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By Chinyere Anyanwu, [email protected]
Despite marking its 63rd independence, last Sunday, the feeling among majority of the citizens, especially those outside government corridors of power, is that there is indeed not much worth rolling out the drums of celebration for.
For one, the country is still struggling with the challenge of feeding its over 200 million population. Analysts consider such a development as quite an unfortunate situation considering the country’s huge endowments with the human capital, landmass and suitable climate to turn agriculture into a goldmine and be adequately positioned to feed its teeming population.
Today, an average household in Nigeria is yet to come to terms with the daily rising cost of food and difficulties associated with accessing most staple food crops.
Food security, which arguably is critical to citizens’ wellbeing is still a mirage while agriculture that has been touted by various stakeholders as the means of achieving food security, as well as holding the ace for economic growth and national development, is still being handled with kid gloves by successive administrations.
Though efforts have been made to revive and reposition the sector through varied value chain investments, both by government and private sector stakeholders, much is still left to be desired after 63 years of self determination.
No doubt, the unacceptable situation of the country’s food system necessitated the declaration of state of emergency on food insecurity by the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to Tinubu, the move was geared towards tackling increasing food prices. He had, through his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, said, he was “not unmindful of the rising cost of food and how it affects the citizens.
Food prices have been on the rise across Nigeria in recent years. The situation deteriorated due to the impact of government policies such as the removal of subsidy on petrol, among others.”
He added that “some of the government’s steps as part of the state of emergency would be in the short, medium and long term.
In the immediate term, we intend to deploy some savings from the fuel subsidy removal into the agricultural sector, focusing on revamping the agricultural sector.”
The president had also directed that, “all matters pertaining to food and water availability and affordability, as essential livelihood items, be included within the purview of the National Security Council,” adding that, “this has led to a significant drop in demand thereby undermining the viability of the entire agriculture and food value chain.”
As a step towards restoring the food system, the president changed the name of the agriculture ministry from Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
Among several outlined steps towards tackling food insecurity, Tinubu listed the following: “We will immediately release fertilisers and grains to farmers and households to mitigate the effects of the subsidy removal; we will engage our security architecture to protect the farms and the farmers so that farmers can return to the farmlands without fear of attacks; we will deploy concessionary capital/funding to the sector, especially towards fertiliser, processing, mechanisation, seeds, chemicals, equipment, feed, labour, etc.”
Stakeholders have, however, said they are monitoring the current trends in the agricultural sector and sincerely hope these laudable intentions will be translated to a reality that will make food available and cheap for the citizenry.
Nigeria’s agricultural sector, after 63 years of independence, is not yet where it should be. Despite the numerous challenges stifling its productivity, growth and sustainability, including policy somersaults; lack of proper implementation of programmes intended for the resuscitation of the sector; high level insecurity; lack of mechanisation; lack of good road networks and post-harvest losses, among others, stakeholders argue that with the current level of advancements in technology, which can be deployed to agriculture, the country can attain the much needed food security.
According to them, agro-tech has helped many nations of the world to attain food security and even become food exporting countries, and that Nigeria should not be lagging behind in that regard.
Reacting to the state of Nigeria’s agriculture after six plus decades of independence, the Director, Agricultural Biotechnology, National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Dr. Rose Gidado, said with agro-tech, food insecurity will be a thing of the past.
Gidado noted that, “from the ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, agriculture was doing very well. But suddenly when the crude oil came up, there was decline in agricultural activities and productivity. It used to contribute a lot to the country’s GDP. The failure of agriculture can be attributed to a number of things like climate change, global warming, etc.
“That is why we are now looking at adopting agricultural biotechnology because it offers a great promise and it has a lot of potential. There’s need to make people understand and accept the technology because it can mitigate the climate change effect. With this technology, you can develop crops that are drought-tolerant, insect/pest-resistant, and thereby solve the food insecurity challenge.”
She also harped on the importance of government investing in Research and Development (R&D), which she said, is the bedrock of every economy and genders sustainability.
Another respondent, Dr. Francis Nwankwo, of Product Stewardship, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), listed policy inconsistency as one of the major challenges confronting the development of Nigeria’s agricultural sector.
Nwankwo said, “sometimes, policies have not been very consistent. Most times, good policies that would have helped the sector are not implemented to a logical conclusion before swinging to another policy. But to move forward, government needs to invest in research. Investment in seed system is very critical to ensure improved productivity and food security.
“Again, Nigeria should identify some sensitive commodities – commercial and food commodities – and develop their value chains.”
