Priority Areas to Drive Nigeria’s Agricultural Sector in 2024

The agricultural sector of Nigeria’s economy is still one of the surest paths to sustainable economic growth. Gilbert Ekugbe writes on the key areas the Tinubu-led administration must prioritise for increased agro sector contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the agriculture sector contributed 26.53 per cent to nominal GDP in the third quarter of 2023. The sector also grew by 11.06 per cent year-on-year in nominal terms in third quarter 2023. The growth was driven by four sub-activities, which included crop production, livestock, forestry and fishing.

Interestingly, the sector has the capacity to contribute at least 50 per cent to the nation’s GDP if given the necessary support in terms of political will and effective implementation of brilliant agricultural policies.

However, stakeholders in the sector have expressed worries over the nation’s inability to implement laudable policies that would take the sector to the next level. They believed that the managers of the economy have fallen short of in terms of implementing laudable policies formulated in the past, which could have made Nigeria the food basket of Africa and even the world at large.

According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s economy is projected to grow by 3.3 per cent in 2024, with agriculture, construction, services and trade being the sectors that would drive this growth.

To achieve this growth projected by the World Bank, the stakeholders have called for improved funding of the sector, pointing out that the budgetary allocations for the sector over the past seven years is still less than 2.0 per cent of the total budget.

Stemming food inflation

At 28.20 per cent, food inflation has been identified as one of the major drivers of inflation rate in the Nigerian economy, although it has been projected to decline in 2024. Many Nigerians have fallen into the hunger net as a result of the skyrocketing food prices across the country. To stem food inflation, Nigeria needs to address the supply-demand gap by increasing food production, improving storage facilities and reduce post-harvest losses.

The government must also provide subsidies on all inputs, encourage year-round production and spur private sector leadership and involvement in agriculture.

Upgrading security architecture in food producing states

If there is any time to upgrade the security apparatus in food producing states, it has got to be now. The insecurity situation is one of the factors driving food inflation as many farmers are yet to resume their farming activities. The present administration must prioritise investment is beefing up security in these food producing States. This is the only way Nigeria could attract both local and foreign investments into the agricultural sector. The sector has continued to witness dwindling investment opportunities because most investors are scared of commiting their resources in areas where Return on Investment ((RoI) is not guaranteed.

Improved mechanised farming

A nation with a population of over 200 million people can no longer depend on hoes and cutlasses to meet its food needs. Investment must be geared into mechanised farming to put most of the arable lands across the country to good use. Report has it that out of the 80 million hectares of arable land, only about 50 million lands have been cultivated.

The then Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Mohammad Abubakar, presented an empirical data that showed how little the sector has exploited the land resources available in the country. This data highlighted the opportunities the sector could potentially harness and its feasibility.

Abubakar said: “Nigeria is endowed with a total of 79 million hectares of agricultural land with only 44 per cent being cultivated. The nation also has 267 billion cubic meters of fresh surface water and 58 billion cubic meters of underground water, with 37 billion cubic meters only stored in dams. Annual rainfall in the country is within 300mm to 4,000mm. Conversely, the potential irrigable area is about 3.14 million hectares, less than 7.0 per cent presently utilised.”

partnership with stakeholders

One of the challenges hindering agricultural development is the absence of credible partnership between the federal government and the real actors in the sector. Stakeholders have lamented over the years about the gap that existed between both parties. They expressed concern about the federal government’s inability to carry the real actors in the sector along in policy formulation and implementation.

Leveraging technology

The need to produce more with little should be the watch word for the present administration. Courtesy of technology, most developed economies have been able to meet their food demands. Technology has significantly impacted agriculture, making it more efficient, sustainable and productive. Deploying technology in agriculture would also go a long way to attracting youths into the sector thereby replacing the aging farming population across the country.

Agric Sector outlook

As long as the challenges hindering the sector still exist, stakeholders have argued that not much would be achieved going into the year. The sector is yet to get the much-needed attention in terms of financial intervention it deserves. For instance, most of the farms in the country are still dependent on hoes and cutlasses to meet the growing demand for food in the country while over 70 per cent of farmers are also dependent on rain fed agriculture in a time when climate change is hitting hard and not to talk of the high spate of insecurity in food producing areas.

As long as farmers are still not sure about their safety, the price of food crops would continue to skyrocket. 

The National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Mr. Kabir Ibrahim, said that the budgetary allocation to agricultural sector is not up to five per cent, pointing out that the budget allocated negated the state of emergency on food security that was declared. He said that it is laughable to give less than two per cent budgetary allocation for agriculture in a country striving to attain food security.

Ibrahim said: “I do not condemn it 100 per cent because I know that there are some cross cutting areas and Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) that would have taken some parts of the budgets because they would be used for agriculture. If we put all of these together, it is possible that the budget may have done a lot more than 2.0 per cent,” he said.

He said that to attain food security as mentioned by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, there is need for more action in the agricultural sector as the only way to acknowledge the efforts to attaining food security.

He added that the problem of Nigeria’s agriculture is not lack of policy because there are many lofty policies that have not been effectively implemented. He expressed hope that with the declaration of state of emergency for the attainment of food security, Nigeria would do a lot better in agriculture as against what was recorded in the previous year.

He advised the Tinubu’s administration to stem insecurity in food producing states across the country while calling on the need to prioritise effective distribution of farm inputs to boost crop production.

“If they judiciously implement the budget and they do a lot of monitoring and evaluation, I am confident that we would do better than last year and even the year before,” he said.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf, said that agriculture must be approached in a holistic manner, pointing out that all the three tiers of government have critical roles to play in agriculture. Yususf noted that the state and local governments have bigger roles to play as far as agriculture is concerned.

He said: “When we talk about what was allocated to the sector and what was allocated to the sector is very critical. It is not just about allocation, but what they are doing to facilitate agricultural development. When we talk about agriculture, we also leave out water resources whereas all the investments in water resources, river basins, damns and irrigation are to facilitate agriculture so we must merge them together.

“Agriculture cannot stand alone; we need investments in road networks, and agro processing industries so that what we are producing can be processed. We must have a holistic view about agriculture, but more importantly, the state and local governments have bigger role to play as far agriculture is concerned.”

He also called on the need for the need to develop and formulate effective policies, which include policies around importation of agro equipment, incentives for agro equipment and inputs, noting that these are ways to support and encourage farmers to do even more.

He also expressed worries over the level of insecurity in the country, advising that one of the biggest foci of the present administration should be on providing security for farmers.

Yususf warned that as long as the insecurity situation is still at large, the outlook for agriculture is bleak, stating the urgent need to tackle the spate of insecurity headlong.

He also pointed out the need to leverage the use of technology in the sector, saying that of all the sectors in the economy, agriculture sector is the least to embrace the use of technology in Nigeria.

“There is no way we can transform the agricultural sector without technology. We cannot boost productivity; we cannot even attract our young population into the sector without technology. We should not be looking at agriculture as just growing crops alone, but look at it as agribusiness,” Yusuf said.