Experts task Tinubu on urgent action to boost agriculture sector, tackle food insecurity 

By Onome Amuge

President Bola Tinubu has, prior to his emergence as the Nigerian number one citizen, promised to hit the ground running upon  his assumption of office on May 29. In view of this, experts in the agriculture sector has called on the need for the president to, as a matter of urgency, focus on sustainable actions to reposition the agricultural sector  and build on its potential towards sufficient food availability for both local and export consumptions and

economic development.

The National Bureau of Statistics in its latest gross domestic product (GDP) report for the first quarter of 2023, disclosed that the agricultural sector, comprising crop Production, livestock, forestry and fishing,grew by 5.24 percent  year-on-year in nominal terms in Q1 2023, showing a decrease of 6.31 percentage  points from the same quarter of 2022.

Looking at the preceding quarter’s growth rate of 18.67 per cent,the report showed that there was a decrease of 13.44 percentage points. It also disclosed that agriculture contributed 19.63 per cent to nominal GDP in the first quarter of 2023, lower than the rate recorded in the first quarter of 2022 and lower than the fourth quarter of 2022 which recorded 21.09 per cent and 24.90 per cent respectively.

Further analysis of the sector’s performance indicated that agriculture contributed 21.66 per cent  to overall GDP in real terms in Q1 2023, lower than the contribution in the first quarter of 2022 and lower than the fourth quarter of 2022 which stood at 22.36 per cent  and 26.46 per cent respectively.

“The agricultural sector in the first quarter of 2023 grew by -0.90% (year-on-year) in real terms, a decrease of 4.06% points from the corresponding period of 2022, and a decrease of 2.95% points from the preceding quarter which recorded a growth rate of 2.05%. It grew on a quarter-on-quarter basis at -30.95%,” the report said.

Though the agriculture sector’s performance plunged in the reference period, its contribution to real GDP growth at 21.66 per cent cannot be overemphasised, considering that it remains one of the largest contributors to economic growth. This is as  crop production accounted for the largest contributing activity to real GDP in Q1 2023 at 19.48 per cent, surpassing trade (15.97 per cent), telecommunications and information services (14.13), crude petroleum and natural gas (6.21).

Based on this, experts have advised the president to concentrate on some of the major issues hindering the agricultural sector from reaching its full potential in every aspect of production. Some of the challenges identified include insecurity, fertiliser conundrum, lack of access to/ insufficient finance, poor infrastructure and mechanisation among others.

Kabiru Ibrahim, national president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), said an all-year-round farming programme should be encouraged by investing in irrigation, mechanisation, smart agricultural practices, and STI (Science Technology and Innovation) to attain the desired results by the current administration.

Ibrahim also enjoined the  new administration to meticulously incentivize farmers by carefully analysing agricultural competencies and the regions possessing comparative advantage in producing them and go on to subsidize the products directly as well as decisively.

“Each of the six geopolitical zones should be appraised and its staples identified with a view to optimising the productivity of all those staples such that the impact will be felt within the first year of the administration,” he said.

Olabode Adetoyi, erstwhile commissioner for agriculture in Ekiti State, urged the new administration to focus on agriculture and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD)  in a bid to harness its potential.

The agriculture expert, who gave the recommendation while addressing journalists recently, said the president should review all existing policies on agriculture and determine the hindrances preventing the implementation, even as it is imperative to evaluate enabling laws and mandates of agencies under FMARD.

Adetoyi advised Tinubu to bring up a comprehensive paper on the way forward on agricultural production for executive actions and identify existing farm settlements across the country and take census of the occupants.

The chairman,Youth in Commercial Agriculture Development, Ekiti State, asked the president-elect to identify constraints of occupants of the farm settlement and develop an immediate relief package in the short and long run to eliminate the constraints.

He said FMARD and the National Directorate of Employment  (NDE) should open a collation of citizens , specifically youths under 40years, who are interested in agriculture through data collection form (simple Google form) along geopolitical zones.

He added that the collation should target at least 60,000 participants comprising 10,000 participants per geopolitical zone, and also open up a farm support model for youth farmers across the country through input supply and output take up model.

Femi Oke, chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Lagos State chapter and South-West Zone, urged the new president to appoint only qualified experts to oversee the agricultural sector to ensure the development and proper management of the various value chains in the sector.

“We want him to be a listening president to the farmers and do a lot. We want him to bring more investors into the agric space because we are expecting a lot from him,” Oke said.

Speaking on what the new administration should do differently as a matter of urgency to rescue the continuous food hike situation in the country,  Samuel Olakojo, a professor of Plant Breeding & Applied Genetics, said that the issue of insecurity must be uppermost to return farmers back to farms.

According to the plant breeder at the Institute of Agricultural Research & Training (IAR & T), kidnapping,herdsmen/farmers’ clashes, killings through tribal conflicts, have all added to shortage of food production which has resulted in costly prices across the country.

Olakojo stressed that President Tinubu would perform much better in agricultural development by ensuring that soil maps and surveys are applied to delineate productive land areas with comparative crops advantage, noting that statistical planning and basic facilities deployment would be easily achieved with good result for both domestic and export benefits.

He said, “If we really want to do agriculture in the country, let soil maps and surveys be used to determine crops advantage areas for productivity development with location of agro processing centres, market places with fixed guarantee food prices in kilogrammes as middle men are assembled to become aggregators just as light energy is also provided in a cluster manner.

Government should look at each region with crop comparative advantage and attach all necessary gadgets to produce efficiently so that investors can know regions or areas that a particular crop is peculiar to. This will enable statistics to be easily gathered for further planning and development in such places.”

He urged the new administration to adopt technology-driven and climate-smart  agriculture to reposition the sector, pointing out that the usage of crude tools in food production is no longer in vogue as technology based facilities such as drones are now used to collect data for proper planning towards food sufficiency in many advanced countries of the world.

Olakojo also advised the president to avoid separation of the Ministry of Agriculture from Water Resources, stating that the two must be fused in order to perform with synergy on the use of land and water for agricultural production round the year. He suggested that while the main minister can be in charge of agriculture, the state minister can be in charge of water resources, but need to work together as a team.

The agriculture expert further advised on the timely release of funds to all agricultural projects by the government, adding that the oversight function of the members of the national assembly must be thoroughly implemented to ensure effective implementation of released funds.

“There is no point releasing money when the planting seasons are almost off. All agricultural activities are timely bound and release of funds must target that in order to give desired results. The National Assembly should be more proactive in their oversight functions on the sector as this will serve as a check to non proper utilisation of funds or project implementation,” he said.

He also advocated for the implementation of the Maputo declaration in which Nigeria is a signatory to paying 10 per cent of the national total budget into agricultural development. He lamented that the federal government has never met with the agreement, knowing fully well that food is a common denominator to mankind.