Dr Ben Odoemena is the Country Representative for the Winrock International and Chief of Party for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Feed the Future Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services in Nigeria.
He is an agricultural economist from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN). He started his university education in crop science at UNN where he emerged as the best graduating student in 1990 before switching over to agricultural economics for his post-graduate education.
He joined the then World Bank-assisted Federal Agricultural Coordinating Unit (FACU) in 1991 as Assistant Coordinator, a choice that defined his progressive career in agricultural and rural development.
Dr Odoemena is an expert in economic, value chain and agribusiness development. He is also an expert in project design, implementation, and evaluation. He consults with multi-lateral and bilateral agencies within and outside Nigeria including European Union, African Development Bank (AfDB), and World Bank projects.
He has over 20 years of experience in agricultural and rural development, working with international development agencies to improve the livelihood of rural poor people, especially women and youth.
Due to his problem-solving ability, he was posted to Ethiopia in 2015 as an interim country programme manager for the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Ethiopia, where he handled the largest IFAD portfolio in Africa.
Until recently, he was the Country Programme Officer for IFAD in Nigeria, and led the management and coordination of complex projects, providing policy guidance to the Government of Nigeria to improve on agriculture and rural sector in Nigeria.
He also led the IFAD team in building partnerships with the private sector to enhance agricultural operations in Nigeria. He has led multi-disciplinary teams in several project implementation and design missions in many countries including Nigeria, Liberia, Gambia, Ghana and Ethiopia.
Before joining IFAD in 2009, he worked with Chemonics International as a Business Promotion Manager to implement the USAID-funded MARKETS Project from 2005 to 2008. Dr Odoemena has also worked with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a member of CGIAR, as a Manager of the Rural Sector Enhancement Programme.
Dr Odoemena has brought several innovative approaches that have improved the landscape of the agriculture sector in Nigeria. He introduced the concept and practice of agriculture as a business (agribusiness) in the national agricultural systems, a process that led to increased youth participation in agriculture. Also, he developed a rural youth agribusiness incubation system that has provoked a revolution of enterprise development among youth in rural areas of Nigeria.
He introduced the ice-breaking Commodity Alliance Forum (CAF), which is a public-private-producer-partnership (4Ps) and a business transaction, policy dialogue, conflict resolution and knowledge-sharing platform amongst farming stakeholders in the agricultural commodity value chain.
Dr. Odoemena holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics, as well as a B.Sc. in Crop Production from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He is married with four children.
In this interview with AgroNigeria, he highlights ways the government can boost agribusinesses in Nigeria.
How did you venture into the agricultural sector, and what has been your motivation?
My family background influenced my choice of agriculture as a career. My father was a successful farmer. He introduced the business of agriculture in the community when his peers were practising agriculture as a way of life. As a teenager, he involved me actively in all his plans. He was good at organic farming. He mentored me on the opportunities that abound in agriculture and inculcated the love for animals, plants and nature in me. I acquired the skill, a situation that turned me into the best student in agriculture during my secondary school period. Given that family background and the fact that agriculture and related subjects were so easy for me in my secondary education, as well as, the need to scale the impact of my father in my life to poor farming families, I decided to pursue agricultural economics in the university.
As a former Country Programme Officer of IFAD in Nigeria, what are the major impacts of the organisation on farmers and the agriculture sector at large?
The major impact of IFAD in Nigeria under my leadership was the transformation of agriculture into agribusiness – a situation that has produced many youth millionaires in agriculture in the states of Niger, Benue, Ebonyi, Ogun, Anambra, Taraba and nine Niger Delta States. The other great impact is the catfish production revolution which provoked massive youth participation in agriculture and consequent gainful jobs for young graduates in the Niger Delta States of Nigeria. The third great impact was the re-introduction of the value chain, which is presently shaping the agricultural landscape in Nigeria.
Nigeria is yet to achieve self-sufficiency in food production. What can be done by the government to change the trend?
Six things are necessary to help Nigeria achieve self-sufficiency in food production.
First, consolidate on the value chain model introduced by IFAD in Nigeria. To achieve this, it requires using the right persons to drive the process, investment in the power sector at both macro and micro levels, and the use of key processors and commodity marketers to define/pull production sustainably.
Second, decentralise the agricultural sector to limit coordination, supervision, monitoring and policy guidelines to the central government. Implementation of agriculture should be the business of states and local government authorities with strong oversight/supervision coming from the central government. The central government should begin to challenge the states by assigning proportions of national food demands of various commodities to them and then monitor the ability of the states to respond effectively to those challenges. Such action must recognize the comparative advantage of the states in designated important food commodities. Government can delineate export corridors in food production for forex and encourage the states with comparative advantage to invest in those corridors by providing infrastructure and the enabling environment like security to lure the private sector to support the initiative. This proposal will aim to seize the regional market and enhance forex earing to reduce increasing inflation.
Third, the government should recognize that there are commodity corridors and use the natural endowment to support their food production, processing and packaging initiative. This process will provoke gainful jobs sustainably for young men and women in Nigeria. Related to this action is the fact that industry (processing through value addition and marketing activities) should define/drive government action in the agricultural sector.
Forth, research must be market-driven, hence government should task research institutes to respond to the need of the market, aim at market preference and target productivity increase to meet industrial demand/raw material needs. Must industries are dead for lack of raw materials and electricity, resulting in job losses in all the facets of the economy.
Fifth, we must fix the issue of seasonal cropping. One season of agriculture does not make Nigeria a serious country in that sector. We must produce all year round. This calls for irrigation, research, power and in general infrastructure and private sector participation.
Based on your experience, what can be done to boost Agribusinesses in Nigeria?
Provision of infrastructure and private sector involvement are the two key parameters to boost Agribusinesses in Nigeria
What should we expect from IFAD in the next five years?
Support to the government to implement the Staple Agricultural Processing Zone (SAPZ) Programme, which will unleash industrial-led agriculture in Nigeria if no political interference is encountered.
