Nigeria’s agricultural imperative: Need for a consolidated policy framework (Part 3)

The purpose of this present series of articles is to review the five major policy frameworks of the Nigerian agricultural sector since 1985 with the hope of proposing an integrated agricultural policy framework that will run for a 10-year period of agricultural transformation. Last week, we reviewed the third major policy framework, the Green Revolution and Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) (2011–2015), which breathed new life into agricultural policy-making in Nigeria. The fourth policy framework is the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) for 2016–2020, which we will be reviewing in this article.

One cannot help but be impressed by the objectivity, professionalism, and non-partisanship of the crafters of the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) 2016–2020, who commended the ATA of the Goodluck Jonathan regime for “restarting the clock” of agricultural reform in Nigeria after years of benign neglect, as evidenced by “the lack of lending to farmers by the financial system and the dramatic levels of food imports from across the world.” It is to the credit of the ATA that it gave agricultural policymaking in Nigeria a new and strategic orientation, which represented a paradigm shift.

“It is to the credit of the ATA that it gave agricultural policymaking in Nigeria a new and strategic orientation, which represented a paradigm shift.”

The APP document, which was the product of extensive consultations with multiple stakeholders, including farmer groups, investors, processors, agricultural technocrats, researchers, and academics, did an incisive appraisal of the ATA (2011–2015): the set-up of the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) to register smallholder farmers and provide targeted input subsidies (E-Wallet), improved access by farmers to seeds and fertilisers, improved access to agricultural finance through the establishment of the Nigerian Incentive-Based Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), and engagement with commercial banks for the financing of the GES, among others, as reviewed last week.

Despite the acknowledged efforts of the ATA, Nigeria is still a net importer of huge amounts of food, on the one hand, and a poor performer in the agricultural export sector. These are the two key objectives or gaps that the APP sought to address between 2016 and 2020 through “a disciplined approach to building an agribusiness ecosystem that will solve these two gaps.” The private sector was to remain in the lead while the government facilitated, as well as provided supporting infrastructure, systems, control processes, and oversight. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and its agencies were to take on more of a regulator’s role to close the two gaps.

With the new emphasis on the role of the private sector as the key driver of the agricultural sector, the APP’s primary focus would be increasing food production to close the huge demand-supply gaps in the production of crops and livestock, as well as closing the gaps in the related value chains in input, financing, storage, transport, and market access—”to build an agribusiness economy capable of delivering sustained prosperity by meeting domestic food security goals, generating exports, and supporting sustainable income and job growth.”

To attain the foregoing, the following specific objectives for the period 2016 – 2020 were to be pursued: grow the integrated agriculture sector at 100 percent to 200 percent of the average Nigerian GDP growth rate for 2016 – 2020; “integrate agricultural commodity value chains into the broader supply chain of Nigerian and global industry, driving job growth, increase the contribution of agriculture to wealth creation, and enhance the capacity of the country to earn foreign exchange from agricultural exports; promote the responsible use of land, water and other natural resources; facilitate the government’s capacity to meet its obligations to Nigerians on food security, food safety and quality nutrition; increase agriculture’s share of Federal Budget to about 2.0 percent; create a mechanism for improved governance of agriculture by the supervising institutions, and improving quality of engagement between the Federal and State Governments.

The APP recognised that unlocking Nigeria’s full agricultural potential will require addressing the following challenges to Nigeria’s agricultural productivity and food security: policy instability driven by high rate of turnover of programmes and personnel; lack of political commitment to implement the Maputo Declaration that prescribes a minimum of 10 percent budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector; shortcomings of the National Agricultural Research System (NARS); rural infrastructure deficit, especially rural roads and irrigation dams; poor access to finance; and institutional reform and realignment that will ensure good governance in agricultural agencies and institutions at the three tiers of government.

To address these constraints, the government was to apply prudent, market-based policy measures to grow the sector in line with three key pillars: promotion of agricultural investment, financing of agricultural development programmes, and research for agricultural innovation and productivity. Furthermore, there were to be four policy thrusts and objectives to address the aforementioned constraints: food security; import substitution; job creation; and economic diversification.

The APP was to be founded on the following guiding principles: 1). agriculture as a business; 2). agriculture as key to long-term economic growth and security; 3). food as a human right; 4. value chain approach; 5) prioritising crops; 6). market orientation; 7). factoring in climate change and environmental sustainability; 8). participation and inclusiveness; 9). policy integrity; 10). nutrition-sensitive agriculture; and 11). agriculture’s linkages with other sectors.

There were three major organising themes for the APP. They were: 1) productivity Productivity Enhancements; 2) crowding in private sector investment; and 3). FMARD institutional realignment, which were broken into a total of 16 sub-themes that provided the detailed policy framework for the Agricultural Promotion Policy 2016–2020.

The APP was a particularly brilliantly prepared document infused with the inspiration of the ATA. But like its predecessors, it made very little difference to achieving the twin major goals of food security and enhanced export proceeds.

Mr Igbinoba is Team Lead/CEO at ProServe Options Consulting, Lagos.