As Nigeria celebrates, no concrete steps have been taken in the last years to support agriculture, despite the potential of the sector as a means of unlocking the wealth of the land for the benefit of the people, government has failed to give the sector adequate financial support to sustain it, writes GRACE AZUBUIKE.
According to Mallam Bello Ahmed, a small-scale farmer in Zoba “there is nothing to celebrate as a nation, our agriculture sector has collapsed, government is not helping us with incentives”.
He adds, “In the 1960s agriculture used to be our source of revenue especially during the war, most people in the south were living by food even now we still depend on agriculture, I never believed that oil would be our source of revenue. Government refused to assist farmers by providing inputs and financing the sector to generate more profits for the economy.’’
He noted that the age bracket of farmers in Nigeria is between 60 to 67 years whereas younger people not going into farming, their fathers would not even encourage them, as they do not want their children to be as poor as they are or suffer as much as they did.
Also lamenting, Mrs. Elisabeth Audu, a civil servant who spoke to LEADERSHIP, said that oil has really destabilised the economy and government has no regard for agriculture, peasant farmers in the rural areas struggle with what they cultivate from their farms, adding that for us to move as a nation government should go back to agriculture and make it priority.
In spite of the growing importance of oil, Nigeria has remained essentially an agrarian economy, with agriculture still accounting for significant shares in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).? Over 90 per cent of Nigeria’s agricultural output comes from peasant farmers who dwell in remote rural areas where 60 per cent of 150 million of total population lives, Nigeria has a high degree of inequality in income distribution with only a small fraction of the population earning the bulk of its national income.
Despite all these obviously abundant human and natural resources, the country is still unable to feed her citizens producing about 500,000 tons of rice while the annual consumption is 2.5 million tons. Nigeria is now the world’s second-largest rice importer after Singapore spending over $350 million on rice importation alone.
In 1990, estimates indicated that 82 million hectares out of Nigeria’s total land area of about 91 million hectares were arable. However, only about 34 million hectares were being cultivated at the time. Another 18 million hectares were classified as permanent pasture, but much of this land had the potential to support crops. About 20 million hectares were covered by forests and woodlands. Most of this land also had agricultural potential. The country’s remaining 19 million hectares were covered by buildings or roads, or were considered wasteland.
The desire to build a vibrant agriculture-based economy also motivated the government of President Umaru Yar’Adua to include food security and agriculture in its seven-point agenda. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources then launched its National Food Security Programme in September 2008, to combat the global food crisis and to ensure sustainable access to availability and affordability of quality food for all Nigerians.
To ensure the successful implementation of the programme, the federal government set aside N200 billion for its take-off, with the short-term objective of significantly improving the country’s agricultural productivity by moving from subsistence to commercial farming. The medium-term and long-term objectives are to expand and improve large scale production, improve storage as well as processing capacity, establish a regional infrastructure, and derive over 50 per cent of the nation’s foreign exchange through agricultural exports.
Furthermore, over the years, the sector has witnessed a tremendous decline in its contribution to national development, development economists have in fact, attributed the present economic situation in Nigeria to the poor performance of the agriculture sector ,unfocussed government policies have been described as the fatal problem that rocked the boat of food security in Nigeria.
However, on assumption of duty, the new Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, reechoed President Jonathan’s clarion call for a return to the glorious era of green revolution, when he recalled with nostalgia sweet memories from the ancient city of Ibadan where he grew up and the surrounding villages dotted with shining and beautiful corrugated iron roofs, all proceeds from the flourishing cocoa industry. But alas! The brilliant and effervescent horizon of the ancient city has now turned rustic and blighted by a decline and total neglect of the booming industry.
The annual post-harvest loss recorded by the Nigerian farmers constitute greater threat to food security, socio-economic living conditions of the populace and by extension sustainable growth and development of the Nigerian economy especially in the face of the global financial crisis bedevilling national economies.
The minister further stressed the need for Nigeria to translate the country’s huge agricultural potentials into realities by encouraging local production and strengthening the value chain so as to make Nigeria self-sufficient and generate income and wealth for the Nigerian farmers.
Explaining his vision further, he said that the present status quo where pundits, experts and policy makers continue to harp on Nigeria’s agricultural potentials is unacceptable adding that it was high time Nigeria and Nigerians rose to the occasion?? by translating those potentials into realities.
Adesina added that his coming to the ministry was not to serve any selfish, political or business interests but to serve the Nigerian farmer through the provision of incentives to rapidly raise agricultural productivity, improve incomes of farmers, create jobs and secure food supply for global competitiveness.
Going down memory lane, the minister recalls with dismay the glorious period when Nigeria accounted for 60 per cent of the global supply of palm oil, 30 per cent of groundnut oil and 15 per cent of global supply of cocoa, but has now regrettably become a consumer nation with a total food import bill between 2007-2010 amounting to N98 trillion naira or $628 billion US dollars and submitted that in 2010 alone, Nigeria spent 635 billion Naira on import of wheat, 356 billion naira on importation of rice, an average of N1 billion Naira per day on rice alone, N217 billion naira on Sugar and with all the marine resources, rivers, lakes and creeks in the country, Nigeria spends a whopping sum of N97 Billion on fish imports.
Agricultural production till date remains the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. It is the main source of food for most of the population. It provides the means of livelihood for over 70 per cent of the population, a major source of raw materials for the agro-allied industries and a potent source of the much needed foreign exchange.
Experts have said that the portrayal of agriculture as a profession for the poor is a major reason why poverty is prevalent in Nigeria.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP, Mr. Alex offor an agriculture consultant based in Lagos, said there was need to address the problems of farmers in Nigeria so that farming would be embraced by more Nigerians, younger Nigerians were not willing to go into agriculture because their parents in the rural areas remained poor, despite their dependence on agriculture.
He noted that farmers were usually poor, illiterate and helpless, while the middlemen, who buy the products from them and process them, were more comfortable and have access to finance, which are usually denied farmers, adding that Nigerian economy relied on agriculture up until the 1970s, when the oil boom created a diversion and wondered why the government had refused to give agriculture the attention it deserved given its role in the economy just as policy inconsistency of government had greatly affected the sector as it has failed to address the problems of the sector over the years.