Agriculture: A key to sustainable economic growth in Nigeria Part IV
Policy Implications and Conclusion
Policy Recommendations having examined extensively the potentials of agriculture as a key to sustainable economic growth in Nigeria and the various factors that have hampered its growth over time, the following policy recommendations have emerged:
Focus development plan in agricultural sector and rural areas: A major policy reform that will set Nigeria in the path of agricultural transformation is for the government to make a conscious development efforts to revive the agricultural sector. In its urgent quest to diversify the economy due to the high volatility in the oil sector and recent economic recession in the country, agriculture should be made its priority. Empirical studies in Nigeria has shown that agricultural growth is more rapid than growth in non-agricultural sectors.
Secondly, the huge agricultural potentials of the nation remains largely untapped.
Thirdly, over 70 percent of the total Nigerian labour force is employed by the agricultural and rural sector. Therefore, focusing development efforts in agriculture and the rural sector will unleash positive development dividends for the nation.
Promote financing agricultural enterprises: To unlock it’s agricultural potentials, the federal government of Nigeria through its apex bank should reform and align its financial sector to increase their lending to agriculture.
Some of the factors that led to the under-capitalization of the agricultural sector include high demands for collateral by banks; lack of capacity to develop appropriate credit instruments for agriculture and high interest rates. A recapitalization of the Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative & Rural Development Bank can further expand access to credit/loans. It will also ensure longer term financing, with tenor of 5 years and above since commercial banks could not lend for long term needs of the agricultural sector.
Accelerate investment in agricultural infrastructure and marketing institutions: Given the low investment level in agricultural infrastructure in Nigeria, especially in the rural roads, most of the roads linking farmers to other sectors are inaccessible. Secondly, there is need to develop new and more efficient marketing corporations to replace the old marketing boards scrapped under the structural adjustment programmes of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund
Pathways to exit from poverty in Nigeria
These institutions will help to improve the coordination of markets for agricultural commodities, provide market price information, improve access of farmers to credit and assure grades and standards. Developing market institutions and improved access to transport infrastructure will enable farmers get better market access and higher prices for their products. It will also encourage poor households mobility from subsistence production to off-farm jobs (DFD, 2015).
Rural transitions: There is need to create structural change in the labour composition of the Nigerian rural area. Farm production alone is unlikely to provide the needed pathway out of poverty for the majority of the Nigerian rural poor. Apart from improving farm output through increased incentives to small holder subsistence farmers, achieving sustainable economic development in Nigeria will also require a private – public partnership in creating off-farm jobs or wage labour opportunities, in commercial agriculture, agro-based industries or the rural non-farm economy. Again, the federal government through its various agencies and ministries (such as DFRRI and NDE. Nigeria Directorate of Food, Roads, and Rural Infrastructures and National Directorate of Employment) should build linkages and promote greater mobility between rural and urban areas and/or between farm and non-farm opportunities.
Improve distribution of subsidized inputs: Farm inputs have failed to improve yields because they are not always well targeted and/or delivered in a timely fashion. For agricultural transformation to be sustained, policy reforms should target genuine farmers. For decades, Nigerian governments procured and distributed fertilizers. Due to the level of corruption of government officials, only 11 percent of farmers got the government distributed fertilizers (Adesina, 2012). Rich commercial and powerful political farmers hijacked the subsidized fertilizers which are eventually sold to neighbouring countries, through their agents. According to Dr. Akinbunmi Adesina – former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and rural development, “Nigeria was not subsidizing farmers. It was simply subsidizing corruption”. There is need for policy reforms to target poor small holder farmers by eliminating middlemen and spurring private sector to build supply chains that reach farmers.
Construct nation-wide dam irrigation scheme and make them adoptable by rural farmers: Deliberate efforts should be made to expand the use of irrigation in augmenting the natural rain fall. This will guarantee year long cultivation to spurt agricultural production and ensure food security in the country. At present, the few irrigation projects are located in the northern savannah part of Nigeria. The tropical zone of the south also needs proper irrigation. These two zones support different variety of crops.
Develop appropriate technologies:
There is need to develop appropriate technologies for and with the farmers who have not benefited from imported green revolution package of Asia and Latin America.
Conclusion
In attempting to study the relevance of agricultural transformation in Nigeria, this lecture has examined the potentials of agriculture as a key to sustainable ecomomic growth in Nigeria. It also examined the challenges faced by the agricultural and rural sector in actualizing it’s potentials. Based on the findings of this lecture, relevant policy measures have been suggested. A major policy implication of this study is that the agricultural sector is key to sustainable economic growth in Nigeria. Policy makers should therefore make concerted efforts to unlock the growth potential of the sector so as to improve the lives of the citizens.
It is recommended that Government should provide funds to acquire sophisticated farm tools and increase her budgetary allocation to this sector in a consistent manner because of its importance to the national economy, hoping that with proper monitoring of fund, it would contribute more significantly to the economy of the country. An effective utilization of such funds should also be advocated and all areas of wastage blocked. The peasant farmers who live in the rural areas and who are the major providers of food for the nation should be adequately catered for by making the rural areas more conducive and habitable by the provision of adequate infrastructural facilities such as good roads, pipe borne water and electricity. The provision of these facilities will no doubt impact positively on the rural farmers’ productivity.
Lastly, oil export may decline as Nigeria is running out of its oil reserves and needs to preserve its oil resources. Overall, Nigeria needs to plan well for the future. It may be difficult for the country initially, but in the long-run changing to an agriculturally based economy will help Nigerian economy grow and prosper.
Source: A Webinar delivered by Mr. Anozie Christopher 0n 31st of October 2021 at Hezekiah Oluwasanmi Foundation Monthly Seminar (Part IV)
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