Is Nigeria’s agricultural sector improving?

Cassava plantation
| credits: harambefarmland.com

As Nigeria’s agricultural sector becomes more intertwined with the national economic transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan, it appears investment in the sector is occurring in a complex pattern that also involves investment within and outside the country. This multidimensional investment is having strong influences on the business situation in the sector.

Apparently, the sector appears geared to witness accelerated growth due to renewed public investment and a strong private sector involvement. The sector’s growth will inevitably produce employment for the country’s teeming unemployed youths. Experts observe that before the April 2011 elections, Nigeria was already facing macro-economic challenges and a questionable model of economic development leading to decades of wasteful spending on food importation, incurring huge internal debt in the process. The Nigerian economy is confronted by lots of contradictions especially on food production and uncoordinated agricultural development policies.

If this renewed interest in investment in the sector is sustained, Nigeria will experience in years to come new investments linked to food security. The sector is poised to be the engine of growth. Lately, emphasis has been put in diversifying the agricultural sector ranging from rice production, cassava cultivation, production, processing and marketing. Besides, there have been concerted efforts aimed at improving on fish production, moving from artisan to aquaculture creating business along the entire value chain; fish feed production, to plan adequate fingerlings.

Getting back to the basics of economic development and investment in agriculture sector, agriculture will attract more investment and remain a competitive sector in attracting green field investments in years to come. We may ask why? This is so because “Agriculture is Business”. it simply means more businesses are available in the sector more than any other sector of the economy.

Recent findings suggest that the adoption of certain development strategies and polices with institutional backing may actually induce collaboration in the private sector. The ATA thus appears to place demands on the development of professionals in the sector who are more visible and perhaps more consequential than in years past.

Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has increasingly put emphasis on active “agricultural development projects”– projects that provide assistance to individual businesses in order to increase local jobs, lower local unemployment, and enhance the local tax base. This programme tends towards three major areas: Food security and self sufficiency; Stimulate economic growth; and Poverty alleviation.

Instructively, international partners are rallying behind Africa, and essentially sub-Sahara Africa, on food security. In a declaration at Camp David in May, the G8 meeting in Chicago made African Food Security a great concern and resolved to “accelerate the flow of private capital to African agriculture, take to scale new technologies and other innovations that can increase sustainable agricultural productivity.

We therefore have direct link between new global investment in agriculture and food security.

The current economic transformation agenda being centralised around agriculture and rural development with strategic planning and adequate policy measure focusing on production will definitely move the sector out of stagnation.

Based on this we may ask, can agriculture be new engine of Nigeria’s economic growth, is Nigeria’s agricultural sector stepping out of stagnation to embrace business? In order words Nigerian entrepreneurs must indentify real and sustainable business in agriculture to increase activities and induce growth.

•Dr. Michael Aderohunmu,