The Federal Government’s 96 percent raise of the 2016 agriculture budget is an indication that the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is serious with economic diversification but it is insufficient to address lingering infrastructure challenges facing farmers.
Analysts commend Buhari on his determination to bring back agriculture as the mainstay of Africa’s largest economy but say that the N47 billion allotted to capital projects cannot address issues relating to mechanisation, rehabilitation of dams, irrigation, extension services, insurance, fertiliser subsidy, research and development, among others.
They add that there are other issues which may take pre-eminence before an annual budget.
“It is not just about budgets,” said Muda Yusuf, director-general, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in a telephone interview.
“For you to develop agriculture, you need a policy content that will develop agriculture and manufacturing. You also need a policy that will address backward integration,” Yusuf said.
“Agriculture is dependent on several other sectors. You also need to develop a linkage between agric and infrastructure, but you know infrastructure cannot be in the agric budget,” he said.
Yusuf recommended the development of linkages between farmers and the market, guaranteed minimum price for agricultural products, as well as a robust insurance for farmers.
Nigeria’s mono-product economy has squeezed state finances and threatens the implementation of the 2016 budget, which benchmarks crude oil at $38 per barrel.
Despite the crash in revenue, the Buhari administration has shown keen interest in scaling up agriculture to raise revenue, make Nigeria the food basket of Africa, create jobs and bring in foreign exchange via exportation of value-adding products.
But the present government is faced with reviving a sector challenged by poor storage facilities and processing practices, as well as farming often mainly done with hand tools.
Available statistics show that 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) recommended tractor density of 1.5 hp/ hectare.
Nigeria is 132nd out of the 188 countries worldwide measured by FAO / United Nations in terms of the number of tractors in the country
Elesa Bitrus Yakubu, National president, Tractor Owners and Operators Association of Nigeria (TOOAN) while commending the government’s 96 percent raise in agric budget, added that the FG needs to adequately provide fertilisers to farmers and provide trainings for them on the best practices.
“The need of mechanisation is very important too and government needs to provide infrastructure by rehabilitating our dams and irrigations,” Yakubu said.
According to Sani Dangote, president, Nigeria Agribusiness Group and group vice president, Dangote industries Limited, the government needs to improve seed varieties and stress mechanised farming, so that farmers can have improved yields.
In an earlier interview, Eric Umeofia, chief executive officer, Erisco Foods Limited, said the country must now diversify through agric and manufacturing to create sufficient jobs.
Umeofia said the present administration is going in the right direction and that with time, the country would start to see the effect of the diversification.
According to analysts, policy makers must particularly pay more attention to export of value- adding agric products to bring more foreign exchange into the economy at a critical period like now.
Stakeholders stress that though Nigeria should support exporters, the Federal Government must focus attention to those who add value to their products before taking them out of the country’s borders.
“If you do not add value, you will only get peanuts for your exports,” said Obiorah Madu, chairman of the Export Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in an earlier interview, adding that the government needs to reinstate the Export Expansion Grant (EEG) now that it is serious with diversification.
ODINAKA ANUDU & JOSEPHINE OKOJIE
