especially fertilizer, labour and land preparation. Farmers indicated that inability to secure adequate fertilizers and water for supplementary irrigation could cause reduction in output quantity and quality.

(PrOpCom, 2007a) also found some favourable changes observed by farmers included: (i) introduction of high yielding, pest and disease resistant varieties; (ii) establishment of public irrigation schemes in Kano and Hadejia; and (iii) increase in demand for locally produced rice.

With respect to rice processing, (PrOpCom, 2007a) found that parboiling is a women dominated enterprises in all clusters, with 71.2% and 66.7% of parboilers being women in Kano and Jigawa States, respectively. These parboilers generally used firewoods as source of energy for parboiling. By contrast rice millers in the study locations were men, with milling units being either diesel – powered or electricity – powered, although the latter was preferred because it is more efficient, with respect to quality of product and cost of operation. It was noted that ownership and operation of milling enterprises are, in most cases different in such a way that an owner employed an operator, who is a skilled person, who then hired casuals to assist him. Millers provided milling services to their customers, for a fee, which was usually charged per bag of paddy milled.

On rice trading, PrOpCom, (2007a) identified three types of traders, namely: (i) Traders involved in purchasing paddy rice from farmers and selling it to other traders or processors (ii) Traders involved in purchasing paddy rice from farmers and other traders and subsequently processed the paddy into milled rice and sell it to both retailers and consumers. (iii) Traders who purchase only processed rice and sell to other traders, consumers and other buyers, directly. In the Kura – Kano axis, the second category was the predominant, while in the Dawanau, Rimi and Sabon Gari markets, the third was predominant. In Garko and Tudun Wada the second and the first predominated, while in Hadejia the second category was predominant. The factors that influenced choice of product by people were product quality. In Kado, 87% in and Jigawa 93.3% of the customers showed higher preference for quality compared to price. The quality attributes used by traders included: long and well-filled grain, whiteness and dryness. For economic reasons, consumers tended to sacrifice quality.

A different study by PrOpCom (2007b), mapped production and processing cluster in Kano, Jigawa, Katsina and Kaduna States. The results of the study showed that rice in Kano State was produced mainly by smallholder farmers, with farm size less than 5 ha in all clusters except Tudun Wada and Kinkiba where majority of farmers devoted 5 – 10 ha to rice production. Up to 47% of farmers in all clusters were aged 30 – 49 years, except for Hadejia where more than 70% of the farmers were over 50 years. It was reported that majority of farmers in all clusters were educated and majority used fertilizers. However, only farmers in Kura and Hadejia used improved varieties and herbicides. Kura and Hadejia farmers recorded the highest cost of production (NGN 113,170 and NGN 143,055) and yield (76 and 63 bags) per ha, respectively. In the same study (PrOpCom 2007b), farmers stored their paddy mostly in their houses, for 2 – 6 months, before selling.

The major mean of transportation to village markets were wheel-barrows, motorcycles, and pick-up vans, the transportation cost varying from NGN 75 per bag in Dandume to NGN 280 in Garko; all markets had middlemen. Flow of rice from cluster to Kano was mainly in form of milled rice. Items of transaction costs included: union and LGA fees, loading/offloading, storage and middlemen charges. The units of measure used in all clusters were bags and mudus, with number of mudus in a bag varying from 20 t0 80 and average weight/mudu being 2.48 – 2.52 kg for milled rice. But in Kinkiba, half a mudu (tiya) is used.

It is noted that Dandume is a marketing cluster rather than a producing cluster, while

Kinkiba is essentially a producing cluster, being the only cluster without a market. Also Hadejia is an irrigated producer cluster and is the highest supplier of paddy to Kano.

The Jigawa State Government has very recently embarked on a massive drive to drastically increase both rain-fed (400, 011 ha) and irrigated (210 ha) rice production in the state. According to a report in TRIBUNE Newspaper of June 13, 2017, and contributed by Collins Nnabuife, the Jigawa government is providing the following incentives to smallholder farmers: · Provision of farming implements comprising: 100 mini rice milling machines; 100 single row planters; 100 double row planters; 100 minithreshers; 300 hand-held harvesters, and 574 manual sprayers. · Reduction of fertilizer price and insecticide cost. · Bulk purchase of inputs, which are then sold at very affordable prices to farmers. · Provision of subsidized inputs on loan to farmers who repay at after harvest. · Providing multi-rice harvester and threshers to youths who then act as service providers to smallholder farmers; · Trained mechanics on repairs of harvesters, threshers and tractors; these mechanics provide mobile service to farmers.

The present promotion of rice production in Kano and Jigawa has attracted heavy investments by the private sector. For example, BUA group of company is establishing a 200,000 tonnes rice processing plant in Jigawa State, in addition to already existing one in Kano State, according to February 2, 2017 report by Ibrahim Musa Giginyu in Daily Trust Newspaper. The group has signed MoU to build an outgrower scheme that will involve the provision of improved seeds, technical expertise, as well as BUA milling and processing infrastructure that will drive the group's processing capacity from 200,000 tonnes to 1 million within the next 4 years.

Similarly, Dangote Rice Ltd will launch 25,000 ha rice outgrower scheme in 14 states, beginning with Jigawa in February 2017. This was reported in 'The Cable News and Views' unlimited on February 13, 2017 by Oliseyi. According to the report, Dangote Rice will produce 225,000 tonnes of parboiled, milled rice by the end of 2017. The company will distribute improved seed to primary local farmers, and upon harvest, purchase the produce from them for milling and final processing. In this process Dangote Rice will offtake rice paddy and transport it to one centralized mill which will mill stored paddy from the various sites.

2.3.2: Sorghum Value Chain. Sorghum is a traditional crop grown mostly by smallholder farmers in all states in northern Nigeria. It is produced either as sole crop or in mixture with other crops, often with little purchased inputs. For example, Maiangwa and Ogungbile (2008) evaluated chemical fertilizer use by farmers in Kano, Jigawa and Katsina States and found that application rates of NPK used in the states fell short of the recommended quantities for sorghum (200 – 300 kg NPK/ha).

Sorghum production, even in mixture with legumes, is confronted by several constraints. In a recent report of their study in Kano State, Mohammed et al. (2015) found that there were several constraints to sorghum production. These included high costs of inputs; insufficient funds; inadequate and untimely delivery of farm inputs; inadequate collaterals/security for loan access; inadequate credit facilities; inadequate storage, processing and marketing facilities; pests and diseases; and shortage of extension services. The researchers recommended that the government and development agencies, like ADP, should address the challenges of shortage of extension services, credit access to farmers, improved marketing system, input supply and affordable price of inputs.

Although Nestle Nigeria Plc is mainly concerned with transformation of sorghum grains into foods and beverages, it has recently recommended that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture should seek ways to make mechanisation and agriculture financing available to local farmers because mechanisation and finance are key to Nigeria's agricultural development (This Day Newspaper, 23 August, 2017). The company also appealed to the Federal Government to support farmers by providing agro-inputs such as fertilizers, chemicals and seed at subsidized prices (Nigerian Tribune Newspaper, August 2, 2017). The value addition companies have been major drivers in promoting the sorghum sector. Thus farmers, representing 89 farming communities that supply sorghum grains to Nestle Nigeria Plc from Gombe, Kaduna, Kano and Katsina, commended Nestle Nigeria Plc for utilizing their produce to manufacture foods such as Nestle Milo, Maggi and Golden Morn (Nigeria Tribune Newspaper, August 2, 2017). The farmers supply Nestle Nigeria Plc with white sorghum grains that have minimal foreign bodies such as hubs, stones and metals. Through this arrangement, Nestle reached 30,000 farmers across Kano, Kaduna and Katsina and plans to add Jigawa by end of 2017.

In a related development, IITA News (2017) in a report of meeting of ATASP – 1, Sorghum Innovation Platform stakeholders in Kano in 2017, noted that Honeywell Group provided farmers with improved seed in 2017 and would purchase 80,000 tonnes of grain in 2018. Farmers in this arrangement require high-yielding, sorghum varieties, such as CSR – 01 and SK5912.

Another company, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Plc, has invested NGN 2 billion in a new sorghum plant in Kano (Economy News of Business Day, August 28, 2017). This stateof-the-art, ultramodern sorghum milling plant, commissioned in Kano in 2017, is the largest sorghum processing plant in sub-Sarahan Africa. It has an installed capacity of 100,000 tonnes and will provide over 40,000 new jobs.

2.3.3: Cassava Value Chain. Although cassava cultivation in Kano and Jigawa has been practiced for a very long time, there is virtually no effort to develop or promote its production and commercial uses (Abdulkadir Aliyu, KNARDA, personal communication, November, 2017). However, the government and people of Jigawa State have been making efforts for the past five years in boosting cassava production in the state. It is grown by smallholder, subsistence farmers in some niches and used as snack food and localized home consumption. Thus, there is virtually no published information about efforts to promote production of cassava as a food crop or an industrial crop in Kano and Jigawa States; yet, one of the common, cassava-derived foods (garri) is widely consumed in many parts of the two states.

Cassava is one of the most important food and industrial crops in Nigeria. Apart from its consumption in form of garri throughout Nigeria, cassava can be processed into a number of products such as starch, chips, ethanol, glucose syrup and flour. It is noted that cassava flour is now used in Nigeria to make composite wheat – cassava bread containing 20% of cassava flour.

Information about commercial production of cassava can be obtained from either the National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRI), Umudike, which has the national mandate for cassava research and development, or the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, which has an African mandate for cassava research and development. The IITA has produced a guide on cassava production captioned: “Starting a Cassava Farm”; it was published in January, 2012. The guide was prepared to help in selecting sites for cassava farms, provide methods to improve soil for good cassava growth, select suitable cassava varieties for planting, as well as selecting, preparing and planting healthy stem cuttings.

Another online publication by Darlington Omeh: How to Start Cassava Farming in Nigeria (Step by Step) has provided useful guides on site selection, cassava varieties, land preparation and planting, as well as types of fertilizer and their rates of application. Reports on the experiences of other Nigeria states on commercial cassava farming are available. Examples include reports from Delta State (Omoregbee and Banmeke, 2013) and Ogun State (Aderinto et al., 2010). In developing cassava sector in any community,