What a blessed and beautiful country? Nigeria!
Yes, our dear country is bountifully endowed with human and material resources from the Supreme.
The country is richly blessed with agricultural and natural resources that it’s the envy of resource – limited counterparts.
We definitely live in very resourceful land in all ramifications, but however just to sit on gold, Uranium and other natural minerals and not knowing how to explore it and put into uses for betterment of the citizens is almost the same as not having it at all.
Agricultural land resources, if effectively utilized and manage well , can feed not only Nigerians but the neighbouring countries and even more across the globe.
Agriculture over the years contributed more than 70% to GDP of Nigeria in the early years of nationhood after independence.
At that time, Nigeria was the net exporter of agricultural produce.
The potentials in this sector have helped foster economic growth and sustained livelihood of millions of people.
Then , Nigeria could boost of exporting cash crops such as cotton, groundnuts and cocoa through local production, but now the trend has maximally changed.
Painfully, however, farther away from the initial gains of agricultural development of the post- colonial era, the oil boom blinded the people of this country and they neglected the virile pillar of the national economy that agriculture was.
Having fought and failed to sustain economic development and growth through the failing oil sector, governments in the past and now have found agriculture a bride that cannot be divorced from the bridegroom, the nation’s economy.
So it’s no longer news or a contestable opinion that diversification of sources of revenue for economic transformation that Nigeria is looking for cannot be found in oil and gas but in agricultural development.
It is true that past Government had several interventions initiated in their bids to transform agriculture.
The achievements of such intervention could best be described as flash flushes of dying success as the program was abandoned because all eyes was still gazed on oil.
What we have today in Nigeria is food importation which outweighs local production with pitiful state of the dwindling agricultural export and it’s potentials .
Improving productivity in agriculture is central to addressing food security, poverty, unemployment, drugs addiction, heinous crime and attaining social and economic development.
Worst still is that agriculture now co-exist with poverty, crime, and nutritional insecurity because policy makers have failed to invest in the people and projects that sustained agricultural production.
It’s obvious that a hungry person often times do not have a rational mind for thinking and could commit any available crimes to put food on the table especially if there is no resistance.
Nigeria’s agricultural policy sound plausible on paper but it’s implementation always ended up in fiasco.
Nigeria agricultural policy at times does not involve the major stakeholders who are actively involved in food production.
The policy is mostly ‘ top -down’ instead of ‘ bottom -up’ which will accommodate the rural population that are involved in the production.
The rural dwellers are in the rightful position to state succinctly their constraints in the course of production but since they are not involved in policy making, implementations of the policy no matter how laudable and impeccable will not be effectively executed on fertile ground
Another solemn area which should be considered greatly by policy makers is rural transformation.
About 80% of crops production is done in the rural areas where farmers lived in penury, thatched houses in squalid state, and lack basic amenities as quality health care services, electricity, portable water and inaccessible roads.
They depends much more on rain for irrigation, use simple crude tools for tillage which invariably denied them the opportunity for large scale production.
Those who manage to produce under the prevailing strained conditions have limited access to markets as there are no good roads to convey their produce.
To add to their plight, they are paid peanuts after undergoing rigorous exercise for the production.
This deplorable state of rural areas has so immensely discouraged the youths who are supposed to be involved in active food production into menial jobs, like house help, gatekeepers, riding motor bike ‘okada’ and others that are jobless hovering in the city and get themselves entangled in substance abuse and other vices leaving agriculture production in the hands of the aged people whose strength cannot produce sustainable food for economic transformation.
The implications of these will go along way as the youths will no longer be available to substitute the aged people in food production which will definitely resulted in food crisis.
Further more, the extension officers who are supposed to provide extension informal education to farmers in the rural areas and also carry out Small plot Adoption Techniques ( SPAT) to prove high yielding variety of seeds ended up in the town writing fictitious reports.
Government should make rural development a top priority and provide incentives and better welfare package for the youths who are ready to engage in food production which will also curtailed rural- urban migration.
Financial grants, fertilizers or other inorganic manure to boost production should be given out directly to those involved and not shared on papers.
Also, tools for production such as tractors, high yielding variety seeds, pest and diseases resistant breeds, good funding of research institutes, storage and post harvest management, good pricing and accessibility to market should be given eminent attention.
Tractor hiring units at subsidized rate could be made available at local Government council.
It’s quite devastating to produce crops and sell at a price which cannot alleviate ones financial predicament.
Government should develop cottage industries that will help in food processing especially crops with poor storage capacity like vegetables and fruits.
Seasonal crops like citrus, mangoes, Cashew ,tomatoes should be well processed to enhance their availability at all season.
The current incessant crisis between Fulani herdsmen and crop producing farmers is another major demonic hiccups to agricultural production which really needed serious attention.
No meaningful development can ever take place in a precarious environment except famine, hardship, weapons and devastation.
This clashes between herdsmen and crop producers have so lingered ,though quite a complex tussle but have posed a lot to security challenges and caused huge economic malady because there cannot be any blissful space that will accommodate livestock farmers and crops producers.
There should be pragmatic solutions to these problems instead of handling it with kid gloves to attain efficient food production in the rural areas.
Our leaders/ policy makers ought to re-invigorate agriculture for socio- economic development.
We cannot afford to squander the abundant potentials in agriculture while we looked elsewhere for solution to end poverty, hunger, insecurity , unemployment and heinous crimes.
Agriculture is the way out, every other things can wait but agriculture cannot wait, just like everyone including the unborn child in the womb needs nourishment, all living creatures needs food for sustenance.
Adikwu Samuel Ebo
Public Affairs Analyst
Abuja.
adikwusamuelebo@gmail.com.
