An instructive phrase to reflect on is one dropped by a Procurement and Supply Chain Expert, who indicates that economic development in the agricultural sector is feasible through efficient utilization of the supply chain.

The expert, Mr Eno Udoh says ; “Farming is beautiful, but the supply chain protecting the agricultural sector must be put in place to protect the farmers and create economic viability“.

Insight from the Supply chain expert shows how supply chain management is crucial to the success of agricultural development, an initiative he asserts countries around the globe are prioritizing to improve productivity.

Nigeria is experiencing food insecurity. The price of food has consistently skyrocketed since the start of the Year, 2024. It is the 3rd quarter, and the cost of food is not abating.

Mr Udoh’s submissions, which this piece will encapsulate, were shared when he featured on Inspiration 105.9FM’s flagship discussion programme – Talking Point on Thursday, June 13, 2024.

He established that food insecurity is not just the unavailability of food, but the inability to access what is available because of the cost; the non-affordability which is even more disturbing.

The food crises in Nigeria are more dire in some regions of the country than others.

Nigeria’s Southern state of Akwa Ibom is one of the locations with soaring food prices and shortage of food. Citizens of this locality must depend on food export to feed and to boost food supply, the state Government has initiated several interventions. One of the actions that the authorities believe will salvage the situation and transform the narrative is the call for residents of the state to go back to the farm.

The government believes that having more households engage in farming can amount to the provision of more food in communities.

What is, however, concerning is the reality behind the nature of farming that is being practiced in most regions of the nation; subsistence farming. Are people motivated to return to the farm with no clear-cut process of commercializing farming? For those who wish to evolve to commercial farming or are already selling their farm produce, the challenge of a non-efficient supply chain is daunting.

Mr Udoh affirms that Supply Chain management has been with us for a long time. He says, “It is a simple thing that we are already involved in, it is part of our day-to-day life. It encompasses the entire process of transforming raw materials into finished products delivered to customers at the right time, price, quantity, and quality. This process involves planning for the resources needed to meet forecasted demand; supplying raw materials (such as seedlings or fertilizers) to farmers; farmers using these raw materials for cultivation; storing the produce or transporting it to a manufacturing hub; managing the logistics of moving the product from storage to retailers or wholesalers; and finally, executing the last-mile delivery to get the produce to customers. For every food produced, or every item that is not an agricultural produce, there is a supply chain aspect to it”.

It is evident that individuals or farmers who desire to sell their farm produce face bottlenecks and do not have direct access to consumers who will give them value for the food items in their possession, which are mostly food produce that have limited shelf life. These frustrations are usually expressed by farmers in the state.

Mr. Udoh spoke about Akwa Ibom being a  blessed state with fertile soil for farming. He notes; “There is nothing you try to plant in Akwa Ibom state that will not germinate. When you worry about what you have planted or produced, and how it will get to the consumers, this shows that there is a break in the supply chain“.

He gave an analogy about his relative who had gone on social media to decry that a fruit (star apple) growing in his family compound was wasting away and requested to be connected to buyers. Mr. Udoh said the same fruit sells for 2dollars per piece in the United States and was easily accessed in grocery stores.

The Supply chain expert believes that the Nigerian Government should be more intentional about utilizing supply chain strategies in Agriculture. He explained that for the supply chain to be effective, the process must be complete. He highlighted the process to include planning, forecasting, processing, storage, distribution, and customer service.

According to him, Farmers are getting stuck at the last part of the chain, even when they get the first part, growing the crops, right. “They are kicking off agriculture processes but not able to finish efficiently due to supply chain issues“, he said. His emphasis was on the need to plan for the start to finish process of agriculture, which entails making plans for the supply chain.

Mr. Eno Udoh further mentioned the relevance of getting the Business of Supply chain right as agricultural development is given precedence.

He gave some recommendations and they include;

*Breaking down the value chain and finding out how to exploit it.

*Collaboration; working with others to achieve efficiency.

*Aiming at Effective logistics.

*Working out the modalities for procurement and embracing the process improvement part of the supply chain.

*Deliberate effort to gather Data. This will be pivotal in planning and forecasting demand as well as improving processes in the supply chain system.

*And, exploring the export part of the supply chain process.

More significantly, he stated that the structure of agriculture is what will sustain agricultural development in Nigeria and expressed worry over the possibility that Nigeria was not looking at agriculture as a business in itself.

“When food made for customers get to a customer, farmers will be able to scale up the agricultural practice. The motivation to scale is low because farmers cannot reach their target customers at the right cost. Presently, the burden of storage and logistics comes at such a steep cost that neither our local farmers nor consumers can bear. This is reflective in the price of food product in the market and the current food scarcity being faced by the state and nation at large. It is therefore imperative that the government intervenes in storage and middle-mile delivery operations in order to alleviate the cost on her people.”, he added. Getting the Agriculture Supply Chain right will see an optimized process where there will be no lag in supply getting to demand and vice versa.

In the 1 hour discourse on radio and with the Procurement and Supply Chain Management professional giving his perspectives on the subject matter, listeners contributed and submitted that the conversation which they described as apt and accompanied by recommendations must be given keen consideration by the authority.

Guest Profile

Mr. Udoh has spent a decade-long tenure at ExxonMobil Producing Nigeria (MPN) handling global supply chain operations and procurement processes. At the time of his departure, he was overseeing the 24hours operations of ExxonMobil’s warehouse housing over 50,000 critical oil and gas material inventory items. Eno played a pivotal role in ensuring inventory accuracy, supply chain sustainability and cost recovery through progressing a closed-loop supply chain model, and optimization of Procurement cycle time which earned him an Award/Recognition for his effort. His expertise was brought to the foray during the advent of Covid-19, where he played a critical role in ensuring supply chain disruption that could affect the production of Oil and Gas was averted.

Most recently, He served as a Pathways Operations Manager Intern at Amazon where he successfully launched the Sub Same Day project at his site in Texas. Being a Six Sigma Green Belt holder, he adopted lean six sigma principles to optimize processes to attain over efficiency in site operations. This project is a testament to his ability to integrate data-driven solutions to last-mile delivery operations.

In addition to serving as a session chair and judge in the Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM) international conferences, He has also reviewed works of peers in the field geared towards expanding the body of knowledge in a very critical field. As a volunteer, he provides supply chain advice and training to NGOs to enable them to adopt cost saving strategies for more cost effective and efficient operations. As a consultant, he provides the government and non-government actors with supply chain strategies to avert disruptions and shortages that can pose a threat to food sufficiency at state and national levels