Agriculture: FG Told To Focus On Meeting Domestic Demand, Prioritising Sector As Contributor To Economic Growth
The Federal Government has been told to first focus on meeting domestic demand of agricultural products of the citizens and prioritising the agriculture sector as a contributor to economic growth before giving consideration for exports.
This advice is contained in a recent report published by the Oxford Business Group entitled “Focus Report: Agriculture at the heart of Nigeria’s economic development plans.”
The report also identified some challenges that those in the agriculture sector may likely face in year 2022 and how they will overcome those challenges.
On the Outlook of agricultural sector in Nigeria, the Oxford Business Group report stated “The agriculture sector faces many challenges, such as low levels of irrigation, an outdated land tenure system and limited adoption of research findings, which have kept agricultural productivity low, and caused post-harvest losses and waste. There is room to expand and commercialise, however, as Nigeria only makes use of half of its 71m ha of available farmland, and 15m to 30m smallholder farmers produce an estimated 95% agricultural output.”
The report said although there is notable export potential in the Nigerian agricultural sector, the country needs to first focus on meeting domestic demand and prioritising the sector as a contributor to economic growth.
The report called on the Nigerian government to learn from Brazil how to optimize its agricultural operations, noting that Nigeria as a country has the necessary conditions to boost food production in terms of climate, soil, rainfall and topography,
“Nigeria can learn how to optimise its agricultural operations by looking further afield to Brazil, a country that has leveraged innovation to increase domestic production and reduce its reliance on food imports. The South American nation once imported 70% of its food, but has since managed to become one of the world’s top producers.
“There is scope for Nigeria to reach the same target. It has the necessary conditions to boost food production in terms of climate, soil, rainfall and topography. Besides the initiatives that have already been implemented by the government aimed at boosting productivity, more can be achieved through the introduction of innovative practices and the adoption of technologies to capitalise on economies of scale and drive the economy towards growth in 2022 and beyond,” the report stated.
