Opening up Nigeria’s agriculture to meet domestic, world market demand

Dr. Zayyad Abba Ruma,
Minister of Agric and Water
ResourcesIn response to the food crisis and price hike currently bedevilling the Nigerian nation, nay the world, Deputy Editor, Bankole Makinde reports the efforts of the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Abba Zayyadi Ruma, towards improving food security in the country.

Strong and efficient agriculture sector enables a country to ensure food security for its growing population, generate employment, earn foreign exchange and provide raw materials for industries. The sector therefore has a multiplier effect on any nation’s socio-economic and industrial fabric. Nigeria, in the first decade after independence, was an agricultural economy being amongst the world’s leading producers of cocoa, palm-oil, cotton, rubber and hides and skin with the sector contributing over 60 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), supplying 70 per cent to export and 95 per cent of food needs. Then, Nigeria shared so much in common with Brazil in terms of highly conducive climate, huge and diverse population and the availability of immense natural resources.

Currently in Nigeria, agriculture contributes 40 per cent to the GDP as crop production accounts for about 85 per cent of the GDP, livestock, 10 per cent with the remaining five per cent made up for by fisheries and forestry. Also, agriculture employs about two-third of the total labour force of the nation, provides a livelihood for the bulk of the rural population as nearly three-quarters of the poor live in the rural areas; and is dominated by about 90 per cent of its over 14million smallscale farmers. Sadly, Nigeria ranks 20th on the 2008 Global Hunger Index as about 65 per cent of Nigerians are food insecure, that is, they have insufficient access to the amount and variety of food for a healthy and productive life because the country has not fully exploited her agricultural potentials. Looking at the status on crops, it will clearly be seen that the average yields of major staple crops remain far below most of other developing countries like Brazil because the country’s potentials are largely untapped and despite increased production of cassava and tomato, their current production per/ha are far lower than their potential.

Thus, Nigeria, for its staple food, is largely dependent on imports of rice, wheat, sugar, milk and many more food items despite the substantial land, water and pasture resources available. Reasons for the dependence on foreign countries for food importation include high cost, low quality and deficiencies in the supply and delivery of farm inputs such as seeds, fertilizer, crop protection chemical and tractors in addition to weak agricultural extension service. Also, general market failure with respect to input and output marketing, lack of properly-structured commodity markets, poor rural road network which do not allow farmers to get adequate access to inputs and markets for their commodities, inadequate storage facilities like storage bins, warehouses and silos together with largely-unorganized farmers who make access to markets, credit, inputs, technological innovations and other services difficult, are also responsible factors. Nigerian agriculture is mainly rain-fed and has taken full advantage of its irrigation potential estimated at between 2 and 2.5million hectares as it is characterized by high manual labour in addition to being largely subsistence.

It records high post-harvest losses such as 50 per cent for vegetables and fruits, 30 per cent for tubers and roots ad 20 per cent for grains. The challenges facing the livestock industry include increasing pressure on grazing land, ineffective livestock marketing system, lack of efficient and hygienic livestock processing facilities, slow cattle growth and low milk yield and trans-boundary animal diseases in addition to migratory pests. Although fish production is economically viable in Nigeria, the potential is hardly tapped as the country has potential for 5million metric tonnes. Challenges facing the sub-sector include inadequate supply of fingerlings and feeds, frequent attacks by pirates on fishing vessels, high cost of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) for fishing vessels, lack of investments in Tuna resources exploitation, low canoe motorization, high post-harvest spoilage and lack of a dedicated fisheries harbour and terminal in Lagos, where 95 per cent of industrial operators are based. But the greatest challenge in achieving food security in Nigeria so far, has been inadequate funding as a paltry three per cent of the budget was allocated to the sector up to 2007 while the provision was upped to only seven per cent this year because of the ominous food inadequacy signal staring the federal government in the face.

Worried by the unsavoury scenario, the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr. Abba Zayyadi Ruma, ran to the National Assembly penultimate Wednesday to alert the nation about the precarious food situation in the country. Dr. Ruma is of the opinion that Nigeria can ensure food security for its citizens even while having excess capacity to meet export demands. He is however praying the Federal Government to provide sufficient fund for the implementation of his recommended initiatives while using the Agriculture Development Fund (ADF) as the financial vehicle for agriculture programmes including additional support from the Natural Resources Fund (NRF) to meet the estimated funding level of about N950million over the next four years. Also, the minister would want President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to approve the commencement of the process of providing legal, administrative and governance framework for implementation of the initiatives.

Dr. Ruma who believes that funding the agriculture sector should involve the setting up of the National Resource Fund; mandatory contributions from the private sector and using part of Central Bank of Nigeria’s operating surplus, is equally recommending that the Federal Government should endorse special intervention in the rehabilitation of broken-down irrigation infrastructure and Private Public Partnership (PPP) in key input service provision. He is also canvassing for the establishment of a guaranteed minimum price system for agricultural commodities under a reviewed commodity board arrangement. The minister is also arguing that the Federal Government should support the establishment of specialized agro service cooperatives to actively participate in production, processing and marketing of agricultural products. Further, Dr. Ruma is canvassing for the acceleration of the establishment of the ADF with a take-off grant funded by the three tiers of government and an additional funding support from the NRF.

Specifically, Dr. Ruma said the way forward on food security in Nigeria involves developing a National Strategic Master Plan for Agriculture:

•Involvement of the three tiers of government, private sector and farming communities in programme implementation.

•Promoting the establishment of fertilizer manufacturing plants and expanding the national gas grid to afford locating the plants close to the agricultural farms. •Promoting large scale commercial agriculture of at least 500 to 3000 hectares, with direct tie to the small scale farmers, targeting about six to ten million hectares over a period of four years.

•Developing an agricultural land mapping programme; certification of individual farmlands for title deeds to serve as bank collateral, for access to credit and support services one third of each state per annum, to be included over a period of three years for all the states) and a central farmers’ land registry to be established.

Developing self-sufficiency strategies for food crops, with the first phase covering wheat, sugarcane, cassava, tomatoes, fisheries and livestock.

•Increasing storage capacity by completing on-going 25 silo projects and construction of 60 specialized warehouses in the country and constructing 12 conditioning centers, two per geopolitical zone.

•Strengthening current research and development capacity in both public and private sectors to improve yield and implementing the tractor service scheme and other agricultural equipment to ensure availability of at least additional 20,000 tractors per annum.

•Rehabilitating the degraded irrigation infrastructure under the River Basin and Rural Development Authorities to ensure all-season farming.

•Using partnerships for improved storage and processing through establishment of agro-industrial parks, one per geopolitical zone and establishment of agro-service centers.

•Increasing livestock and fisheries production to meet both current and expected demand.

•Comprehensive soil testing programme to guide fertilizer application and crop suitability, estimated fertilizer requirement is expected to rise to 2.5m metric tonnes per annum for the next four years.

•Promoting specialized and revitalized cooperatives to render farm support services to small-scale farmers in every local government area, also to attract retired security operatives and young school leavers into commercial agriculture. The reformed cooperative will in addition involve participation of big commercial operators.

•Reviewing the commodity marketing policy; guaranteed minimum price, provision of support to large scale farmers prior to planting, reintroduction of licence buying agent with CBN playing its guarantee role as it did in the past.

•Strengthening and reforming the commodity exchange board and its being domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources.

•Providing expertise support for agricultural development projects by other agencies such as NDDC and accelerating the establishment of a special intervention fund, that is, Agricultural Development Fund, with a take-off fund of at least N200billion over a period of four years.