Analysis: Can Agriculture be King? Yes, but Key Issues must be Addressed

President Muhammadu Buhari, in a recent interview, asked that Nigerians should return to farms. This is not new as the President has often advocated for farming especially encouraging Nigerian youths to go back to the Agricultural sector.

Through the National Agricultural Land Development Authority, the administration unveiled plans to ensure better possibilities for farming in the country. One of the goals of this Authority is capturing the imagination of the youth and encouraging them to take to farming.

A ‘Back to Farm’ initiative was introduced by the government through the authority.

In 2015, the President launched the Anchors’ Borrowers Scheme. The scheme is aimed at the provision of farm inputs in kind and cash to smallholder farmers to assist in the production of agricultural commodities.

In 2019, the President also closed Land Borders in an attempt to boost rice production locally.

In 2020, President Buhari launched the National Young Farmers Scheme, aimed at ensuring that Nigerians produce what Nigerians eat.

The efforts of the government have yielded some results, Agriculture’s contribution to GDP has increased, albeit, marginally since the start of the Buhari Administration. 

Contribution of Nigeria’s Agriculture to GDP (2015 to 2021)

However, the sector has not taken on the life and vitality that it has been touted to possess. Nigeria’s agricultural land is put at 70 million hectares, with 34 million hectares of arable land, 6.5 million hectares of land under permanent crops, 28.6 million hectares under permanent meadows and pastures. The sector’s potential as a worthy contender and driver of Nigeria’s post-oil economy is a well-established fact, its realisation has however remained an aspiration.

The Food and Agriculture organization noted that despite producing 4.0 million Metric Tonnes of Rice in 2018, Nigeria only produces 57% of its 6.7 million annual Rice consumption metric Tonnes demand.

A Dataphyte report recently noted that Nigeria is yet to reach rice sufficiency.

According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, the country still spends $2 billion to import wheat annually. The Observatory of Economic Complexity puts the 2019 figure of Nigeria’s Wheat importation at $1.48 billion, ranking Nigeria as the sixth-highest wheat importer in the world.

A publication on Food and Agriculture Organization noted that Nigeria is currently the largest producer of cassava in the world with an annual output of over 34 million tonnes of tuberous roots. Cassava production has been increasing for the past 20 or more years in area cultivated and in yield per hectare. Yam and maize are other cash crops that rank in the top 10 produced in Nigeria but none of these crops ranks highly in Nigeria’s export trade. Cassava and maize export volume are a measly 1,512 tonnes while Nigerian yam hardly leaves the borders.

The Issues; Insecurity, Little to no Access to Markets and Finance, Among Others

In Ebonyi state, a farmer told Dataphyte that he has abandoned going to his farm due to fear and uncertainty of safety. He shared how he and his kinsmen used to be eager to go to the farm but the story is no longer the same, now they’re all looking for “safer” greener pastures.

In 2018, the International Crisis Group noted that 1,300 persons were killed in Nigeria between January 2018 and July 2018 as a result of the farmer/herders crises in Nigeria. Benue, Plateau, Adamawa, Taraba, and Nasarawa were listed as most affected by the crisis.

The European Asylum Support Office had noted that the Farmer-Herder Crisis in Nigeria has deteriorated, the report published in 2021 stated that between 2015 and 2018, 3,641 people have been killed while 300,000 persons have been displaced due to the crisis. 

Relief Web noted that the crisis is responsible for food insecurity in the country.

The President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Kabir Ibrahim, was also quoted as stating that Nigerian Farmers have lost 50% production capacity to insecurity.

The African Center for Strategic Studies revealed that Pastoral Land Scarcity has escalated the Farmer-Herder crisis in the country.

The United Nations listed Climate Change as one of the causes of the escalating Farmers-Herders crisis in the country. The report listed rising temperatures as having shrunk leading to competition for available land. 

According to World Bank projections, the temperature increase in Nigeria may not subside anytime soon, the Mean Annual Temperature is projected to increase to between 1.1 degrees Celsius and 2.5 degrees Celsius by the 2060s and 1.4 degrees Celsius and 4.6 degrees Celcius by 2090s. It is projected that hot nights will increase in the country. 

Asides from insecurity, agriculture in Nigeria has suffered from a lack of access to markets and finance.

A Dataphyte report looked at how much credit commercial banks extended to the agricultural sector, unsurprisingly, it is little. While modern ways of farming and good agronomic practices will improve productivity, 70% of Nigeria’s farming population have no access to the finance and support required to adopt these practices to transition from subsistence farming to commercial farming.

Access to markets is a major challenge. A Dataphyte review of the 2020 budget for instance shows that a sum of N225 million was budgeted for building a Complete Mini Rice Processing Plant with Silo, also Fabrication and Complete Installation of Three Numbers of Grain Silos was put at N9.07 million. Smallholder farmers do not have the wherewithal to set up storage and processing facilities to preserve their produce. 

Cassava Starch Machine website noted that it would cost N70.8 million to set up a Cassava Starch processing plant, the plant would be able to process four tonnes per day.

Irrigation, a critical tool for transitioning from rain-fed farming, costs between N250,000 to N1 million per acre and between N600,000 to N2 million per hectare for drip irrigation.

A report by the Food and Agricultural Organization noted that the food systems are becoming more capital intensive, raising concerns about smallholders farmers’ ability to survive. 

Smallholder farmers are disconnected from critical value chains. Middlemen continue to ensure very little returns for the tough business of farming for smallholder farmers and the value chains that do exist are not fully optimised for productivity nor are they inclusive of smallholder farmers. 

Good roads, effective and efficient transportation and communication systems,  and a rigorous financial inclusion policy that captures all 774 local governments and the people living in them will be a far more effective booster of the Agricultural sector than Mr President’s encouraging call for Nigerians to return to farming.

What Are Countries with High Value Agricultural Sectors Doing?

The United States of America is the world’s leading exporter of agricultural produce. Details from their Department of Agriculture show that in 2020, 19.7 million jobs were related to Agriculture in the United States.

Direct on-farm activities accounted for about 2.6 million of the jobs or 1.4% of the total jobs of the United States.  Employment in agriculture and food-related industries supported another 17.1 million jobs.

The country announced this year a total of “$150 million for existing small and very small processing facilities to help them weather COVID, compete in the marketplace and get the support they need to reach more customers”. 

Another sum of $100 million was announced by the Department of Agriculture to support small and very small processing plants to weather volatility caused by COVID-19.

The United States also has a ‘Farm Storage Loan facility program’. The scheme is dedicated to ensuring producers have facilities to store products.

The United States policy on the loan puts loan duration time at 12 years while useful life of facilities which the loan is used for stands at 15 years.

There is also the International Trade Association under the Department of Commerce who are charged with enhancing the global competitiveness of U.S produce, processing and machinery across the world for the purpose of expanding market access and increasing exports.  

Services such as Trade Counselling are also offered, helping those in the Agriculture business to understand how to export their produce with the support of the government set-up team.

To further support the marketing of produce, the Department of Agriculture has an Agricultural marketing program. The Farmer’s Market promotion program is also one key way that the government funds projects that develop, coordinate and expand direct producers to the consumer markets. This in turn helps increase access to locally and regionally produced agricultural products.

Agriculture and by extension farmers and all the people within the sector are an important block of influence during elections both at the state and federal levels.

India, where smallholder farmers account for 86% of its agricultural sector, runs a model that encourages investment in cold storage and food supply chain modernization. 

The country also introduced its first National Agricultural policy in 2000. In 2020, The country announced a Rs 10,000 Core program for the Agricultural sector to help food standards and marketing.  The government also introduced Lakh Cores Agri Infrastructure support was also announced by the country to ensure post-harvest financially viable Agro infrastructure. 

Farmers in India have a Crop Insurance program. Losses arising from post-harvest and localised calamities are covered by this insurance. In 2019, the country launched a scheme to provide income support to all Landholder families with cultivable land.

For the optimization of value chains, the government in India identifies the most viable crop per district based on raw materials and production capacity of such a product in the district and provides support for infrastructure, branding and marketing for the one product chosen for the district.

For instance, there is ‘Operation Greens’ support for Tomato, Onions and Potato value chain, to provide support and aid price stabilization. 

India has a coordinated system across its 36 states for the allocation of food grains. To aid the distribution of its locally produced agricultural products, there is a central pool for food grains and the citizens of the country benefit from the coordinated food grain system. The country has a program tagged “One Nation, One Ration Card” . Everyone who has the ration card is allowed to get food at a Fair Price shop to make food cheaper and ensure that agricultural products are sold. 

India is also investing in technology and research to grow its agricultural sector. 

Countries like China, Germany, Russia and many others have vibrant Agricultural sectors that are propped up on effective and efficient policy-making and adequate investments. 

Clearly, it will take more than glossy stock pictures of happy farmers in brochures strategically placed in affluent lobbies or flowery words repeated on media platforms to convince Nigerians to “head to the farms”. 

The critical issues have to be properly dealt with before the sector can rise like the proverbial phoenix from its ashes.