Agriculture and rural development is one of the cardinal programmes of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, he sees agriculture as a launching pad for Nigeria’s socio-economic advancement. It would be recalled that as at the time he took over the leadership of the country in 2015, the price of oil in the international market as dropped significantly; hence, oil although still very important to the country’s political economy cannot be sole relied upon as the mainstay of the economic and the key revenue earner for the country. Yet, more than ever before, the country requires enormous revenue boost to develop the country massively and also bridge the ubiquitous infrastructural deficits through the whole gamut of the country.
To achieve this feat therefore, the development of the agricultural sector became very imperative; it is in view of this fact that President Buhari declared recently that, “I am very pleased that young Nigerians are taking agriculture seriously. Through it we have the potential to feed our entire population, as well as to create jobs and prosperity for large numbers of Nigerians. I commend all the young entrepreneurs who are heeding the call. Some States, like Kebbi, Ogun, Lagos, Jigawa, Ebonyi and Kano are also leading the way in taking advantage of the Federal Government’s policies on agriculture, and are already seeing results. I urge other States to emulate them, and plug into the ongoing revolution to feed Nigeria. We are taking our focus on agriculture to the next level. In our first term, we partnered with Morocco to revive abandoned fertilizer blending plants across the country, and also introduced the Anchor Borrowers’ Program to provide cheap credit to small scale farmers. We also developed the food security program that provided capital to large scale food processors to enable them to off-take the grains produced by smallholder farmers. All of these, and more, aimed at addressing the value-chain issues confronting Agriculture in Nigeria. Over the next four years we will continue to introduce and implement policies that will support cultivation and consumption of locally produced food items. Nigeria stands to benefit a lot, in terms of jobs, expansion of our rural economy, savings in our foreign reserves, and so on”.
It is for this reason that the present administration has constantly explained to the generality of the people that, Agriculture has been identified as one area where government should look deeply into ”Agriculture is the new oil” is one sentence that has been reverberating around Nigeria since President Muhammadu Buhari took over power. Indeed, Agriculture has the potential to change the economic indices in Nigeria to a positive one and shore up the earnings of the nation. Agriculture can also feed Nigerians, West Africa and indeed have enough to be imported outside the shores of the nation. Amidst the challenges that confront Nigeria as a nation, there are immense opportunities that abound in the agricultural sector that can help change the fortunes of the nation. A consistent and committed approach to agriculture and the implementation of its policies will no doubt empower Nigerians given the unemployment situation on the country, but most importantly, boost economic growth in Nigeria. There is also a need to make the sector attractive to the private sector because agriculture is now a key investment opportunity in Nigeria. Government policy must involve organizing information about the sector, attracting capital, markets, land and other resources. With this, smallholder farmers will earn decent income from agriculture in the next few years that will have a spiral effect across the nation.
Fortunately, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, takes the sector seriously. Speaking at the 8th Annual Bola Tinubu Colloquium with the theme: “Agriculture: Action, Work, Revolution”, the president restated his government’s plan. He said: ”We intend to organize an efficient market infrastructure that will make agriculture viable for investors. We are providing an enabling environment so as to ensure certainty and predictability for the private sector. ”We intend to also ensure that the market is fair and worth to transform small holder farmers from beggars to businessmen.” The government has since prioritized agriculture in its fiscal plan since 2015. From both economic recovery and social investment perspectives, the Buhari government has shown that it is ready to do more for the sector.
It is not surprising therefore that, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture has declared plans to partner with Nigeria Farmers Group and Cooperative Society (NFGCS) to establish local government farm settlements nationwide. The Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mustapha Baba Shehuri made this known; Shehuri said the move is a public-private partnership, one that is in tandem with one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s strategies to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty in the next decade through the agro value chain. “Every community in Nigeria needs something like this and the ministry would immediately commence the process of developing a working memo for the President to begin the process of nationwide youth agro training,” he added.
It is imperative to underscore the fact that, Four hundred thousand farmers have so far been supported financially and technically to grow 12 crops under the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The initiative, operated through the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), has also created about 1.2 million indirect jobs along the agricultural value chain. According to the CBN governor, the biometric capturing, which identified farmers to specific farmland through mapping has eliminated the issue of “absentee” or non-practicing farmers from benefiting from the inputs and other facilities.
Also, the Federal Government, launched the agricultural sector roadmap, known as The Green Alternative, for promotion of agriculture from 2016-2020. The presentation was made by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who said government would deploy 100,000 agric extension workers to assist farmers implement the policy. Osinbajo maintained that the move to diversify the economy through the agriculture sector had become necessary due to the huge food importation bill and the need to create jobs for the teeming population of youth in the country. He also expressed optimism that the roadmap would address challenges in the sector and reposition it for economic growth and development. He said: “The present administration came into office to meet an economy in a meltdown and we have to take difficult decisions on short, medium term in order to repair the huge damage done, especially by the dependence on oil, the worst not investing in infrastructure or deepening the diversification of our economy, or even building our reserves when oil sold at over a $100 per barrel. “We knew that we had to set aright and put back the economy on a fast lane, inclusive growth, job creation for our huge population. One of the most critical components of that plan is to position agriculture, the arrowhead of our economic recovery efforts. “There is no question at all that if we get agriculture right, we will get our economy right. The great clarity, ‘The Green Alternative, sets out strategies to resolve these challenges and particularly impressed that the roadmap does not dismiss the agric policies ‘building on the successes of the agricultural agenda’.
“This particular issue of alignment is crucial. For instance, there is no way we can encourage agriculture than to encourage food production when we allow unbridled importation of the same things we are trying to produce. “Still on the issue of policy of alignment, as part of our 500,000 teacher corps that we will be engaging 100, 000 of them that will be trained as extension workers for our farms. “I, hereby, launch the Agriculture Sector Roadmap: The Green Alternative; Agriculture Promotion Policy 2016-2020.” According to the Vice President, the home-grown school feeding programme will have one meal a day for pupils and specifically the food will be from farms in each state. He also assured that the Bank of Agriculture would be recapitalized and repositioned to meet farmers’ financial need by giving them a single digit interest rate and low interest.
It is important to note that, the immediate past the minister of agriculture and now the President of African Development Bank (ADB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina lamented that, Nigeria spends over N356 billion yearly on the importation of rice, similarly, Nigeria spends over N100 billion annually to import fish. And, the country spends N1.6 trillion on the importation of wheat, sugar, rice and fish on a yearly basis. The former minister also regretted that, Nigeria has the third absolute number of stunted children in the world with 41 per cent of children under age of five stunted, 23 per cent under-weight and 14 per cent wasted.
Also, he said, Nigeria’s import and export ratio has remained at 92 per cent import and 8 per dent export. It for this reason that President Buhari said recently in an economic retreat, as it relates to agriculture that, it has been neglected over the years, and veritable government intervention is required in the crucial sector, that if carefully managed, can lead to self-sufficiency in food production, solve the problem of mass unemployment, increase the country’s foreign earnings, and grow our per capita income. In his words, he stated that, “for too long government policies on agriculture have been half-hearted, suffering from inconsistencies. Yet our real wealth is in farming, livestock, hatcheries, fishery, horticulture and forestry”.
He further explained the some of the challenges in the sector, such as rising cost of food, lack of agricultural inputs at affordable prices, high cost of fertilizers, pesticides and labour compound the problem of extension services, import of food items that can be easily produced locally, wastages because of the absence of adequate storage facilities as well as lack of feeder rods to transport foods produced in rural areas to urban centres, just to mention but a few of the difficulties encountered in the sector.
He also said that, in solving the problem the public must be carried along and educated about the plans of government so that, they can key into it and benefit maximally from it, in addition, he reasoned that, there must be close working relationship between the federal government and the state governments, to really boost agriculture and solve some of the problems in the sector, for example, the massive availability of feeder roads to make transportation of food from the country-sides to the city centers less cumbersome, there should also be the availability of soft loans to farmers with the CBN bearing some of the risk as well as the exigent need intermittent stakeholders meeting on how to move the sector forward. Agriculture in Nigeria is one area that can turn the fortunes, destiny, direction and dynamics of this great country around for the very best with the shortest space of time. It is also important to note that, President Buhari has said that the Federal Government is making efforts to ensure that Agriculture becomes more attractive to foreign investors.
He made this assurance while speaking on the theme of the 8th annual Bola Tinubu Colloquium “Agriculture, work and revolution” at the International Conference Centre, ICC, Abuja. The President, who chaired the event stated that there were many opportunities in the agricultural sector and expressed his disappointment at the fact that food is imported into the country rather than being exported.
According to the president, “Nearly all our crop-based farming activities are dependent on rain-fed agriculture, and this makes our agricultural productivity entirely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In the past few years, on the average, we have spent in excess of $11bn annually importing wheat, rice, sugar and fish. We need not, and indeed we cannot afford to continue on this trajectory”. He added, “Agriculture is the key to our economic growth and social investment policies. Our administration’s key strategy is to ensure that Nigeria becomes self- sufficient in the foods that we consume the most maize, rice, corn, millets, fruits, poultry products and their derivatives can all be produced at home if we put our hearts into it. Our policy is simple: We will produce what we eat! It is not only logical, it is necessary.” He then implored everyone to work together thus: “I am declaring that we need a new approach that challenges more states and local governments, more organizations, companies and non-governmental organizations and individuals, some of the younger people, who are here to step up and play a role because government cannot and should not do it alone. All hands should be on deck.”
Therefore, the present government should be supported and encouraged to make Nigeria self-sufficient and reliant in food production, this is the basis for the country’s economic turnaround, hence, the government should be commended for taken a right step in the right direction.
*** Written by Jide Ayobolu.
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