Focussing on domestic food production
The journey to food sufficiency in Nigeria is no doubt a very tough one. Steering the rudder away from over three decades of food import dependency has been fraught with anxieties from the populace and opposition from individuals and organisations with vested interests.
Despite the resistance however, there has been a commendable increase in local food production of some staples though this is still very far from being sufficient.
With a population growth of three percent per annum characterised by several years of food import dependency, stepping up domestic food production to meet up with demand is indeed an uphill and necessary task. Though about 70 percent of the population engage in agriculture and the sector contributes over 40 percent to Gross Domestic Product, several years of handling agriculture as the poor man’s business or government’s business has resulted in low productivity.
The Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) of the current administration is however changing the focus of agriculture into a sector for serious private sector players. The ATA is aimed at provision of the enabling environment to drive income growth of agribusiness private sector players, generate employment and transform the country into a major player in global food trade.
Some remarkable achievements have been made in this regard with the emergence of professionals such as bankers, lawyers, medical doctors in the sector who engage directly in farming/agro-allied businesses or engage others to farm on their behalf. However, many of the challenges the sector faces are basically beyond the scope of the agriculture ministry. This includes poor infrastructure, smuggling driven by corruption and banks’ apathy to lending to the agriculture sector.
As a result the agric ministry has had to explore solutions to these issues. This includes collaboration with financiers, working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in ensuring the success of the Nigerian Incentive Based Risk Sharing Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) which reduces the risks of lenders to the agric sector by providing guarantees.
To encourage domestic production of food, the federal government introduced higher tarriffs on imported food competing with local production. According to report by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Bureau of Statistics, legal imports into Nigeria of which the food and beverage constitutes 11 percent decreased to $5.49 Billion in March this year, from $5.71 billion in February this year indicating that food and beverage imports declined to $0.60 billion in March, this year from about $0.63 billion in February.
These protectionist policies have however sparked heated debates. While one school of thought frowns at this use of higher tariffs and bans on the basis that smuggling is likely to be encourages through Nigeria’s porous borders while the other school of thought points out that ban on importation encourages local production.
Despite the numerous bottlenecks in the path of achieving food sufficiency largely through domestic food production, it is surely a noble path.
All that is necessary to tread smoothly on this path should be pursued, with appropriate passion, vigour and resources.