Nigeria agricultural productivity output is less than 1% ― Experts warns.
During a flag-off event of the Rural Agricultural Development Consortium (RAD-C) themed “Repositioning Nigeria Agriculture for Global Competitiveness” held in Abuja, Dr. Ahmed Adekunle, the Chief Executive of Nigerian Agricultural Mechanization and Equipment Leasing Company (NAMEL) said that Nigeria has been experiencing low agricultural productivity which is less than 1 percent and this is not good for the country. He added that one of the reasons is that there have been over 200 percent increments in the price at which farm inputs are acquired.
Recently, the acquisition cost of farm input has affected almost all things including the price of fertilizers and herbicides, diesel price has also hiked by 300 percent, and as of 2013, a tractor cost 5.5 million naira but today the price has increased to 35 million naira acquiring that same tracker. According to Development experts, Nigeria’s population is projected to be 263 million by 2030 and 401 million by 2050. With these projections, our agricultural productivity is at a rate of less than 1 percent and with this, it will be harder to compete with global agriculture competitive countries like Brazil, China, India, Thailand, Vietnam etc,
The RAD-C will create new opportunities for communities and farmers.
Dr. Ahmed Adekunle believes that it is necessary to reposition the agricultural sector in order to make it more competitive on a global scale and to address the problem of food insecurity in the country, and the RAD-C model will speed up the process of completing projects for enhancing the nation’s food, nutritional, and social security. According to him, this model will not engage in competition with smallholder farmers for the available lands; rather, it will develop the unused neighboring arable lands, thereby creating new opportunities for both the communities and the farmers.
Furthermore, the short-term aim of RAD-C is to develop 500,000 hectares of neighboring farmland across multiple states. This would result in the creation of one million direct jobs and approximately two million indirect jobs for community youths and women. Additionally, it will assist in the production of 2.5 million tonnes of top-quality crops on an annual basis. These crops include rice, maize, wheat, and cassava, have the potential to bring an estimated N50 billion investment worth directly to the nation’s rural communities. More so, this will also contribute at least 100 percent yield per hectare to enhance the rural economy and speed up the development of approximately one hundred communities, thereby lowering the rural-to-urban migration rate and poverty index.
The Agricultural sector lacks adequate facilities to fight food insecurity.
Speaking on the same, the Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry, Africa Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Martin Fregene said the COVID-19 pandemic affected ecosystems and result in the global food crisis, which also led to the food crisis in Africa. According to him, Africa possesses an enormous amount of potential, including sunlight, massive land, and human capital resources; however, we rely on countries that are currently engaged in a war to get out agricultural supplies. Africa needs technology in order to advance the agricultural sector and increase productivity.
Dr. Martin added that part of the things to do to improve agricultural productivity includes making high-quality seeds widely available and affordable to farmers, provision of a good storage system, and adequate financing. However, The African Development Bank has been also trying to alleviate some of the challenges facing food productivity in Africa. Engr John Drain, the deputy director, of the Department of Engineering and Mechanization of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, (FMARD) also explained that if the appropriate mechanization is not used, it will be difficult to tackle the issue of food security. To succeed as a nation, we must tackle the issues facing the agriculture sector, such as climate change, the use of mechanization, agribusiness, and the Agro-economy.
Nigeria’s government also aims to boost agriculture with some initiatives.
In an effort to boost agricultural productivity in the country so that sufficient quantities of food can be produced to satisfy the demand in the local markets, as well as an abundance of commodity crops that can be sold on the international market, the Nigeria government has also introduced a number of initiatives and programs, some of which include Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP); Presidential Economic Diversification Initiative; Nigeria–Africa Trade and Investment Promotion Program; Economic and Export Promotion Incentives and the Zero Reject Initiative; Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP); Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+); Action Against Desertification (AAD) Programme, among others.
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Fact Checking Tool – Snopes.com
Despite all government claims of supporting agriculture our growth is less than 1percent ,please all hands needs to be on deck for this to be achieved.
This is actually not meant to be. Africa is known for its Agricultural prowess, especially Nigeria. It is bad that our Agricultural growth is very poor. We should reinvest in this sector to improve our welfare as a country.
All the noise and propaganda by both the federal and state governments concerning improvement on agriculture is a fallacy and lots of
people know,all this is been done because agriculture is one of the major way to embezzle public fund.
Our agriculture sector should be improve government should get involved in the sector and help agriculture growth it is a sector that is important and will generate fund also both federal and state government should be into this agriculture growth so then can be improvement
I believe creation of APP will serve as effort to boost agricultural productivity in the country.. so that sufficient quantities of food can be produced to satisfy the demand in the local markets.
The problem of agriculture stem from our federal government policies, inability to tackle terrorism in the country, high diesel and pms to power some engine and high price of agriculture inputs. These has resulted in the high price of agriculture products and reduction in the growth of agriculture in Nigeria.
It is vital to reorient the agriculture industry in order to increase its global competitiveness and alleviate the country’s food insecurity crisis.
We must address concerns affecting the agriculture industry, such as climate change, mechanization, agribusiness, and the agro-economy, if we want to flourish as a country.
The price of agricultural inputs has increased by more than 200% in recent years, which is one of the reasons behind this phenomenon.
This is not a favorable time for Nigeria, as the country’s agricultural productivity is less than 1 percent. His explanation included the fact that there
frica possesses an enormous amount of potential, including sunlight, massive land, and human capital resources; however, we rely on countries that are currently engaged in a war to get out agricultural supplies.
Agriculture is an already proven sector government needs to invest more in this area for more development and economy boosting.
Recently, the acquisition cost of farm input has affected almost all things including the price of fertilizers and herbicides, diesel price has also hiked by 300 percent, and as of 2013, a tractor cost 5.5 million naira but today the price has increased to 35 million naira acquiring that same tracker.
I no understand, how can we have good agricultural sector when government of this country is not supporting the growth of agriculture in Nigeria. Fake government with nothing
What is happening in Nigeria in terms of high rate terrorism has affected agriculture too. Government policies, expensive farm input and farm mechanical devices required for production has lessen agricultural growth by more than 1%
The global agriculture competitive countries will have a harder time competing with a production rate of less than 1 percent in agriculture.
Instead of competing with smallholder farmers for limited land, this concept will develop underutilized arable land in the surrounding area to benefit local residents as well as farmers.
It is required to reposition the agricultural sector in order to make it more competitive on a worldwide scale and to solve the problem of food insecurity in the country, but first and foremost, it is necessary to make the agricultural industry more globally competitive.
Even though we are dependent on nations that are currently engaged in a war to get our agricultural supplies, Africa possesses an enormous amount of potential, including sunlight, vast amounts of land, and human capital resources. However, we cannot take advantage of this potential because we are dependent on countries that are currently engaged in a war.