• Friday, March 29, 2024
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BusinessDay

Nigeria’s Agric sector grows 2.28% in Q3, fastest since Q1 2019

Transforming Nigeria’s subsistent agriculture to commercial requires deliberate efforts, says Dan-Ali

Nigeria’s agricultural sector grew 2.28 per cent in the third quarter of the year; the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have shown.
This is the fastest growth reported in the sector since the first quarter of 2019 when the sector grew by 3.17 per cent on an annual basis. Growth in the second quarter stood at 1.79 per cent, while in Q3 2018, the sector grew by 1.91 per cent.

In real term, the sector recorded a value of N5.4 trillion from the N3.86 trillion and N5.288 trillion recorded in Q2 2019 and Q3 2018, respectively.
Analysts say the growth was due mainly to the bountiful harvest season during the quarter as farmer’s ramp up harvest to meet the increasing demand of food products that come with the period.
“In Q3, you have more of output compared to the second quarter where farmers are still cultivating,” said Ayodeji Balogun, country manager, AFEX Commodities Exchange.

Read also: NDE Trains 50 Unemployed Kogi Youth in Agricultural Production

The agricultural sector comprises four different subsectors including crop production, livestock, forestry and fishing.
Forestry reported the biggest real growth in the sector, growing by 3.78 per cent year on year. Crop production, fishing and livestock followed, grew 2.41, 1.68 and 0.02 per cent within the period.
In real value term, that’s N44 billion, N4.99 trillion, N78 billion and N291 billion, based on the growth order.
Nigeria’s agricultural sector is largely made up of smallholder farmers engaged in crop production, livestock, forestry and fishing.

To boost growth in the sector, Nigeria embarked on several policies aimed at curbing the country’s huge import bills while boosting domestic production. Part of such policies was a directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Central Bank (CBN), to stop the provision of dollars to importers of agricultural produce into the country.

With the policy, alongside the Anchor Borrowers—an intervention program aimed at providing credit facilities to smallholder farmers—would assist the country in attaining food sufficiency. As at September end, a total of N205.8 billion has been disbursed to over 1.2 million smallholder farmers across seventeen commodities under the anchor borrower’s scheme, according to latest data released by the Central Bank.

However, despite the huge investment into the sector, growth has been tepid at a little over 2.4 per cent, as farmers complain post-harvest loses arising from the dilapidated road infrastructure and poor storage facilities.