The Former Executive Director, Lake Chad Research Institute, Maiduguri and Borno States, Dr. Oluwasina Olabanji, in this interview shares his thoughts on the need for Nigeria to prioritise investments into Nigeria’s agricultural sector in the nation’s quest to diversify its economy. Gilbert Ekugbe brings the excerpts
Overview of Nigeria’s agricultural sector and its prospects for economic growth and development
Agriculture is the bedrock of transformational growth and development of any nation. In Nigeria agriculture is characterised by fragmented landholding, small scale/subsistence farming, use of labour intensive, inefficient cultivation methods and most of all, lack of information on access to funds and markets. The rural areas where land for agricultural enterprise is available in abundance are bedevilled by lack of electricity, roads and other basic social amenities, therefore resulting in low food production and rural-urban migration. Nigeria has large available lands, good climate, fresh water resource body, irrigation infrastructure among others. These are potentials for greatness and many nations that are self-sufficient in food production do not have these potentials. The Government of Nigeria having realised the need to diversify its economy after years of benign neglect, began to transform the agricultural sector through several interventions, such as Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) which focused on rebuilding a sector whose relevance had shrunk dramatically, the Agricultural Promotion Policy, (APP) which purpose was to provide a discipline approach to building agribusiness ecosystem. These interventions had remarkable impact in the country economy as massive wealth was created for farmers and job opportunities for women and youth particularly in the rural areas. The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is one of such programmes that has boosted the production of some crop commodities in Nigeria. Today, Nigeria is the largest producer of rice and maize in Africa. The programme has also boosted the production of wheat and cotton. The ABP should be sustained by instituting a functional structure for its continued implementation. Agriculture can eradicate Nigeria’s economic downturns if given its critical support and attention. Recently, Federal Government of Nigeria collaborates with International Institutions like the African Development Bank (AfDB), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the likes on food and nutrition security. The interventions and collaboration have significant impact in the Nigeria economy through the promotion of local food production and import substitution.
According to FAO, agri food system failure across the world. What areas should Nigeria focus to develop its food system?
Bridging the demand and supply gap in food in Nigeria would be a mirage if investment in agriculture is not taken seriously. Agriculture driven growth and food security in the country are being hindered by inadequate financing and poor use of technology amongst others, resulting in high food prices, increasing poverty, hunger and malnutrition. To mitigate these challenges, the Federal Government must focus on boosting its investment in Nigeria’s agricultural sector through some presidential initiatives. The government must promote mechanised farming to attract young people into the sector, create an enabling environment for private sector (agribusiness) to embrace and support agriculture, it is also imperative to adequately fund research and development for improved agricultural technology generation and extension service delivery. The economic managers must also invest in strong government sustainable policy that will improve Nigeria competitiveness in the global market. The interplay of all these alongside ensuring security of life and property are panacea to food and nutrition security.
Cost of farm inputs are increasing on a daily basis making farmers unproductive and uncompetitive. How can this challenge be addressed in the short to long term?
High cost of farm inputs has discouraged a lot of farmers, thereby making them unproductive and uncompetitive. Government intervention in the short and long terms should be to invest in agriculture because it is the best weapon against hunger, poverty and joblessness. The government must continue to invest in agriculture through subsidy of the farm inputs in the short term. The government must also provide access to agric loans at a single digit that are time bound. Government should place more emphasis on medium to large scale farmers who should be given improved access to mechanisation and all other required inputs through single digit loans. Loans should be structured in such a way that is suitable for utilisation and repayment.
As a wheat consultant to many organizations and institutions like Flour Millers Association Nigeria (FMAN), CBN and AfDB, take us through the current state of Nigeria’s wheat production
In Nigeria, bread is the second most widely consumed non indigenous food product after rice. Food items made from wheat have gained popularity over traditional staples made from commodities such as Maize and cassava. Nigeria is the second largest consumer of wheat in sub-Sahara Africa behind South Africa. The current annual wheat demand is 5.78million metric tonnes with a total local production of 71,000 tonnes (NBS 2018) with a deficit of about 5.0million metric tonnes to be imported at a cost of more than $2.0billion to satisfy domestic consumption. This clearly indicates a huge gap between demand and supply in Nigeria. An effort by the Nigeria Government to raise the level of wheat production locally would engender more job creation opportunities in the local wheat value chain and other sectors as well as strengthen the national food security. Successive governments in Nigeria have attempted several strategies in the promotion and development of wheat in Nigeria. Even though remarkable progress is being made to accelerate the local wheat production capacity through the various local wheat development interventions instituted by the Federal Government of Nigeria (i.e Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), CBN, SARD-SC and TAAT projects sponsored by AfDB and the Private Sector, FMAN have not been very successful due to several nagging challenges, such as inconsistent climate and policy, poor irrigation facilities, inconsistent supply of high yielding varieties, poor mechanised farming, inadequate extension service delivery and inadequate storage facilities. It is against the backdrop of the above that AfDB initiated a budget support fund for wheat self-sufficiency in Nigeria. This initiative culminated into the development of a national strategy for wheat self-sufficiency in Nigeria.
Does Nigeria have the capacity to meet its wheat demand?
Nigeria has the capacity to meet its wheat demand and be a net exporter of wheat to her neighbouring countries. In spite of numerous problems affecting the wheat sub-sector, wheat has high production potentials in the country which includes fifteen States, in the North East, North West and North Central for irrigated and rain fed wheat production. The development of National strategy for wheat self-sufficiency was initiated and sponsored by AfDB aimed at meeting the medium term target of increasing productivity and production to 4.0t/ha and 70 per cent self-sufficiency respectively and income of farmers from 300,000t/ha to 600,000t/ha. This could be achieved through strategic interventions and resuscitating the existing ailing irrigation facilities by the Federal government in order to ensure regular water supply. Other interventions include establishment of aggregation centres, strengthening the wheat seed system, adequate funding of research and extension services and capacity building of scientists, extension agents and farmers. to achieve this national goal within short and long terms. The purposes of the National Strategy for Wheat self-sufficiency in Nigeria are to sustainably increase productivity and competitiveness of local production by developing proven climate resilient wheat technologies, develop a robust value chain for enhanced food and nutrition security and achieving wheat self-sufficiency in the medium to long term plan. The strategy will act as the anchor document to guide activities within the wheat subsector for wheat self-sufficiency for the next 10 years.
Advice to the incoming Government concerning Agricultural Development in Nigeria
The incoming government must focus on boosting its investment in the agricultural sector, create enabling environment that will attract youth and women to agriculture though promotion of mechanised farming, access to credits and quality inputs. They must also provide good and quality leadership in the agricultural sector for deliberate planning and delivery based on strategy and build a robust synergy among the three tiers of government on policies formulation and its operationalisation.
