The Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development is Industry expected to mechanise Nigeria’s subsistence agriculture sector and make it truly competitive.
Farmers in Africa’s most populous country are expecting the Agricultural Minister to address fundamental issues that have prevented Nigeria from attaining its food security target.
The Minister must lead the pack in creating the right environment to enable the private sector to steer innovation and irrigate the farms.
The private sector wants single- digit interest rate, and infrastructure to change the fortunes of Nigeria’s economy through agribusiness, with attendant exponential gains by way of earnings, employment, food provision and other spin-offs.
They note that the lingering problems in the sector have limited their inability to grow enough food for Nigeria’s 200 million.
“The main reason we have not made much progress with agriculture is our inability to address fundamental issues that are limiting productivity,” Africanfarmer Mogaji, chief executive officer, X-ray Consulting, said in a telephone response to questions.
“The Agric Minister needs to address these lingering issues to drive growth in the sector. How can we grow our agriculture with low use of technology and little or no infrastructure?” Mogaji, who is also the head of Agriculture and Allied Group, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), asked.
Growth in the sector has been on decline since the first quarter of 2017, with marginal growth rate recorded only in the fourth quarter of the same year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show.
Experts say the inability of the government to fix value chain deficiencies over the years has slowed growth in the sector.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that agricultural sector grew by 0.17 percent from 3 percent in Q1 2018 to 3.17 percent Q1 2019, while on a quarteron-quarter basis it increased by 0.72 percent compared to the preceding quarter. While improvement has been seen, growth in the sector is still below 2014 level.
Nigeria’s agricultural sector has been marred by several structural challenges ranging poor road networks, inadequate storage facilities and low quality inputs.
Ayodeji Balogun, country manager, AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited, during a recent Businessday Agribusiness Summit, said that developing agriculture is very critical in the country’s efforts to diversify, which, according to him, can only be achieved if heavy investments are made in infrastructure
“There are no significant investments in the system to ensure that investors have a smooth operation and this is why we have not made any much progress in the sector,” Balogun said.
Nigeria is populated by about 200 million people who must be fed with staple foods ranging from yams, rice and cassava to beans, bananas and tomatoes, among others, but inadequate storage facilities have makes this a herculean task for farmers.The tractors needed to grow these foods are lacking.
Nigeria is one of the least mechanised farming countries in the world with the country’s tractor density put at 0.27 hp/ hectare, which is far below the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)’S 1.5hp/hectare recommended tractor density for Africa and other developing countries.
“We cannot grow our agriculture using hoes and cutlasses anymore. Mechanisation and irrigation are vital if we are going to feed ourselves,” Ibrahim Kabiru, national president, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), said from his Kano farm.
“The Minister should focus on these areas if truly we are serious of attaining food sufficiency,” Kabiru said.
