Strengths, Growth Prospects Of Nigeria?s Agricultural Sector

Before Nigeria?s independence in 1960, the nation?s agricultural sector contributed 75% of its export earnings as government and the private sector gave the industry adequate attention. With the massive rural-urban migration of subsequent years and government?s increased focus on the oil sector and its export capacity, agriculture?s contributions to export earnings reduced with time.
Between 2000 and 2011, the total average of the federal government?s budget on agriculture was N54.7 billion. According to the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido, only 4% of the national budget has been allocated to agriculture sector since 2006.
It is however gladdening to observe that the current administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan believes in the future of Nigeria?s agriculture sector. Nigeria is the world?s largest producer of cassava, producing over 100 million tonnes annually, and the country accounts for 19% of global cassava production. The products of cassava include garri, flour chips and starch, which are constantly in high demand both locally and internationally.
Nigeria is very rich in cocoa which has remained one of the leading non-oil foreign exchange earners for the country, with its production of well above 300,000 tonnes per year.
The most populated country in Africa has several agricultural commodities which could be developed into huge export earners through concrete and deliberate concerted efforts as the nation continues to diversify its revenue sources. Apart from cassava and cocoa, the other potential export revenue spinners include cotton, maize, oil palm, soya bean, onion, rice, tomato, sorghum livestock and fisheries. Exhausting the list of Nigeria?s agricultural produce is not easy. There is kolanut, peanut, sesame, mellon, millet, yam, plantain, orange, pineapple, banana, rubber and so on.
The official neglect of the food sub-sector of Nigeria?s agriculture industry in recent decades has resulted in a huge annual spending on food importation. An average of N24 trillion ($150 billion) is spent importing food every year. Some of the challenges of the agricultural sector have been youth apathy for farming, infrastructure problems like poor road networks for distribution of farm produce, lack of storage facilities and power supply to rural areas, lack of capital, land policy, absence of data and political will.
Considering the existing setbacks, the commitment of the current administration of President Jonathan to improve the sector is commendable. Through the initiative on cassava, rice, maize and soya beans, about 8.1 million metric tonnes of food is the anticipated addition to domestic food supply by 2015. The targeted rice production is to yield about N2 billion income for farmers by same year. To develop the country?s capacity for rice production, 13 rice mills have been installed across the country. The age-long barriers to effective distribution of fertilizers to rural farmers have been broken while the sector got a federal budget of N81.41 billion in 2013, representing 1.6% of the total 2013 budget of N4.987 trillion. There is an on-going massive construction of rural roads by federal and state governments across the country while practical measures are being taken to improve electricity power nationwide. The CBN is driving the process of ensuring that rural farmers get access to small scale loans at single-digit interest rates.
Nevertheless, the importance of data to planning and successful relationship between the government and rural farmers cannot be undermined. There is an urgent need for the local, state and federal governments to collaborate and develop a comprehensive database of rural and urban farmers nationwide. Otherwise, government would pursue objectives of agricultural policies in isolation and achieve very minimal results. The planned distribution of mobile phones to rural farmers would be an exercise in futility without a database, reflecting who and who constitutes the farmers. The federal government has already declared a 0% duty on importation of machinery and spare parts for local sugar manufacturing industries from January 2013. A five-year tax holiday for sugar cane and sugar value chain investors has equally been announced and this deserves applause.
According to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Akinwumi Adeshina, the need for imported goods which has been growing over the years, has contributed to domestic inflation, thereby increasing poverty levels. Nigeria currently tops food importing nations? list, spending over N1 trillion annually in import of four food items (Wheat-N365 billion, Rice-N356 billion, Sugar-N217 billion and Fish-N97 billion). This is why the federal government is taking deliberate measures to increase local productivity. He says the Agriculture Transformation Agenda (ATA) focuses on value chain of ten crops (rice, sorghum, cassava, cotton, cocoa, oil palm, tomato, onion, soya bean and maize) livestock and fisheries, adding that ATA is designed to make Nigeria self sufficient and less dependent on imported goods. Mr. Akinwumi projects that the value chain would yield annual turnover of N40 billion in exports and generate 1.2 million jobs. Speaking recently on behalf of the Minister at Abraka Delta State, his Technical Adviser, Dr. (Mrs.) Tunji Olatunji disclosed that the federal government plans to reduce by 20% the N365 billion it spends annually on wheat importation.???
Nigeria?s huge population and the consistent demand for agricultural products offers wonderful opportunities to investors. Today, agriculture contributes 42.62% to Nigeria?s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provides employment for about 70% of the country?s 167 million people. Agricultural sector generated 2.2 million jobs in 2012 and government says it is targeting increase to 3.5 million jobs by 2013.
Leather is one of Nigeria?s top six export commodities serviced by the livestock sub-sector. Only four million shoes are produced locally while Nigeria imports 200 million shoes annually. According to the 2011 annual report from the CBN, 96.6% of Nigeria?s total export was oil while non-oil products exported constituted 3.4%. 11.1% of non-oil export was leather.
It is time for local and foreign investors to take advantage of opportunities that the agriculture sector offers. The ceramics industry in Nigeria needs to be revived as there is no company that manufactures ceramics glaze at the moment. About N5 billion is currently spent on the annual importation of ceramics products.
The Alliance For Green Revolution in Africa forecasts that production in Nigeria?s agriculture sector could grow significantly by 2030, increasing from the $99 billion of 2010 to $256 billion by 2030. If only the three tiers of government, private investors and other stakeholders would play their roles, this can surely happen.

Source: https://www.newsghana.com.gh/strengths-growth-prospects-of-nigerias-agricultural-sector/