How Agric ministry’s Food and Strategic Reserve Department is tackling post-harvest losses

Nigeria’s quest to achieve food security may turn out to be a mirage if it does not strengthen its strategic food reserve and equip silos in order to reduce post-harvest losses which have been the one of the major challenges of the agricultural sector

The Food and Strategic Reserve Department (FSRD) is a Department in Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abuja (FMARD). The department operates through five distinct established divisions to carry out its mandate, namely: Price Stabilization, Strategic Reserve, Emergency Food Supply and Logistics, Nutrition and Food Access, School Feeding Program.

This department, which is under the supervision of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, takes orders to release food directly to the president of the country.

FSRD is the apex of the three tiers of Storage Programme of the Federal Government launched in 1987, whereby the department is expected to hold five percent of the annual food production in the country as Strategic Food Reserve stock, the state governments expected to hold 10% as buffer stock, and the private sector/farmers to hold 85% as on-farm/domestic storage component.

The primary objectives of establishing the department are to keep the National Strategic Food Reserve Stock, provide first line of food relief in times of emergencies to enhance food security. Others are to stabilize prices of food commodities, encourage food production and reduce postharvest losses through its numerous programmes.

The department through its crop of engineers has supervised the construction of different designs, types and capacities of storage facilities in use by the department over the years (48 unit warehouses and 33 units silo complexes when fully completed).

It has equally carried out periodic rehabilitation of the facilities as the need arises, to ensure optimum operational efficiency. The technical team trained by the department also undertakes routine and preventive maintenance of the entire storage facilities, including the material handling equipment and other ancillary machines/components also as the need arises, to enhance effective and efficient use. This has contributed immensely in the reduction of production down-time to ensure timely delivery of operations in the storage facilities.

One of the department’s major responsibilities is to procure food commodities according to dictates of public procurement, keep and manage the National Food Reserves stock.

Most times the FSRD collaborates with international organisations/NGOs such as WFP, ECOWAS, for foreign interventions, as well as National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) which has the statutory responsibility of distributions of the food commodities to the vulnerable, especially for local interventions.

Due to lean budgetary allocation of the FSRD in the subsequent years, the capacity utilization of the silo complexes by the government reduced  tremendously, due to enormous funds needed for stocking and attendant overhead cost.

Conservatively it would cost the Government N93billion to stock the 33 silo complexes. This can hardly be attained in view of financial requirement which far exceeds the annual budget of the ministry.

Consequently, in August 2013, the FMARD initiated a transaction process to concession the operations of some silo complexes to the private sector. The transaction process was driven by an appointed international transaction adviser Messrs Lion Head Global Partners, in partnership with CPCS Transcom Benchmac and Inc., with the help of World Bank and followed the guidelines stipulated in the National Public and Private Partnership (“PPP”) Policy and the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) Act (2005).

After an extensive transaction/negotiation process and approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), Seventeen (17) out of the 33 silo complexes were awarded and handed over to Five companies on the 28th September 2020 for a Concession term of ten years.

The government decided to manage Six of the silo complexes for strategic food reserve stock and price stabilization activities, while the remaining silos were also approved by FEC for concession in the second phase.

The entire concession programme is targeted at increasing the capacity utilisation of the silo complexes, creation of wealth and jobs for the citizenry, increasing farmer’s income through increase private sector production, generating revenue for the Federal Government.

The department of FSRD in a bid to take food storage spaces to the grassroots, private sector and the local farmers under the warehouse leasing programme, has also  leased some of its warehouses to encourage increase in food production.