Nigeria’s 53 years of stunted growth in agriculture

Nigeria is blessed with arable land, which offers great potentials for agriculture. Prior to independence and indeed the immediate post-independence era, agriculture was Nigeria’s mainstay until the ‘black gold’ was discovered. It seems the advent of crude oil turned everything upside down as attention became sharply focused on crude oil production and the immediate wealth than the agriculture which ironically still remains the main employer of labour across the nooks and crannies of the country.

One recalls with relish the early 1960s when Nigeria was synonymous with cocoa, palm oil and groundnuts pyramid among other agricultural products. However, with the coming of the ‘black gold’ attention on agriculture had a sudden disconnect and the centre had never been able to remain kneaded together.

Albeit it, several governments have since independence pontificated on agriculture, only a handful had any visible policy specifically for agriculture during the oil boom era. Gen. Yakubu Gowon hardly had a conceivable policy nor did the subsequent military regime of late Gen. Murtala Muhammed.

Well, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo eventually attempted to arrest the drift off the path of agriculture by introducing the ‘Operation Feed the Nation’ which some mischievously referred to as Obasanjo Farm Nigeria, at Otta. Then, Shehu Shagari equally sought to re-direct the nation back to its old reliable ways in agriculture by launching the ‘Green Revolution’.

Irrespective of the efficacy of the implementation and execution of the policies, they tended to remind the people that agriculture remains the largest employer of labour and indeed the only reliable means of arresting the consciousness of Nigerians from all walks of life. Of course, food sufficiency is the livewire of any nation.

True, IBB introduced DIFRI- Directorate for Food, Road and Infrastructure- ostensibly to lure the younger generation back to land. But many say that it was largely a lip service, seedlings for planting were scarce as was fertilizer which became a source for the sudden wealth by the middle men, who were mostly government officials.

Generals Sani Abacha and Abdulsalami Abubakar followed the pattern set by Gowon and left visible evidences of the huge gulf in agriculture. Even the return of Obasanjo with his celebrated focus on cassava product still left much to be desired in government’s political will to cure the ill the sectoral decline.

Sadly too, even states which are closer to the people and whose policy could easily have had tremendous influence have failed to live up to expectation.

Agriculture would have provided their subjects ample employment opportunities as well as avail them sufficient food and thus boost self esteem, health and ultimately virile nation. Instead, the states preferred the handouts from the federal government and ended up being perpetually cap in hand before the centre.

Apart from Police Commissioner Fedelis Oyakhilome who introduced ‘back to land’ programme no military administrator in the many years of military regime did anything of significance for agriculture.

Today, the story of agriculture in 53 years of Nigeria as an independent nation is hardly inspiring. Current Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwunmi Adeshina succinctly captures the prevailing despicable trend thus: “since 1975, the nation had become a net importer of basic food items.”

“Agricultural productivity had fallen to its lowest ebb, compounding food insecurity, even though there was vast economic potential in the country. In those good years, Nigeria accounted for over 60 per cent of the global supply of palm oil, 35 per cent of groundnut, 23 per cent of groundnut oil and 25 per cent of cocoa, while farmers from the north and south made money from their sweat.

“Then, the quality of life was good; children went to good schools, the nation was food sufficient but today, that has become history. Adeshina also revealed that the nation’s food import bill between 2007 and 2010 stood at N98 trillion.

“Over N635 billion was spent to import wheat, N365 billion on rice, N217 billion on sugar and N97 billion on fish importation.”
However, available data shows that in 1960, at independence, the agriculture sector accounted for about 60% GDP, which is typical for developing agrarian nations. However, this share declined over time to only about 25% between 1975 and 1979.

This was due partly to the phenomenal growth of the mining and manufacturing sectors during the period and partly as a result of the disincentives created by the macroeconomic environment.

Similarly, researcher said the 1962-1968 development plan was Nigeria’s first national plan. Among several objectives, it emphasized the introduction of more modern agricultural methods through farm settlements, co-operative plantations, supply of improved farm implements and a greatly expanded agricultural extension service.

All the same, the country was at no time without brilliant agricultural schemes. In 1972, the government launched the National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP). There were also a number of agricultural development intervention experiments, notably Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), launched in 1976; River Basin and Rural Development Authorities (RBRDA), established in 1976; the Green Revolution Programme, inaugurated in 1980; and The World Bank-funded Agricultural Development Projects (ADP).

As if all these schemes never existed, an average rural farmer never felt the impacts. In 1998, the Nigerian government once again turned its attention to the agricultural sector. It adopted an agricultural policy that had the objective, among others, of ensuring food security for the population by developing local production.

Since the reference document “Agriculture in Nigeria: The New Policy Thrust” was issued in 2001. The strategic document for reducing poverty in Nigeria, “National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy” (NEEDS II 2008-2011) emphasising economic development driven by the private sector, and the “7-point Agenda in May 2007, which intended to help the country achieve the Millennium Development Goals for 2015 and its own “2020 Vision” plan.

For agriculture, the National Food Security Programme (NFSP) issued in August 2008 by the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources is designed to attain food security by ensuring that all Nigerians have access to good-quality food while making Nigeria a major exporter of foodstuffs.

The programme designates priority crops (cassava, rice, millet, wheat) for achieving food security and outlines objectives for all stages of these supply chains. The aim is to create more value in production, particularly downstream in the chain, by improving storage, processing, and access to agricultural markets. The programme also plans the creation of irrigation schemes (450,000 ha).

Similarly, Olusegun Obasano’s government also launched an initiative in 1999 for seven agricultural products (cassava, rice, vegetable oil, sugar, livestock, cultivated trees and dry grains). The aim of these initiatives was to boost Nigeria’s agricultural exports by taking advantage of preferential agreements in the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Economic Partnership Agreements between the European Union and the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific countries.

In terms of land mass, Nigeria’s total land area is 92.4million hectares. Of this area 91 million hectares is adjudged to be suitable for cultivation. Approximately half of this cultivable land is
effectively under permanent and arable crops, while the rest is covered by forest wood land, permanent pasture and built up areas.

Among the States which have the most abundant land areas are Niger (7.6 million hectares) and Borno (2.8 million hectares). On Nigeria’s potentials in available crops, in 1996, a total of 33 million hectares were cultivated to crops generally; out of which 17.7 million hectares were for staples and 4.9 million hectares were for industrial crops.

Consequently, agriculture crops in Nigeria are grouped into: cereals--guinea corn, millet, maize and rice. There are also root and tuber crops—cassava, yam, cocoyam, and potatoes (sweet and irish). The grains legumes and other legumes include cowpeas, locust bean, soyabean, and other beans such as groundnut, pigeon pea, and bambara nuts. Oil seeds and nuts include melon, benniseed, kolanut, and coffee. As for the tree crops, there is the prominent cocoa, oil palm, and rubber.

In terms of vegetables, Nigeria has onions, African spinach, Indian spinach, Pumpkin, Sweet pepper, hot pepper, water leaf, carrot, and lettuce. Nigeria farmers also engage in fruit production pineapple, pawpaw, mango, banana/plantain, citrus, and guava.

With all these natural and human resources domiciled in just one country, what else does a nation needs? Prayer more hard work? May be we should consult with the oracles or overturn the country’s fate with the help of voodoo!

We obviously need to stop playing politics with issues of global concern. Besides, the right time for Nigeria to join the global community and take earnest action towards its agriculture sector is now. You want to know why?

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organusation (FOA) said by year 2050, world’s population will rise to 9 billion, and to satisfy global food demands, food production for developing countries like Nigeria, will need to increase by 70 percent.

Similarly, African richest business man and Nigeria’s business magnet, Aliko Dangote once said, “Whether we like it or not, we must face agriculture; not only to sell and make money but to feed the nation because by 2025, the nation’s population will be hitting over 250 million.” These socking statistics calls for serious concern and urgent action by all.

All Nigeria needs are continuity and well-coordinated long time policies for the agriculture sector. The current government must under its Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) programme co-opt and analyse as part of the plans, the successes, failures and lessons learned in preceding programmes. The absence of indicators makes it hard to track and evaluate policy implementation.

There is the need for Nigeria to also embrace the global trends of transformation in agriculture, which is the development and application of biotechnology (BT) driven farming system. Through this system, farmers have been able to access hybrid seed that brought about improved yields, including insect and disease resistance crops. Also with BT, researchers have developed crops that tolerate extreme climatic conditions such as drought and heat.
For Nigeria, the right time to act is now!

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