It is undeniable that under President Goodluck Jonathan Nigeria has made giant strides in the area of agriculture. Before the advent of oil, agriculture was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy and may yet be our saving grace if world oil prices continue to plummet. Already, the implementation of this years budget is under jeopardy as oil prices continue to drop. Agriculture is a major branch of the economy in Nigeria, providing employment for about 70% of the population. Reform in this sector especially in the fertilizer distribution chain has led to greater productivity and earnings for farmers. The Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GES) of the Federal Government had infact increased farmers’ access to fertiliser from 11% to 92% . Agriculture can be our new oil if well harnessed. For instance, there are 11 Million registered farmers with the Ministry of Agriculture who are being educated on better farming techniques and best practices to increase yield. Today agriculture is the largest contributor to the non-oil sector. Nigeria expects to earn $1.3 billion from cocoa exports this year, an increase of 45 percent from two years ago, after a steady rise in output that could help shift our economy away from its reliance on oil. There is also great potential in Cassava exports as the FG has tasked the Presidential Committee on Cassava Export Promotion to work towards achieving the annual $5 billion target set for the cassava industry in the country. Presently, Nigeria is unable to meet its export order as Nigerias Cassava is adjudged to be the best in the world. Our farmers need to tap into this to earn some hard currencies. Through the implementation of the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan Nigeria saved $191.6B from importation of refined sugar over three years. With this plan, companies are encouraged to set up sugar factories locally to produce sugar instead of relying on importation. Also, Nigeria is beginning to break the jinx of decades of dependence on imported rice. About N30 billion spent by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on the Growth Enhancement Support so far has helped Nigerian rice farmers to increase their output by over 2.8 million MT of rice paddy, bringing us nearer to self-sufficiency. Interventions under the agricultural transformation agenda in the 2012 wet season and 2012/2013 dry season led to an additional 1.409 million metric tons (MT) of paddy or 916,137 MT of milled rice from 403,222 hectares of cultivated land. 751,248 rural jobs, were created by local rice production, while gross value double to N313,784,882,555 and net value doubled to N175,020,285,055. Although farming in this sector was principally by small scale farmers, big players are moving into the field with Dangote investing $1B in a rice mill. You also have the Vaswani Brothers partnering with the FG through their Stallion Group in the local production of rice, Nigerians need to know these giant strides that have been made in agriculture in the life of this administration in order to fully appreciate the government better as we are used to folks mouthing off that nothing is happening. It is all moaning and whining whereas a lot is actually going on under their noses.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 11:37:04 +0000
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