Racing agriculture with Japan
Due to its rapid emergence into global economic dominance in the post-World War II era, Japan has firmly established itself in our minds as a serious-minded and powerful nation, one that gets policies right and is governed by policymakers who are ruthless in the pursuit of success and national economic growth. But even high-performing countries get things wrong sometimes, and in one important way – managing an ailing agricultural economy – Japan has struggled like Nigeria.
Indeed, the same progressive decline, which has served as an indictment of Nigerian myopia, obtained in the Asian superpower nation between the 1970s and 2000s which saw agriculture move from being a mainstay of the Japanese economy to being a marginal economic player, providing only 1 percent of total GDP. The elegy of importations is now a familiar tune there, too, as the Japanese market consequently became inundated with cheap food imports – the product of a 34 percent decrease in national food self-sufficiency.
To be fair, Japan is not doing badly overall as it is the third-largest economy in the world, but with a past that points to a great potential in the agricultural sector, it is evident that Japan is living well below its economic potential. This has sparked a desire to reverse this downward trend in agriculture and set Japan on a steady path to agricultural growth. Thus, for the purposes of agricultural policy analysis, Japan and Nigeria can be regarded as co-runners in an important race. Serious attempts on the part of one nation to get back on the agricultural prosperity track should, therefore, interest the other for the purposes of adoption, appropriation and execution of sound agricultural ideas.
But this is not the only reason Japanese agriculture should matter to Nigerians. Indeed, as the pace of agricultural resurgence picks up in Japan, the country will be looking to Nigeria as a viable market for its homegrown agricultural produce. Interestingly enough, both countries have high populations – with Japan having a population of over 120 million and Nigeria boasting a figure that is closer to 160 million. With a growing population and a decreasing self-sufficiency rate, Japan is even more challenged to revive agriculture.
To understand what Japan is doing now in this regard, we need to understand the context from which the Japanese government and civil society are acting. Much like us, the Japanese government ignored agricultural development at a time when it reasoned that other sectors were more economically viable. This seemed especially true of the manufacturing sector. As rural-urban migration and urbanisation became the order of the day, erstwhile farmlands were turned into factory sites for the country’s growing manufacturing sector. This was a generational move which hit agriculture hard because older citizens were now left to tend the farms – with no support from their younger relatives who had moved to the urban areas to take advantage of the manufacturing boom. As a result, agricultural productivity plummeted nationally.
Today, the government is struggling to improve food self-sufficiency, which is at a very low rate. One measure the government is taking is the use of rice subsidies to encourage the large-scale production of rice. Another policy – domestic engagement – is also becoming pervasive as women, youths, and rural households are being encouraged to pursue agriculture. Furthermore, according to a report, many women have allegedly begun to see the sense in this move, which will provide solace from the mental and psychological stress of urban life, especially for women in low-income households, affording them a slower pace of life.
One of such initiatives is the proliferation of women-led local agricultural projects on fertile farmlands on the Honshu Island. Elsewhere in the country, other women-focused initiatives have sprung up, including business management and other capacity building programmes. Government policies are looking to intensify these efforts, and with a strong manufacturing sector in a country that prides itself on being a model for innovation, value-added agriculture is easily part of the national agenda. To this end, even at the very rural level, these new farms are transforming raw agricultural produce into higher-value processed food and industrial materials.
While the results of these policies and initiatives are mixed and some women still struggle to make a decent living out of agriculture, successes are being recorded in the nation as the government provides grants and awards to some farms, groups and individuals. Additionally, even though Japan has made important strides in reversing gender inequality and women’s economic marginalisation, one thing the government hasn’t quite mastered is how to properly engage its youths.
With Nigeria forging the same path, there are important lessons to be learned. There is hope for our country’s agricultural sector but more challenge on our part to really incorporate innovation into our revolutionary agenda. Value-added small businesses across the country headed by young men and women can be easily managed and scaled with the right support and infrastructure. Sustained citizen-led initiatives will make a difference. And sustained government support, concern and efficiency in practice will go a long way in transforming the agricultural landscape.
Although the fear exists that countries like Japan and China will exploit African countries to the former’s advantage and the latter’s disadvantage, I posit that a symbiosis is also possible. But this will require serious efforts on the parts of both governments to work with their comparative advantages. Nigeria can increase the production of locally-produced agricultural crops and acquire from Japan only those crops that are not naturally abundant in Nigeria and way too expensive to be grown commercially. Furthermore, a reasonable exchange could involve the acquisition of cheap machinery including high-tech gadgets from Japan to further Nigeria’s agricultural and other economic goals.
In the final analysis, what countries like Japan are teaching us is that no country is perfect and that the project of growth is not magical or entirely in the hands of fate. Rather, it is obtained through human effort, through the constant acknowledgment of mistakes and the sedulous application of lessons learned and other tried-and-tested strategies. As the race continues, it is my hope that Nigerians will be encouraged by the fact that we are not alone and that other co-runners have cast quitting and complacency behind them and have their eyes set on the prize – economic prosperity through agriculture.
Obasi is a syndicated columnist, co-founder of the Youth Consortium for Progress and one of the program managers for the Harambe Incubator for Sustainable and Rural Development (HISARD).
tobasi@harambenigeria.org
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