Revitalizing Nigeria’s Agricultural Sector: Challenges and Opportunities

The Nigerian agricultural sector has experienced mixed fortunes since the country’s independence, at one time being the mainstay of the nation’s economy and later seeing its fortunes implode with the discovery of oil, which led to a rapid decline in government investment and policy support for agriculture. This caused a massive rural-urban migration that depleted the agricultural workforce, making the sector a shadow of its former glory. Even with this decline, the agricultural sector still contributes around 21% to Nigeria’s GDP and engages about 35% of the total labor force according to 2021 estimates.

Nigeria is endowed with abundant agricultural resources, with approximately 71 million hectares of arable land according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. However, inefficient farming practices, lack of infrastructure, and low adoption of improved technologies have left a large proportion of this land untapped. Currently, only about 40% of the arable land is under cultivation.

The agricultural sector remains crucial for food security, employment, and inclusive economic growth. With Nigeria’s population projected to double to over 400 million by 2050, feeding this populace will be a major challenge. Already, Nigeria imports approximately $11 billion worth of food annually. Boosting agricultural productivity is vital for national food and nutrition security.

Key Challenges Facing the Sector

• Heavy reliance on outdated farming systems dominated by smallholder farmers with average farm sizes of 1-2 hectares. This results in low productivity.
• Poor rural infrastructure including lack of access to roads, irrigation, storage facilities, etc. This leads to high post-harvest losses of up to 40%.
• Minimal adoption of improved technologies and modern farming techniques like high-yielding seeds, precision agriculture, etc. Average cereal yields in Nigeria are less than 2 tons/ha compared to 5-8 tons/ha globally.
• Inadequate food storage and processing facilities. There is huge potential for agro-processing to create jobs and wealth.
• Difficulty accessing credit and agricultural inputs. Interest rates of over 25% constrain smallholder farmers.
• Climate change leads to issues like drought, flooding, and land degradation that threaten agricultural production.

Key Opportunities and Recommendations

• Engage and empower youth in agriculture through access to financing, technologies, training, and incentives like agriculture enterprise incubation hubs.
• Increase public investment in rural infrastructure like irrigation, roads, power, and storage facilities. Public Private Partnerships could finance and operate large agro-processing hubs.
• Drive widespread adoption of improved technologies like heat/drought tolerant seed varieties, precision fertilizer application, micro-irrigation, and crop protection through digitally-enabled extension services.
• Implement climate-smart approaches like diversified cropping systems, conservation agriculture, and farmland regeneration models.
• Prioritize the development of agriculture value chains and the growth of SME agro-processors through enabling policies, standards, and certifications.
• Facilitate innovative distribution models and infrastructure like cold-chain logistics to minimize food loss and enhance farmer incomes.

Nigeria can transform its agricultural sector through a combination of technology adoption, increased mechanization, enabling policies, investments in agro-processing, and strategic engagement of youth. By mobilizing its resources and tapping global innovations, Nigeria can usher in an agricultural revolution capable of ensuring national food security and powering sustainable economic growth.