Agriculture: Nigeria's Natural and Convenient Soulmate

INTRODUCTION

Okonkwo’s prosperity was visible in his household….The barn was built against one end of the red walls, and long stacks of yam stood out prosperously in it. At the opposite end of the compound was a shed for the goats…. As a child who grew up in the city, stories about wealth and prosperity that I recall reading were centred on Agriculture. There were the rich cocoa farmers from the west, rubber magnates from the east and the groundnut merchants from the north. Today, those stories are no more and the country is no better for it. Even in post-colonial Nigeria; Okonkwo, a product of Achebe’s thinking, had his financial strength hinged on the cultivation of the land.

My proposition is that Nigeria can become a brand in Agriculture and keep a smart and consistent pace ahead of other nations in the year 2020 and beyond because it’s a natural. Agriculture, I patriotically submit, can make the fame of the country grow like a bush-fire in the harmattan provided the right policy, environment, incentives, investments are put in place and this would happen when agriculture is pushed to the centre of policy discussions with ingenious approaches adopted as elucidated in this essay. The need of the population alone is massive, presently, the minimum consumption pattern of cows in Lagos is 7, 000/day.

Nigeria currently spends over $3 billion annually on the importation of staple food such as wheat, rice, sugar and fish. The Global Hunger Index published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) shows Nigeria at 20 in the range of 10-20 labelled as having a “serious” state of hunger among compared Sub-Saharan African countries. Furthermore, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its State of Food Insecurity in the World, (2006) had indicated that Nigeria had about 12 million people reported as undernourished as at 2003. A vexing paradox when the country has a total land area of 923,768 sq km comprising 910,768 sq km of land and 13,000 sq km of water. Nigeria’s agricultural sector comprises four sub-sectors: Crops, Livestock, Fisheries and Forestry. Crops contribute about 85% to agricultural GDP, livestock production about 10%, fisheries about 4%, and forestry about 1%. Other economically important tree crops include oil palm, rubber, coffee, tea, and cashew. In the early part of the 20th century, Nigeria distinguished itself as one of the world’s leading cocoa producers, a status that was maintained following independence even after many of the large cocoa estates established under colonial rule were broken up and distributed to smallholders.

NIGERIA’S AGRICULTURAL ABUNDANCE

With abundant land and water resources, Nigeria’s agricultural sector has a high potential for increased growth and phenomenal envy in the comity of serious nations. The country has diverse and rich vegetation capable of supporting a heavy population of livestock, 79 million ha of arable land, 267.7 billion m³ of water for irrigation, 14 million ha of surface water, 57.9 billion cubic meters of underground water and 3.14 million ha of irrigable land. From the colonial period up to the 1970s, It was among the world’s leading producers of Cocoa, Palm oil, Groundnuts, Cotton, Rubber and Hides and Skin. The agricultural sector contributed over 60% to the GDP (supplying 70% of export and 95% of food needs). However, with the advent of commercial oil exploration in the early 1970s the fortunes of agriculture started to dwindle. The climate of Nigeria is largely tropical, characterized by high temperatures, high humidity and intense heat. In some areas in the north, the mild winter permits the growing of winter crops such as wheat, during the cool harmattan period between December to February. The share of Agriculture in Federal Government’s annual budget ranges between 1.3% and 7.4% from 2000 and 2007.

In 2003, African leaders including that of Nigeria met in Maputo, Mozambique where they all jointly agreed that at least 10% of the total government spending should be targeted at the agricultural sector towards attaining food security. While some African countries such as Ghana, Uganda and Malawi have stabilized their budget expenditures on agriculture around 10%, Nigeria, has consistently spent less than 5% of its annual budget on agriculture. Malaysia, on the other hand, has achieved accelerated agricultural development through sustained annual expenditure of between 20-25% of its budget on agriculture in the last three decades. Policies and programs of previous governments in support of agricultural development in the past to this moment range from Establishment of Commodity Marketing Boards (1947-1986) to the Presidential Initiatives on selected commodities: Cassava, Rice, Cocoa, Vegetable oil, Livestock and Fisheries (1999 to 2007). It’s disturbing that these policies are yet to stamp Nigeria as an Agricultural brand. What’s the way out?

LET THE EXPERIMENT BEGIN

The UK Food and Agriculture Association estimate that the world population will increase 47%, to 8.9 billion, by 2050. That’s a potentially huge food marketplace. That fact, more than anything, spells the reality that the agricultural industry is full of potential opportunity. It’s a niche that a nation like Nigeria can fill. Nigeria’s wide range of climate variations allows it to produce a variety of food and cash crops. The staple food crops include cassava, yams, corn, coco-yams, cow-peas, beans, sweet potatoes, millet, plantains, bananas, rice, sorghum, and a variety of fruits and vegetables. The leading cash crops are cocoa, citrus, cotton, groundnuts (peanuts), palm oil, palm kernel and rubber. Nigeria has its contours, hills and swamps blessed with high yield agricultural potential. The North-West has a climatic model synonymous to that of China, the North-East with that of Mexico, North-Central to that of Brazil/Argentina, the middle belt to that of California, South-West to that of Ghana/Cote d’ivoire, the South-East to that of Jamaica/Malaysia, while the South-South to that of Thailand. Ours as a nation is an effusive outpouring of abundant capacity. Our potential income from Agriculture is $74.89b per annum. In December, 2009, Haiti was thrown into turmoil. As I watched the clips on cable news and tears stood in my eyes, I tried in vain to recall any other thing about Haiti except Jean Wyclef, I couldn’t. He was to the country what Bob Nester Marley was to Jamaica. I’m hoping that by 2020, if the ideas highlighted below are embraced, Agriculture would become a synonym for Nigeria. I’ll meet an European and he would say –‘Thanks to your country, we have enough to eat in mine’. An ambitious hope but not outrightly impossible!

Agriculture needs to become professionalised with educational training incentives to nudge young people embrace agricultural production, processing, extension and marketing. The farming population has aged, reflecting the migration of youth to the perceived job opportunities in the urban areas. Agriculture is less attractive for graduates; glitz and some semblance of razzmatazz in the industry can help here. Meanwhile there’s the need to expand and strengthen food and nutrition technology departments in tertiary institutions to train the manpower required in the food processing industry which is the only way value can be added to the products; agro-industrial exports thus becomes possible through enhancement of quality. In addendum, the bond between agriculture and industry in Nigeria is frail. A good attachment between agriculture and industry will involve the existence of processing firms for perishable and marginal products for the very crucial intention of value addition in order to reduce the monumental massive loss.

There’s a need to radically depart from reliance on rain-fed crop production by heavy utilization of irrigation. Studies should be conducted to identify and develop areas suitable for irrigation agriculture across the country. Presently, less than 1% of Nigeria’s arable land is irrigated. This is almost insignificant when compared with countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Brazil that have irrigated arable land of 12.36%, 4.81%, 28.19% and 4.38% respectively.

Moving away from the labour intensive system is a must as Nigeria needs to modernise its agricultural practice through heavy mechanization to enhance massive productivity and optimize the use of resources towards becoming and agricultural brand by 2020.

Seed and breeding stock quality improvement is key to improved and better production. Our seeds and breeds are not the world’s best. In this approach, we would need to borrow technology and adopt indigenous technical knowledge with it. Countries like Ireland are known to have applied conventional breeding and applied genetic engineering to boost their agricultural productivity. Genetically modified crops and varieties that are disease resistant, drought tolerant, high yielding and achieve early maturing.

Forestry is another great income earner and product generator that given Nigeria’s landmass can be utilised to plant trees for sustainable development. The nation presently has a massive land lying fallow contributing nothing to the GDP. This should change.
Hinged on short political cycles, agricultural policies in Nigeria have been inconsistent and poorly coordinated as well. Such a sustained commitment is needed to achieve good results in a sector that not only requires longer time spans to yield desired outcomes, but also relies on other sectors for its development. There should be involvement of all stakeholders in the formulation of policies and it should be made impervious to political changes while roles of the various stakeholders in the agricultural sector should be clearly demarcated;
If agriculture would become Nigeria’s brand, entrepreneurship has to be at the core. Entrepreneurs are known to be intelligent risk takers. They should be encouraged with unlimited access to medium and long-term credit. With this, the industry will grow like a yam tendril in the rainy season, full of the sap of life.

REFERENCES

· 10 Big Trends for Agriculture, www.jimcarroll.com (Accessed 10th April, 2010)

AEC 509, Agricultural Finance Lecture Notes, Dr. (Mrs) Yesufu, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria, 2007.
Getting Agriculture Going in Nigeria: Framework for a National Growth Strategy (A World Bank Report)
- Grim White Green, Leke Alder, 2008.
Indigenous Knowledge in Agriculture: A case study of the challenges in sharing knowledge of past generations in a globalized context in Uganda. Diana Akullo et al August 2007, Durban, South Africa
- National Agric Research Strategy Plan 1996 – 2010 by Bukar Shaib, et al
Report of the Vision 2020 National Technical Working Group On Agriculture & Food Security, National Planning Commission, July, 2009.
World Agriculture- Towards 2015/2030, FAO (2002).
World Fact Book, CIA, last updated on 14 May, 2009