 From being a major exporter of agricultural commodities in the 50s and 60s, Nigeria is today a net importer of food.
The oil boom of the mid-70s, which should have ensured a better developed agricultural sector, has instead resulted in utter neglect of agriculture.
The consequence is the disappearance of the groundnut pyramids and a drastic decline in the production of cocoa, cotton, rubber and palm oil.
Such products formed the bulk of the nation’s sources of foreign exchange earnings in the past.
Currently, agriculture is at the rudimentary stage and confronted by numerous challenges.
Poverty has remained a daunting challenge in a country of 140 million people, 70 per cent of whom live in the rural areas.
Analysts blame this on the fact that agriculture is still characterised by subsistence practices.
Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources records, for instance, indicate that
households account for about 90 per cent of the total agricultural output.
The records also show that they cultivate an average of about two hectares.
Agricultural practice is still largely manual with an estimated 30,000 tractors only, representing a mere three per cent of the country’s actual requirement, the ministry says.
The situation makes access to labour-saving technology difficult and almost impossible.
Another challenge confronting the sector is the practice of rain-fed agriculture which does not support all-year-round farming.
This results in fluctuation in food crop production leading to food scarcity.
This situation, experts say, is compounded by the lack of irrigation infrastructure critical to agricultural development.
Other challenges confronting the sector include inadequate funding, dependence on imports, absence of rural infrastructure, the lack of storage facilities, inadequate investment, as well as unutilised and under-utilised potential.
The list also includes poor harvest techniques, land tenure system, poor extension services and poor administration of agricultural subsidies.
The combination of these challenges has rendered agriculture unattractive to the younger generation of Nigerians in the face of an aging farming population.
Records show, however, that the sector recorded significant growth of about seven percent annually over the past five to six years due to concrete measures such as the presidential initiatives introduced by the past administration to reposition and re-engineer the sector.
Stakeholders and analysts see this as a welcome development, but say that it is a far cry from what needs to be achieved for Nigeria to realise its dream of joining the world’s top
20 economies by 2020.
To build on achievements already recorded, the Yar’Adua administration allocated seven per cent of the 2008 annual budget to agriculture, the largest ever.
Also, the inclusion of food security in Yar’Adua’s seven-point agenda is seen as a step in the right direction and a deliberate policy to enhance the progress already made.
However, observers say that the budgetary allocation falls short of the 10 per cent of public expenditure pledged by the leaders of the African, Caribbean and Pacific states to be spent on agriculture within five years as contained in their 2003 Maputo Declaration.
With about 42 per cent contribution to the GDP, the sector accounts for much higher than the share of government budgets allocated to it.
According to the Food Security Strategy document of the Ministry of Agriculture and
Water Resources, the increased aggregate food production has not translated into improved household food security and nutrition.
The definition of ‘food security’ as a concept has evolved over the years since its origin in the mid-70s during a global food crisis with more than 200 definitions given in published writings, according to the FAO.
The UN agency has, therefore, adopted a working definition which states that ‘’food
security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to
sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preference for an active healthy life.
‘’’Household food security is the application of this concept at the family level with individuals within households as the focus of concern.’’
Conversely, food insecurity, according to the agency, ‘’exists when people do not have
adequate physical, social and economic access to food as defined above’’.
With a poverty incidence of about 54 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics figures, Nigeria is home to about 10 million of Africa’s malnourished people, with a majority of the country’s population living below the poverty line of less than one dollar per day.
These statistics reveal a high rate of food insecurity.
With this scenario, the big question is: How can Nigeria be in the league of the world’s top 20 economies with a high rate of food insecurity?
Mr. Xinshen Diao, of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in a
presentation in Abuja entitled ‘’Modelling Sources of Growth and the Role of Agriculture in Nigeria ‘’, says the challenge is huge.
‘’But many opportunities exist,’’ he says, noting that agriculture offers a great potential.
“Opportunities exist in the size of the domestic markets for both agricultural and industrial products, there are also potential gains from import substitution and potential for expanding and diversifying export markets.’’
However, he adds that the current growth trend of about six per cent annually is not enough to achieve the goals of Vision 20:2020.
He says Nigeria must achieve an annual GDP growth rate of 13 per cent annually for the next 15 years. ‘’The GDP needs to be as big as more than six times of today’s size by 2020.’’
According to him, Nigeria is placed 49 on the GDP ranking of countries with more than
100 million population and must displace Sweden which occupies the 20th position
on the list of top world economies.
For Bello Yakassai, of the International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC), government must adopt a radical approach, especially in the agricultural sector, for the goals of Vision 20:2020 to be realised.
He notes that expansion in production recorded over time in the sector with the cultivation of more hectares has not translated into increased yield.
“If you don’t embark on a radical change in the way you manage your soil, it will deteriorate.
‘It doesn’t matter if you bring in all the fertiliser in the world and everybody has full
stock; if you don’t package technology, people will not know how to use it.
“If you neglect research, you can never have good seeds and you can never have a better yield. Government needs to redesign its subsidy programmes and their management,’’ he says. Furthermore, Yakassai stresses the need to empower the private sector to lead the desired agricultural intervention by making it commercially driven.
“Pockets of proven experience have shown that farmers are very conscious of and desire
commercial agriculture, and are thus willing to partake. ‘’But the experiences show that technology is not transferred to them and they are not linked to the input and the end market,’’ he says. Xinshen also calls for a ‘’complete overhaul’’ of the land tenure policy which he identifies as the ‘’backbone’’ of any agricultural policy.
To achieve Vision 20:2020 former Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Adamu says that there has to be consistency in policy.
‘’I think there has to be consistency in policy.
Once we have a policy and programmes on ground, we must follow up these programmes to their logical conclusion and build on past experiences as we go along.
“Secondly, we have to identify key areas; there is no point if we spread ourselves to every area. We have to identify certain crops, certain states and certain geo-political areas
for special planting.
“We can say this place is best ideal for root crops and we have national targets for the
production of root crops over a given time.
“We can say this particular area is good for grains and we see how we can have a national plan and quantum for grains. The same goes for citrus, livestock and all that,’’ Adamu says.
He criticises a situation where every new administration tends to abandon past policies and start new ones.
This does not augur well for the development of the country, Adamu says.
“We must learn from the so called developed countries. They have an encyclopaedia of all that they have been through over the years.
‘’And whatever is good, no matter who did it, they use it and build on it. And that is how they are perfecting as they get along.
‘’But in a situation where everything seems as if it is starting that day, we will not get the
desired result and people who are in the service of that production will not get the kind of encouragement that they need.’’
The former governor also speaks of the need for more funds and infrastructure if the sector is to leap forward. On the attainment of Vision 20:2020, Mr. Amadi Ojindu, a civil servant, says that it is only possible if government can develop a blueprint for all the aspects of the economy and set targets for all its agencies.
“These targets should be monitored, evaluated and reviewed periodically and those performing well rewarded while failure should be punished,’’ Ojindu says.
Yakassai agrees with Ojindu.
“ Nigeria should have a ‘dynamic’ agricultural policy that will be subjected to intermittent reviews to address the changing situation globally. ‘’The business environment has changed, the world is becoming smaller and competition is more intense as people are moving from strategic advantage to competitive advantage.
“Besides, policies are changing the world over.
If we try to apply what had been happening in past years to the present day, we will never be compatible with the current situation,’’ he says.
Yakassai says that attaining the vision is possible because Nigeria “is widely acknowledged to have all it takes to become a world power in terms of population, size and resources’’.
Analysts, while urging more commitment to all sectors of the economy if Vision 20:2020 is to be attained, want the country’s potential to be brought out in all spheres.
But more important is the agricultural sector
which is a veritable platform for translating the Vision 20:2020 dream into reality.
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