Nigerians head back to the farm to beat recession

farmers

Too broke to pay for costly imports of rice and palm oil, Nigeria is looking to agriculture to help lift itself out of a recession.

The once-flourishing sector was abandoned during the oil boom but has the potential to grow as Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari pushes to diversify Nigeria’s economy.

In a grim recent report, the National Bureau of Statistics said the country’s economy contracted in the second quarter by 2.1 percent, with the oil sector suffering a double-digit decline.

Crude-addicted Nigeria has been hit hard by the global fall in oil prices, which has reduced government revenues and driven inflation to an 11-year-high of 17.1 percent in July.

Nigeria usually gets 70 percent of its revenue from oil sales but the crash has left the government cash-strapped and struggling to pay civil servant wages.

The dire situation has spurred the Nigerian government to look for ways to encourage sustainable growth.
Agriculture seems a good place to start. With 84 million hectares of arable land spanning the jungles of the south to the Sahara desert in the north, Nigeria can produce a range of food and cash crops for local needs and exports.

Today Nigeria’s food imports are estimated at over 20 billion dollars annually, according to the agriculture ministry.

A 50kg bag of rice, likely imported from Thailand, now sells for 20,000 naira ($63) compared to 8,000 naira at the beginning of the year, prompting the authorities to encourage people to farm.

In the southeastern state of Imo, Governor Rochas Okorocha has asked civil servants to work just two days and devote the rest of the week to farming cassava, corn and yams.

In central Benue and Sokoto states in the north, workers have been directed to close shop early so they can tend to their crops.

– Be ‘patriotic’ –
Moving Nigeria away from smallholder farming towards commercial agriculture is a priority. “If we get it well in agriculture, we will get it well in the economy,” Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said last month while launching a policy document on the development of the sector.

Osinbajo urged Nigerians to be patriotic and buy ‘Made in Nigeria’ products. Decades ago, that wouldn’t have been difficult.

Nigeria used to be world’s number one exporter of palm oil, ahead of Malaysia and Indonesia, central bank data shows.