Tolani: Food Crisis Must Be Addressed to Avert  National Disaster

The Chief Executive Officer, Community Energy Social Enterprise Limited, Mr. Patrick Tolani, has,  in this interview, emphasised the need to  tackle food crisis in order  to prevent nationwide disaster among other issues. Kayode Tokede brings the excerpts

What are your views on the current food crisis in Nigeria and what specific factors do you believe are contributing to this situation?
The high food prices  we are facing in Nigeria are a result of several factors. Some of these factors are historical, while others stem from climate-induced problems we have in Nigeria. Let me start with the historical factors. Nigeria has fertile land; some would even say it’s more than 34 million hectares of farmland, and I think probably less than 40per cent of that figure is currently being cultivated. The historical reason I alluded to is that years ago, when Nigeria hadn’t discovered oil, we placed a premium on agriculture—both food crops and economic crops. However, when oil and portfolio companies merged, it became very quick to make money, and agriculture was no longer prioritised.
This neglect is part of the historical context of where we are today. Now, looking at the climate-induced reasons, we have always been dependent on rain-fed farming. Everyone believed that there shouldn’t be a cost for producing food. Everything depended on someone else. Lastly, of course, there is the security challenge in the country, which has kept many farmers away from their farms. It simply doesn’t make sense to plant any crop when people can come and destroy everything with their animals. Even when farmers try to complain, they are either killed, raped, or maimed. The truth of the matter is that given the magnitude of arable land we have in Nigeria, along with the fertility of our soil, we shouldn’t have any reason not to produce enough food for our population of approximately 220 million people.

I understand your company is launching a new service, so I just want to understand how it alleviates the challenges faced by these farmers, particularly in relation to water scarcity and crop production?
Let me give you a little bit of background on how we got here. In 2020, my company, Community Energy Social Enterprise Limited (CESEL), brought a modular solar-powered rice milling machine into Nigeria. If you recall, that year there was a drought, so there was no rain, and actually, there were no paddies to mill.  So when we noticed that, we decided that we should take a step backwards by providing solutions that can address the scarcity of water for plants to grow. I have always said, everywhere I have spoken, that plants actually don’t need rain; they just need water.
Just like human beings, if you provide food for someone today and then don’t feed that person again for two weeks, that human being—if he doesn’t die—will be malnourished and will not be able to grow properly.We decided to focus on solar energy because we believed it was the best option for irrigation systems. The advantages of solar irrigation systems make them more appealing compared to fossil fuel irrigation systems. Solar irrigation pumps are larger and more durable, allowing for many years of use. This led us to develop what we call “Irrigation As a Service,” branded as “Irri-Go.” This service allows us to enter into agreements with farmers where we deploy these assets on their farms. Farmers can pay us over a period of 6-7 years to recoup our costs, after which they will own these assets. This model functions as a form of asset finance.
In fact, our understanding of this payment structure is straightforward. When we deploy the system on a farm, farmers can utilise it for a minimum of two planting seasons each year. For instance, if they are planting rice or maize, they can have two seasons for maize and then another season for cowpeas, wheat, soyabean, etc. The essence and importance of solar irrigation lie in its ability to enable year-round farming.The way we approach solar irrigation is by encouraging farmers to come together as clusters. The  era of peasant farmers—where someone has one acre somewhere and two acres somewhere else—doesn’t work. I have been advocating  this since 2021, but the necessity now is for farmers in Nigeria to appreciate and understand that they need to come together, perhaps as cooperatives. They need to gather in a particular location where they can farm, and then people like us can bring our resources to them in those locations—fertilizer distributors or sellers, and others who can support them. Everyone can come together in the same location rather than being scattered all over the place, which makes it difficult to service them.

What strategy is CESEL implementing to ensure that this technology is accessible to smallholder farmers, like you mentioned, the peasant farmers in the nation who may lack the resources to invest in some systems?
As I mentioned earlier, we target big farmers, no doubt. However, there are some development partners who are also concerned about income and livelihoods, as well as reducing poverty. One of these institutions has just given us a grant to support farmers who will be farming on 250 hectares. Our target is to support 4,500 farmers on those 250 hectares. This means that on one hectare alone, smallholder farmers can actually be aggregated—up to 18 of them—just on one hectare. So, have a picture in your mind: one hectare of land is about the size of a football field, with 18 farmers on a football field planting their crops together.
Those are the people I can call smallholder farmers. We signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) earlier in the yet to work together and provide solar irrigation for 200,000 hectares of farmland within the next four years. If you multiply that by say 10 farmers per hectare, you can see that we will literally be reaching out to a minimum of about 20 million farmers altogether within the next four years.We have already designed this programme  to support smallholder farmers. However, one thing must be clear: it has to be sustainable.
Sustainable in the sense that farmers should understand that if we give them inputs, they cannot go behind our backs to sell those outputs without paying us. It is as detrimental as when animals come to feed on their crops. So everybody must think about sustainability. Sustainability for everyone means that when inputs are provided, farmers must be ready to develop the right mindset. They should say, “The moment we harvest, let us pay our input suppliers so they will keep supplying us.” That is a mindset shift that everyone must start to embrace.

Speaking of sustainability, first, I want to congratulate you for what you are about to do for the Nigerian agriculture industry. Now, looking ahead, how do you envision CESEL enhancing food security in Nigeria, and what collaborations do you see as important for achieving this goal?
Looking at food security and sustainability, as I mentioned, all the components that I have discussed during this interview are things we can boost food production in Nigeria. This means that farmers must first develop the mentality that this is not just farming; this is crop production – Agribusiness. Secondly, this is not just a hobby; this is a business—a business that will require adequate inputs and returns. This is what all the development partners are trying to achieve.
For example, I mentioned that an organisation funded us to provide irrigation as a service to about 4,500 farmers on 250 hectares of farmland. If this experiment works, if the farmers can plant and have the water they need for their crops, then at the end of the day, when they harvest, they will pay the money they are supposed to pay. I think all partners will be very willing to provide us with further concessionary loans in the future. What we are doing is positioning ourselves to supply what the farmers need based on the guarantee that they will also get their crops, sell them appropriately, and then pay us. This way, we can manage our finances effectively.
The more people see this experiment as worthwhile, the more development partners will be willing to allocate resources to us. As we gain more resources, we can deploy more farms.  Commercial banks and other Development Bank and institutions are also watching to see how they could join the movement in no distant time. Additionally, a significant partnership with security agencies is also essential. As I mentioned at the beginning, there are three main problems: historical issues, lack of rainfall, and security challenges. Security agencies must be involved. There was a time when the Presidency mentioned that “Agro Rangers” would be deployed to farmers and would be protecting farmers and their farmlands from invaders and vandals. It has to be a robust partnership across the board; this partnership is a necessity.
I made an argument that in Africa, over 600 million people exist without electricity, but I bet you that 50 million people cannot afford to exist without food. Food crisis threatens our security as a nation and as a continent, and we must start addressing it. Our goal is to establish our grounding in Nigeria and subsequently take these products into other African countries to expand our reach.
Let me emphasise the importance of partnerships—both local and international. For example, we want to get to a stage where we are strong enough and with enough evidence to approach African Development Bank (AfDB) because they often claim that they support farming initiatives. This is the kind of product they should invest in because food security is a national security issue.
All of us must collaborate to address food security; individual farmers, the finance sector—everyone must understand that when we work together to grow food, we simultaneously meet many sustainable development goals such as no poverty and no hunger.
For instance, I see some state governments claiming they are providing inputs for dry-season farming by supplying fertilizers and seedlings without considering irrigation. I just wonder how they can overlook such an essential factor. When they do think about irrigation, it should be solar irrigation because fossil fuels are no longer sustainable; petroleum products for powering irrigation pumps are no longer sustainable. No farmer can deploy petroleum pumps for irrigation and not end up in huge debt.  
Our sustainability plan encompasses all areas of sustainability so that everyone can participate in investment and profit from it because when everyone does well, we can attract more investment into the sector. This could transform agriculture into a robust sector where our nation moves from scarcity in feeding ourselves and we even get to a state where we start export food crops outside Nigeria.  That should be the collective dream of the Nigeria we hope to see any moment from now. Let’s address food security and avert national disaster.