Nigeria’s 2022 agric growth hits lowest in 10yrs

Nigeria’s 2022 agricultural growth has hit its lowest in 10 years, analysis of data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows.

Data collected and analysed for 2013–2022 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that average annual agricultural output growth slowed to 1.88 percent in 2022, its lowest rate in the last decade.

Experts have attributed the slow growth recorded in 2022 to the devastating flooding incidents, the Russian-Ukraine war, and the worsening rate of insecurity across the country, experts say.

“From the disruption from the pandemic to the Russia-Ukraine war to the flooding incidents and escalating insecurity across the country, crop production for 2022 was badly affected,” said Abiodun Olorundenro, operations manager, Aquashoot.

“Government intervention for the sector also declined in 2022 and the combination of all these impacted the food systems negatively,” Olorundenro said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has roiled global markets due to massive re-pricing of commodities as a result of supply chain disruptions. Food prices in Africa’s most populous country have surged by more than 100 percent in 2022 over escalating insecurity, surge in diesel prices, and global supply chain disruptions induced by the war.

Ibrahim Kabiru, national president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) also commented on the floods that destroyed hundreds of farmland across the country last year.

“While the slowed growth in the sector is the effect of the three threats of covid-19, insecurity, and incessant flooding, it is even more so because of the 2022 devastating floods,” Kabiru said.

The floods in Africa’s biggest economy (worst in a decade) was majorly attributed to the release of water from the Cameroonian Lagdo dam, which affected Nigeria because of its lack of flood defence mechanism, such as the Dasin Hausa Dam which should have been built 40 years ago and would have been able to cushion the effect of whatever came from Lagdo.

“Most of our members greatly affected by the flood are farmers who account for 20 percent of the 5.1 million registered MSMEs,” said Abdulrashid Yerima, president/chairman of the governing council, Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, in an interview with BusinessDay last year.

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Early in the year 2022, BusinessDay did an analysis of five key issues that would determine Nigeria’s agricultural performance in 2022 and it identified worsening issues of terrorism/insecurity, climate change, access to agro finance, surge in prices of key inputs, and poor research funding.

Farming activities have come under threat in the middle belt region and other regions in Nigeria due to the spread and escalating insecurity issues across the country.

On climate change, analysts say Nigeria’s agricultural production is still largely dependent on the rain-fed system, which renders it vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.

Lack of access to adequate financing by farmers and other actors in the sector has remained a major impediment that prevents investments in basic farm inputs needed to raise productivity and sustain growth.

BusinessDay projected that prices of key inputs such as seeds, herbicides, pesticides, fertilisers, and agro machinery would be the determinants of food prices in 2022.

Also, stakeholders are of the opinion that research institutes saddled with the responsibility of developing technologies and practices to improve farmers’ yields per hectare and ensuring food security in Africa’s most populous country have failed to improve farm output.

In 2013, the sector recorded a 2.94 percent growth rate. In 2014, it recorded 4.27 percent.

In 2015, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21, the sector grew by 3.72 percent, 4.11 percent, 3.45 percent, 2.12 percent, 2.36 percent, 2.17 percent, and 2.13 percent respectively.

The sector recorded its highest growth over the last 10 years (4.27 percent) in 2014.