It is obvious that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the global economy due to the measures taken to mitigate it through complete lockdown of everything instead of properly appraising the situation and allowing some latitude before adopting the complete lockdown strategy.
Of course, the World had not witnessed such a pandemic in a Century and so whatever strategy adopted could be said to be appropriate at the time because there was no existing model to adopt. However, with the benefit of hindsight it is pretty obvious that the economy would have fared better if it was only partially locked down.
Nigeria has had the misfortune of relying on a single resource, specifically oil, to run its economic activities and this happens to be the hardest hit by the complete lockdown as every activity relying on its use was abandoned in the wake of the pandemic.
Now that we are here, Nigeria needs to look at other areas to support its economy and consider the contributions of oil as a bonus to mitigate the effects of the imminent recession. Before the discovery of oil Nigeria’s chief resource was Agriculture for all its economic activities and therefore should harness it before anything else to mitigate the envisaged hardship.
The means of production in pre-oil days was in the hands of the Smallholder farmers who are the major stakeholders in the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) and can therefore be galvanized to work assiduously to avert any form crises. This group can also be engaged by other investors to upscale their Agricultural activities to earn the direly needed foreign exchange for national development.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) should encourage and support these Smallholder farmers appropriately to meet the aspirations of this administration in the attainment of food security and getting out of the envisaged recession.
Now that we are here, Nigeria needs to look at other areas to support its economy and consider the contributions of oil as a bonus to mitigate the effects of the imminent recession
Of course, Nigeria’s current population, some might say, was more manageable in the 60s and early 70s but the oil revenue it enjoyed for a long period should have been used to harness its Agriculture contiguously. Today it is obvious that the only choice left to Nigeria is to restore the dignity and economic potential of Agriculture to be able to prosper sustainably. This calls for higher investment, focus and sustainable policies as well as purposeful leadership.
The current administration of Muhammadu Buhari has made Agriculture its focus and should therefore double its efforts now that it is challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria’s large population needs large quantities of food to survive and be productive both during and after the pandemic. To effectively ensure food for all we need to upscale its production, storage, processing, as well as marketing.
To do this requires uncommon investment and management of the food system. The most important consideration now is to be able to bring about food sufficiency followed by value addition to be able to attract foreign direct investment in the Agriculture space.
It is prudent to appreciate that the following need to be done urgently to give the Agricultural sector the optimum push to drive the National economy:
We should create a separate and well funded advisory for the attainment of food security with the National Food Reserve Agency, Presidential Fertiliser Initiative, Cooperatives, Livestock and the Seed Council in one-stop shop.
Redefine Cash Crops and manage them for efficiency and profitability under the Ministry of Trade and Investment.
We should make credit readily available for Agricultural production, value addition and processing through a well recapitalized Bank of Agriculture owned by the FARMERS!
We should take direct charge of Agricultural Mechanisation and heavily invest in it alongside Science and Technology to provide the impetus to locally fabricate spare parts and if possible complete units.
The smallholder farmers in Nigeria should be further incentivised to produce more and be happy doing so by making them enjoy tax holidays or exemptions as being promoted by Governor Ayade of Cross River State who deserves commendation and should be modelled by other Nigerian Governors.
A new leadership in the Agricultural sector in Nigeria is today absolutely necessary and must be evolved through competence, hard work and integrity as well as be directly and more closely supervised by the Presidency.
KABIR IBRAHIM
Ibrahim is the National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN).
