The Dutch government is committing to provide support for Nigeria’s agricultural development, aiming to facilitate the creation of new jobs to support the economy, and stimulate economic growth. The Dutch mission in Nigeria which says it wants to deepen bilateral relations with the country has identified agriculture as the best way to provide support, owing to the Dutch track record in high productivity, and being the world’s second largest exporter of food despite being one of the smallest countries by size at 41,543 Km2.
This commitment to find ways of helping Nigeria develop its agricultural potentials was demonstrated earlier this month when a Dutch delegation led by Robert Petri, Netherlands ambassador to Nigeria, in company of Michel Deleen, head of Netherlands Representation in Lagos, and Ilona Domanska, policy officer, West Africa Division, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, visited the Wageningen University and Research (WUR) for series of strategic meetings on ways Nigeria’s agricultural development can be supported.
BusinessDay correspondent was in attendance at some of these meetings, where the Dutch delegation met with several experts who have had experience with agriculture in Nigeria, some for the past two decades, researching on different areas of the sector and developing programmes to support local growth.
In an exclusive interview with Petri after the meetings in Wageningen, the Dutch Ambassador told BusinessDay his country “would like to intensify collaboration with Nigeria, particularly in the field of agriculture, and this is because agriculture (appears to be) a priority for the Nigerian government.”
According to Petri, with high population growth, Nigeria will keep importing more food so local production has to go up, and “I think as a country, the Netherlands has something to offer Nigeria. We are capable of producing high yields in a small piece of land and we have a lot of expertise in practising agriculture in a sustainable way. We are also the second largest exporter of food in the world.
“We are a small country (in landmass) but in the area of agriculture, we certainly have something to offer Nigeria,” said Petri
The Dutch Ambassador also noted that “Nigeria is a very big country and very important for not only West Africa but is an economic engine for the rest of Africa. If it goes well in Nigeria, it will go well in the rest of Africa and this will be to the benefit of Europe.
“Employment will be my primary focus and that of the Netherlands, because we know that there are many job seekers that come to the market every year in search of employment, and now the oil sector and the oil age is slowly coming to an end.
“As long as job seekers remain unable to secure employment, this will invariably lead to unrests and chaos which we do not want,” Petri said.
The prospects of attracting more investors to Nigeria, is according to Petri, somewhat limited owing to the country’s less known potentials.
“We have to explain very well, how beautiful your country is, what the potential of the country is, because there isn’t very much that is known, frankly speaking,” noted Petri, adding that “but you can start with big awareness campaigns, and it sometimes works better to focus on one sector; in this case agriculture, so people can see that it can work, and that will help companies in other sectors to also come in and make their decisions (whether or not to stay in Nigeria).”
“The country is known but not the investments opportunities,” said Petri, “I think it has to be explained better, and that will help in showing good examples. It is also important for companies coming into Nigeria to prepare to be in it for the long haul.”
Other experts who attended the sessions with the Dutch delegation, mentioned several areas Nigeria needs to improve so as to record increased productivity, and also on quality of food, not only in targeting exports but to ensure Nigerians are not being ‘slowly poisoned’.
Louise Fresco, president, Executive Board of Wageningen University & Research, noted that if Nigeria hopes to one day become an agricultural exporting country, there has to be a monitoring system in place.
“Nigeria like other African countries needs to build up the expertise to effectively monitor quality and standards in food production,” said Fresco, also explaining that if this is not part of a national strategy, risk becomes imminent with changes in people or institutions, and building that national capacity is very essential.
Providing pointers to the Dutch delegation on how to make impact in Nigeria were experts from WUR with practical knowledge of Nigeria’s agriculture and this included; Ken Giller, a professor of Plant Production Systems, Gijs Kleter, researcher at RIKILT, Institute for Food Safety, Thom Achterbosch, researcher Food Systems at Wageningen Economic Research, Henk van der Mheen, coordinator, International Programmes at Animal Sciences Group, and Marlene Roefs, researcher at Wageningen Center for Development Innovation.
Nigeria’s policy on agriculture is also in the opinion of many experts, inadequate in solving the country’s deficits in food production. BusinessDay in fact, gathered from reliable sources at some diplomatic missions, that the current Agricultural Promotion Policy is seen as more or less “a shopping list”. It appears to be a widely held belief that the policy has no practical measures in ensuring goals are reached
One diplomatic source told BusinessDay, “The point is how to reach these goals, and we see for example, policy with regard to importation is crucial. A lot of money has been invested in rice, with the assumption that rice import will be limited. With rice and poultry, there is discussion that people who invest locally do it with the assumption that the market will be protected, but they can only produce roughly half or less of the total demand.”
In the end, Nigeria is expected to be strategic and pragmatic in its policy drafting, to avoid the appearance of a wishful list, rather, a strategic document that will highlight steps to achieving food security.
CALEB OJEWALE
