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BACKGROUND
As at
independence in 1960, the agricultural sector in Nigeria was the most important
in terms of contributions to domestic production, employment and foreign
exchange earnings.
Agriculture
contributed about 90% of the country’s GDP before the discovery of oil in the
country.
However,
this changed with the discovery of oil which became the principal foreign
exchange earner.
With the
commencement of oil exploration in the 1970s, agriculture started suffering
neglect -reduction in targeted investment in the sector which led to the
abandonment of the farms by many farmers and the search for white collar jobs
by many young people.
Some of the
interventions by the regional, later state governments such as agriculture
extension services, agriculture produce boards, etc disappeared or became
moribund.
Interventions:
The impact
of this neglect was already becoming glaring as early as the mid 1970s
necessitating intervention strategy by the various governments:
The Second
National Development Plan (1970 – 1974) which replaced the FNP (whose pivot was
infrastructural development) spelt out a more defined approach towards food
production as the main nexus of the plan because of the Nigerian civil war which
created hardship due mainly to food shortages.
Even then,
the real budgetary spending on agriculture was just 7.7% as against 23.1%
expenditure on transportation sector alone.
And at this
time, government chose to rely more on food importation rather than address
measures to strengthen the capacity base for food production.
1972 –
National Accelerated Food Production Project was initiated with a focus of
assisting the supply of agricultural inputs and education for farmers. However,
it could not achieve its objectives due to poor planning and the untimeliness
in the provision of these extension services to farmers.
1975 –
Agricultural Development Programme – the failure of NAFPP led to the birth of
the ADP. This saw the setting up of 470 agro services centres all over the
country to meet the challenges of the extension services provision to farmers
that was difficult with the NAFPP. ADPs aimed at enhancing technical and
economic efficiencies of small scale farmers
Third
National Development Plan (1975-1980) is geared towards:
Boosting
food production
Lowering of
food import dependency
Involved
issuance of various types of subsidies & incentives for farmers for boosting
food production
The
Operation Feed the Nation ( OFN) programme by the military regime of Olusegun
Obasanjo in 1976 was an effort at repositioning the nation’s agricultural
sector.
Its aim was
to increase farmers’ population and crop output as well as people's awareness
of the key role played by agriculture in the economy but the visible affluence
projected by the oil and gas sector coupled with the culture of corruption that
was beginning to emerge made it difficult for the OFN to hit its target.
Fourth National Development Plan
(1981-1985)
– this sought to:
Strengthen
self-sufficiency in food production via the Green Revolution (GR) era of 1985. GR was introduced when massive decline in
crude oil prices drove the nation (that had become fixated on rent collection
from petroleum exploitation) to the brink of an economic disaster”
The Plan
ascribed 13.5% budgetary allocations to agricultural sector development
(largest share of the plan)
Plan to be
achieved through partnership of various agencies – Ministries (Agriculture,
Water resources, Labour & Commerce) and River Basin & Rural Development
Authorities and ADPs
Interventions
The Gen.
Ibrahim Babangida Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI)
was largely top-down in its implementation, leaving decision-making and fund
disbursement to go from the federal level to the state and local levels with
certain elements – including funds – getting lost in the translation process.”
While these
interventions might have been well-intended they did not quite bail out the
country’s agricultural sector.
The River
Basin & Rural Development Authorities – aimed at harnessing the potentials
of existing water bodies through irrigation services, fishery development and
control of flood, water pollution and erosion.
National
Special Food Security Programme – aimed at offering a practical vehicle for
piloting and eventually extending the application of innovative low-cost
approaches both technical and institutional to improving the productivity and
sustainability of agricultural system with ultimate objective of contributing
to better livelihoods for poor farmers on a sustainable basis
The
National Fadama Development Project (Fadama I, II, III and IV) is aimed at
addressing some of the factors that militate against the full realization of
the potential benefits of agricultural production activities. It is also aimed
at increasing the incomes of Fadama users who depend directly or indirectly on
Fadama resources through empowering communities to take charge of their own
development schedule.
Recent Efforts
Some
efforts have been made in the past few years to address some of the challenges
of the sector.
Agriculture Transformation Agenda (ATA)
The vision
of the ATA strategy is to achieve a hunger-free Nigeria through an agricultural
sector that drives income growth, accelerates achievement of food and
nutritional security, generates employment and transforms Nigeria into a
leading player in global food markets to grow wealth for millions of farmers,
Challenges
The nation
has never been lacking in high sounding agriculture development schemes and
policies however there has been challenges:
*wavering
policies formulation and implementation
*insufficient
infrastructure support
*poor input
distribution system
*emphasis on
oil economy
*over
dependence on rain-fed farming
*environmental
degradation
*corruption
*political
patronage and
*Poor
commitment to implementation of agricultural policies.
A major one
is Nigeria’s untapped natural resources & agricultural potentials - As at
1990, 82 million hectares out of Nigeria's total land area of about 91 million
hectares were found to be arable, however, just about 30.7 million hectares (76
million acres), or 33% of the land are under cultivation.
Nigeria's
diverse climate means that farmers are able to produce virtually all
agricultural produce that can be grown in the tropical and semitropical areas
of the world. Still she is a food deficit nation, importing large amount of
food to feed her ever increasing population in recent years.
Nigeria’s
investment in Agriculture
Although
the Nigerian government has increased its attention to agriculture in recent
years by introducing a range of policies to increase productivity, yet
Nigeria’s budgetary allocations and actual spending on agriculture are woefully
inadequate to reduce poverty especially on the key services needed by
smallholder farmers. Nigeria spends very little on agriculture; the figures for
the states are also low varying from 2.0-5.9%. Not only is spending low – it is
also extremely erratic.
A major reason why poverty and food insecurity remain
widespread in Nigeria is that successive governments have failed to give
appropriate funding to agriculture.
Nigerian government’s recent drive towards private sector
investment which focuses on commercial agriculture is unrealistic and will
further exacerbate poverty as smallholder farmers are the ones who actually
produce 90% of Nigeria’s food.
Figure One: Budget allocation to
Agriculture – 2010 – 2014
These very
low allocations have not met the “at least 10% Maputo Declaration Commitment on
Agriculture and Food Security” and is an indisputable evidence that the
Nigerian government is failing smallholder farmers particularly women, who make
up the majority of farmers in Nigeria, and holding back food production leading
food insecurity.
The
situation is further exacerbated with low quality of spending in general as
well as low budget utilization of yearly allocated budgets across States.
Impact of Agriculture Transformation Agenda
The vision
in the Agriculture Transformation Agenda strategy of achieving a hunger-free Nigeria
through an agricultural sector that drives income growth, accelerates
achievement of food and nutritional security, generates employment and
transforms Nigeria into a leading player in global food markets to grow wealth
for millions of farmers cannot be realised with the current unacceptably low
budgetary allocations and priorities that do not translate to rural poverty
reduction.
Hence,
Nigerian government should allocate at least 10% of her annual budget to the
agricultural sector meeting the Maputo 10% Declaration Commitment on
Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.
The Challenge
of Food and Nutrition Security in Nigeria
Despite the
opportunity offered by nature, the several agriculture development projects,
budgets committed to the agriculture and food sector every year, Nigeria is
still unable to meet her food production targets.
There is
high level of malnutrition among children in rural areas – 56% reported in
South West; 84.3% reported in three rural communities in the northern part of
Nigeria.
Nationally,
the overall prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight are 42%, 9% and 25%
respectively.
Food
& Nutrition Security
According
to a November 2009 study (Akinyele) (IFPRI), “Malnutrition is widespread in the
entire country and rural areas are especially vulnerable to chronic food
shortages, malnutrition, unbalanced nutrition, erratic food supply, poor
quality foods, high food costs, and even total lack of food.”
A survey
conducted by IITA between 2001 and 2003 showed that about 18 million households
were affected by hunger. 25% of children
fewer than five years were underweight while 42% were reported stunted.
Many
children as shown in all studies conducted, Action Aid’s inclusive, are
malnourished due to poor feeding. Hunger
amidst Plenty: Studies on aspects of the food crisis in Nigeria (2009)
Food & Nutrition
In the
period 1990-1992 for instance, the number of people undernourished was put at 11.8
million and the proportion at 13.3%.
In the
period 1996-1997 the figure of the undernourished dropped to 8.9 million and
proportion given as 8.7%
However in
2002-2004 the number rose to 11.4 million while the proportion was put at 9.2%.
Even with
some of the effort at improving agriculture and food production in the country
through the Agriculture Transformation Agenda (ATA), it is almost impossible to
meet MDG 1.
According
to recent reports, as at 2012, Nigeria had a Global Hunger Index score of 15.7,
placing it among countries rated as 'seriously' suffering from hunger with a
ranking of 40 out of 79 countries.
Action Aid Nigeria
We work
with the poor and excluded communities, promoting their rights and empowering
people living in poverty to take necessary action to end poverty.
We work to
create space for the voices and concerns of people living in poverty to be
embedded in government policies and actions.
We maintain
strong solidarity with the poor and take sides with them even against all adversity.
Our core
values of gender equality and courage of conviction drive our determination to
innovate, take risks, promote women’s leadership and advance sustainable
alternatives.
Thus,
identifies issues and our perspectives which are in form of policy
recommendations below take premise from our stand above.
Current
Outlook of Agriculture and Prospect for Poverty Reduction in Nigeria – Issues: Low investment.
The
strategic importance of agriculture in poverty eradication is highlighted in
its position in the MDGs. The MDG 1 is clearly built around halving hunger and
poverty with agriculture being central to its achievement.
However,
according to the rebased economy 2010 series, the share of agriculture’s
contribution of over 40 per
cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has declined to 24 percent. More importantly, and unfortunately
too, Nigeria has over the years fallen short of the Maputo Commitment which
stipulates 10% allocation of annual national budgets to Agriculture.
It is also
observed that annual allocations to agriculture are insufficient to galvanise
growth and development impact intended through ECOWAP/CAADP, the National
Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIP) or the current Agricultural Transformation
Agenda (ATA).
Issues around low impact of
agriculture on poverty & hunger.
As it is
now, management of the agriculture sector in Nigeria is not likely to respond
to the situation of poverty in the country unless there is a radical review of
policy direction, policy implementation and refocusing of strategy.
Very low
cultivation of arable land- According to FAO, Nigeria has 98.3million hectare of land, 74million
hectare of which is good for farming; but less than half is being cultivated.
Inefficient
harvesting, processing and storage techniques leading to post harvest losses
(20 to 40%), and unstable supply.
Issue – Exclusion &
Discrimination against Women in Agriculture (WIA)
Women form
about 60-80 % of farmers, but get little assistance from government with
restricted access to land due to:
Some legal
and cultural barriers that prevent them from owning the land they cultivate in
some parts of the country. Around 55 per cent of female-headed
households are landless and a further 29 per cent own less than 1 ha.
Limited access to agriculture related services - credit, inputs, training &
advice, technology, crop insurance
Government policies have little focus on supporting them.
Inadequate female extension workers – 16%
Only fractions of the agricultural research budgets are
targeted specifically at women and, although the government has a number of
schemes promoting credit, none, as far as we are aware, specifically target
women farmers.
Issue – Land grabbing
Closely
linked to this is the perennial problem of land grabbing. This remains the bane
of smallholder farmers, especially women, who constitute more than 60 per cent
of the smallholder farmers.
Often, they
only have small plots of land that are not secure, or have no land at all. The
patriarchal system of inheritance in many parts of the country still prevent
women from inheriting lands, even the ones on which they cultivate the food the
family eat.
Due to
limited yields these women and other smallholder farmers can hardly afford the
seeds and fertilizers they need to farm, and in some instances do not have
access to water for irrigation. Hunger
amidst Plenty: Studies on aspects of the food crisis in Nigeria (2009)
Action Aid Nigeria pg 44 – 57.
Challenges
of Land Grabbing
The
challenge of land grabbing in recent years have been worsened by the some
states government taking lands from small holder farmers who are into
subsistence farming and giving same to foreign farmers who are more into large
scale or industrial farming which essentially produces for international market
and factory uses rather than domestic consumptions.
Issues - Poor rural infrastructure
The neglect
of rural infrastructure has also contributed in no small measure to the problem
of food security. This neglect has affected the profitability of agricultural
production, as productivity is restricted owing to low soil fertility in many
areas and the inefficient shifting cultivation method, with its devastating
ecological consequences.
Issues of
limited access to educational, health, water and agricultural extension
services.
The poor
conditions of rural roads impede the marketing of agricultural commodities;
prevent farmers from selling their produce at reasonable prices, make them
vulnerable to exploitation by middlemen; cuts small-scale farmers off from
sources of inputs, equipment and new technology. This invariably keeps yields
low.
As a result
of this, many able-bodied young people who would have brought fresh energies
and knowledge to food production have had to abandon the farmlands and farm
settlements, where such exist.
Issue - Increasing market power of
agro-corporations
This further
threatens small farmers, as unfair trade rules, subsidies and food dumping also
undermines local agriculture and food security. The opening of the doors to
imported food and the porous nature of our borders which in many years has led
to increase influx of foreign food items to the country has continued to pose
serious threat to food security in the country. While the local production of
food has been eroded over a long period, the recent trend of conversion of food
for industry use, especially bio-fuel has led to reduction in availability of
this cheap food that had literally collapsed some section of the nation’s
agriculture sector.
Issues -
Disproportionate interest in large scale commercial agriculture
There is
increasing recognition of the benefits of large-scale agriculture, and
government’s favour to the formation of cooperative societies and settlements
to encourage industrial agriculture. Large-scale food production, however, does
not necessarily feed a country. It is the small holder farmers that are feeding
the country. The country’s food security therefore depends on them.
Yet, the
federal government has recently set up a N200 billion Commercial Agriculture
Credit Scheme (CACS). In spite of this credit scheme and other agricultural
development measures earlier mentioned, government funding of agriculture is
still estimated as too low by FAO and this invariably has affected the
nutritional level of the citizenry, especially the poor.
Issue -Climate Change
Nigeria is
said to be likely to become one of the most negatively impacted countries in
the world by climate change if real measures are not taken to mitigate it. All
regions of Nigeria will be impacted particularly the Southern coastal regions
(massive flood) and the far North (desertification) and all the main sectors of
Nigerian economy especially the agricultural sector.
A
preliminary Integrated Assessment Model which assumes minimum adaptation for
Nigeria predicts that climate change could result to a loss in GDP of between
6% and 30% by 2050 which worth an estimated N15 Trillion an exchange rate.
Issues- Youth Unemployment
54% of
Nigerian youths are currently unemployed, with secondary school leavers mostly
found among the unemployed rural population.
The
nation’s universities and polytechnics continue to churn out more than 150,000
graduates annually and available jobs remain inadequate to keep pace with the
ever-expanding army of jobseekers.
It is
projected that the population of young people (75m) is set to double by 2023. A
small proportion of this population are involved in agriculture, as more of
them are involved or want to be involved in white collar jobs. However, this
population is in existence and can be harnessed within the agricultural sector
towards massive job creation (2012 National Baseline Youth Survey Report).
Policy
Recommendations on strategic agricultural investments – Women Smallholder
Farmers
Government
investment in agriculture should focus on the following Key Areas Considered
Vital for Promoting Agricultural Productivity Gains Leading to Pro-Poor Growth.
Women
Smallholder Farmers: Small holder women farmers being the predominant actors in
Nigerian agriculture, constituting 60–80% of the agricultural labour force (depending on geographical
location) should
massively and continually be invested in for job creation and inclusive growth.
Policy
recommendations – Youth in Agriculture & Agricultural Finance
Youth
in Agriculture: The
population of young people of around 75 million in Nigeria which is set to
double by 2023 should be harnessed through deliberate increased investments in
youth in agriculture to replace the aging population within the sector towards
massive job creation and poverty reduction.
Agricultural
Finance: Lack
of access to agricultural credit for smallholder farmers in Nigeria especially
women continues to be one of the hampering forces against rural agricultural
transformation and wealth creation. Cheap agricultural credit should be an
instrument of enabling environment for poverty reduction in the agricultural
sector, fostering job creation and inclusive growth. Smallholder farmers across
Nigeria are yet to start accessing credit through the Nigerian Incentive-Based
Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) created by the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Deliberate
effort should be made to make NIRSAL accessible to smallholder farmers
especially women for job creation and poverty eradication in Nigeria.
Policy recommendations – Farm Inputs
Farm Inputs: Improved quality seeds, inorganic fertilizer,
organic fertilizer, and agro chemicals, etc, should be made available,
accessible and affordable for smallholder farmers. The Growth Enhancement
Scheme (GES) has recorded some successes in this area through providing seeds
and fertilizer, but a lot still needs to be done in addressing challenges seen
within its implementation. The number of bags of fertilizer has to be increased
from current two bags to the actual numbers needed by each smallholder farmer.
Investments will have to also focus on making available organic fertilizers and
agro chemicals.
Policy
Recommendations – Extension services & Support to SSAM
Extension Services: With the highly inadequate staffing of
extension staff vis-Ã -vis geographical coverage and farming population with
extension agent (EA)-farm family ratio of 1: EA to approximately between
2,500-10,000 farm families depending on the State makes it imperative for
considerable investment to be made towards job creation and poverty reduction.
Support to Small Scale Agriculture Machineries: Small scale agricultural production
is the fulcrum of the Nigerian agricultural sector and one of the major
priority areas of immense investment should be on small scale agricultural
machineries for both production and processing towards Nigeria’s attainment of
optimal job creation, poverty reduction, and food and nutrition security. Women
tailored small scale agricultural machineries should additionally take
precedence in the investment. (The Extension Transformation Group (TETG),
2011).
Policy recommendations – R & D,
CRSA & AVC
Research and Development: Research and development investments
should strongly concentrate on already existing research results disseminations
to smallholder farmers.
Climate Resilient Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA):
With the impact
of climate change we are already witnessing in Nigeria, one of the priority
area of deliberate agricultural continual investment should also be on Climate
Resilient Sustainable Agriculture (CRSA) to support smallholder farmers
especially women development of agriculture value chain.
Policy
recommendation –
Responsible Agricultural Investment Principle
Every
investment whether public or private must also adhere to Principles for
Responsible Agricultural Investment (PRAI).
The seven
Principles cover all types of investment in agriculture:
Principle
1: Existing rights
to land and associated natural resources are recognized and respected.
Principle
2: Investments do
not jeopardize food security but rather strengthen it.
Principle
3: Processes
relating to investment in agriculture are transparent, monitored, and ensure
accountability by all stakeholders, within a proper business, legal, and
regulatory environment.
RAIPs
Principle
4: All those
materially affected are consulted, and agreements from consultations are
recorded and enforced.
Principle
5: Investors ensure
that projects respect the rule of law, reflect industry best practice, are
viable economically, and result in durable shared value.
Principle
6: Investments
generate desirable social and distributional impacts and do not increase
vulnerability.
Principle
7: Environmental
impacts of a project are quantified and measures taken to encourage sustainable
resource use, while minimizing the risk/magnitude of negative impacts and
mitigating them.
conclusion
Nigeria is
not likely to achieve the MDGs by 2015. As we go into post 2015, priority has
to be given again to agriculture and rural development within the framework of
poverty eradication and which emphasizes and supports the special roles women
have in securing and producing food in Africa.
Nigeria
still has the potentials to be food-secure and ATA is a step in the right direction.
The
laudable vision in the ATA strategy of achieving a hunger-free Nigeria through
an agricultural sector that drives income growth, accelerates achievement of
food and nutritional security, generates employment and transforms Nigeria into
a leading player in global food markets to grow wealth for millions of farmers
seems a mirage in view of the current unacceptably low budgetary allocations
and priorities that do not translate to rural poverty reduction.
Hence,
Nigeria must allocate at least 10% of her annual budget as per the Maputo 10%
Declaration Commitment on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.
Nigeria
still has the potentials to be food-secure but this can only be achieved
through:
*rural
development
*provision
of easy access to basic farm inputs
*adequate
budgetary allocations to agriculture particularly to the food crop sub-sector,
*enunciation
of appropriate policies for food crop sub-sector
*political
stability – peace and human security
*reduction
in rural poverty and
*Peasant
farmers‟ education.
