Agricultural revolution: Time to make a bold move

Renowned physicist and No­bel Laureate, Albert Ein­stein once quipped, “In the middle of difficulty, lies opportu­nity.” A careful consideration of Nigeria’s current economic melt­down reveals the truth behind this aphorism and why serious at­tention must be paid towards di­versifying the economy. In recent times, the country’s forex reserves have dropped below $30 billion as at January, 2016 and the curren­cy has continued to lose value as the gulf between the parallel mar­ket and official rates of the Naira to the dollar widens.

 Crude oil accounts for over 90 percent of Nigeria’s foreign ex­change earnings, 35 percent of GDP, 75 percent of government revenue and has become the sun around which everything re­volves. With the fall in oil prices, and with no commensurate cut in production, Nigeria now finds it­self in an economic bind. How did we get here? The reasons include: overdependence on oil and non-diversification of the economy. But this was not always this case; Agriculture used to be the nation’s principal foreign exchange earner in the early sixties.
The current state of Agricul­ture in Nigeria is only a shadow of what it used to be. It is common knowledge that about 80 percent of Nigerian land is arable and has produced major crops, including beans, sesame, cashew nuts, cas­sava, cocoa beans, groundnuts, kolanut, maize (corn), melon, rice, millet, palm kernels, palm oil, plantains and rubber, among others. For many decades, the sector has been underfunded and did not receive the attention it deserves. As such, small hold­er farming forms a large percent­age of the sector within Nigeria. Poor farming methodologies, lack of access to finance, post-harvest losses due to lack of storage facili­ties, unreliable power supply, poor transport infrastructure and un­attractiveness of farming in terms of returns for many young people are some of the reasons why agri­culture has remained on the back burner of our national life.
However, we believe that with its status as the largest employer of labour in the country, its huge po­tential to become a major foreign exchange earner and help boost the nation’s revenue base, now is the time for everyone, govern­ment, citizens and corporates to take a serious look at the sector, even as the nation moves away from over dependence on oil.
It is heartwarming to see that corporate bodies such as the Dan­gote Group, Guinness Nigeria Plc, British American Tobacco Foun­dation, have picked up the gaunt­let in the drive to give agriculture the oxygen it needs to thrive. During the company’s pre-an­nual general meeting briefing in Lagos, Peter Ndegwa, Managing Director of Guinness Nigeria said that the company has a target of sourcing over 80% of its raw ma­terials locally in the coming years.
Apart from driving down costs for the manufacturers and ease the pressure on the nation’s dwin­dling foreign reserves, local raw materials sourcing will also play an important role in creating em­ployment opportunities, boost in­come levels and empower farmers along the agriculture value chain. Some of the strategic quick wins which all stakeholders must par­ticipate in include, building the capacity of farmers, facilitate the uptake of new technologies, such as warehousing and transporta­tion, and identify better market intelligence solutions. Lastly, easy access to finance is an important. The legal and institutional frame­work which these farmers need as leverage to obtain finance must be firmly entrenched.
“Agriculture is the future of Nigeria. And agriculture that is modernised, that is productive, that is competitive.