With the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari for another four years, a new minister will be appointed to steer the agricultural revolution under the ‘next level agenda.’
Farmers in Africa’s most populous country are expecting the next agriculture minister to address fundamental issues that have prevented Nigeria from attaining its food security target.
They stated that the performance of the sector in the next-level agenda depends on the ability of the new minister to provide solutions to the lingering problems.
“The main reason we have not made much progress with agriculture is our inability to address fundamental issues that are limiting productivity,” AfricanFarmer Mogaji, chief executive officer, X-Ray Consulting, said in a telephone response to questions.
“The next agric minister needs to address these lingering issues to drive growth in the sector. How can we grow our agriculture with low use of technology and little or no infrastructure?” Mogaji asked.
Growth in the sector has been on decline since the first quarter of 2017, with marginal growth rate recorded only in the fourth quarter of the same year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show.
Experts say the inability of the government to address key fundamental issues is responsible for the persistent decline in the sector in recent years.
Prince Wale Oyekoya, former chairman – agriculture group, Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), called on the government to provide a scorecard for evaluation and monitoring of progress made and identifying areas for improvement.
“One of the major problems facing smallholder farmers is the lack of adequate food storage and processing facilities. The next agric minister should address this,” Oyekoya said.
Nigeria is populated by about 190 million people who must be fed with staple foods ranging from yams, rice and cassava to beans, bananas and tomatoes, among others, but inadequate storage facilities have made this an herculean task for farmers.
“Despite our rapidly growing population our farming method remains the same. We cannot continue to grow food the way we do if we must feed ourselves. These are issues the next agric minister should look into,” Mogaji said.
Similarly, farmers in the livestock subsector are seeking for inclusion in any initiatives and programmes that would be driven by the incoming agric minister.
They complained of neglect in the last four years and hope that the next minister will drive inclusion for all famers and not just for crop farming.
“In the last four years the entire focus of the government was for crop farmers. We expect Buhari to focus on the fishing and livestock subsector,” Oloye Rotimi Olibale, president, Catfish and Allied Fish Farmers Association (CAFFAN), said by phone from his Ibadan, western Nigeria, farm.
“We were not entirely included in the ABP programme. We want the government to totally include all fish farmers in the anchor borrowers programme so that we can have access to cheap credit,” Olibale said.
Also, Victor Iyama, president, Federation of Agricultural Commodities Association of Nigeria (FACAN) commended the Buhari government for the Anchor Borrowers Programme but demanded that the government provide key infrastructure to drive growth in the sector.
Josephine Okojie
