by Aliyu Bello | Jun 28, 2024
Agri Africa aims to be a platform that will bring together stakeholders from the private and public sector to increase the efficiency of agribusiness value chain in Nigeria and Africa, providing a thriving environment for business, connections and driving the evolution of agribusiness in Nigeria.
The 3-day event will drive inclusive real economic growth in Nigeria and Africa by creating the right opportunity to discuss current issues which will enable a strong agribusiness economy; capable of meeting domestic food demand, building manufacturing base, enhancing productivity, overcoming storage challenges as well as ushering investment into the agribusiness.
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by iKml1 | Jun 26, 2024
Executive Summary
Seed is one of the most crucial elements in the livelihoods of agricultural communities. The potential benefits from the use of good quality seed by farmers can be enormous, and the availability to farmers of quality seed of a wide-range of varieties and crops can increase productivity, reduce risks from pest, drought and disease pressure, and increase incomes. Production increases through the use of adapted varieties in a given area could create employment opportunities related to processing, marketing, and other activities generated through quality seed production.
The repeal of the National Agricultural Seeds Act Cap. N5 LFN 2004 and enactment of the National Agricultural Seeds Council Act will create a vibrant thriving seed sector and promote a competitive seed sector which is pivotal to ensuring timely availability of appropriate, high quality seeds at affordable prices to smallholder farmers in Nigeria.
The passage of the bill by Parliament and assent by the President provides a unique opportunity and momentum for the Federal Government of Nigeria to rapidly put the regulatory framework of the seeds subsector into action through the matching of the diversity of seed systems whilst promoting entrepreneurship and professionalism in seed value chains, and thereby enhancing the performance of seed sector administration and the agricultural sector of Nigeria as a whole. The National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) will be the principal institution responsible for the administration and implementation of National Seed Policy for Federal Government of Nigeria including the regulation of the market towards competitiveness and quality control to protect the farm population and the environment.
As principal coordinator, it will play the lead support role, maintain public-service infrastructural and service support required to maintain efficient seed supply, enhance farmer demand for improved seeds, and create a favourable enabling environment for investment in the seed subsector. It will also be tasked with the facilitation of the production and distribution of sufficient quantities of high-quality seed of improved varieties of all relevant crops to farmers in order to ensure production of the required food, feed and fibre (National Seed Policy 2015).
This bill when signed into law, will also support the building of a thriving seed system in Nigeria which will not only include an effective distribution network, promotion of the adoption of improved crop varieties by smallholder farmers, seed quality certification and assurance, increase household income, national food security and the sector aligned to the ECOWAS seed regulation framework and responding to the Malabo Commitments and CAADP result framework.
This policy brief posits that a strong regulatory policy framework and legislation should be put in place to facilitate the access to agricultural inputs (seeds) which will serve as catalyst or is pivot to transform agriculture in Nigeria. It will also contribute directly to one of five key executive priorities, as indicated in the National Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERGP) of the Federal Government of Nigeria; which include input supply; seeds, water, land, fertilizer and agro-chemicals.
These were identified as one of the strategies for achieving food self-sufficiency; but of all the yield-enhancing inputs in crop production, seeds give the most dramatic and most cost- effective return on investment. Improved seeds have provided 50% of the productivity gains in agriculture.
by iKml1 | Jun 6, 2024
INTRODUCTION
Before the decade of the 1960s, the dominant role of agriculture in Nigeria’s economy was taken for granted. With very little support from government, Nigerian
agriculture was able to grow at a sufficient rate to provide adequate food for an increasing population, raw materials for a budding industrial sector, increasing public revenue and foreign exchange for government and employment opportunities for an expanding labour force. The little support provided by government for agricultural development was concentrated on export crops like cocoa, groundnut, palm produce, rubber and cotton as self-sufficiency in food production seemed not to pose any problem worthy of public attention.
Indications of problems in the Nigerian agriculture, however, started to emerge as from the first decade of the country’s independence (1960 – 69). These indications were clearly evident from increasing food supply short-falls, rising food prices and declining foreign exchange earnings from agricultural exports. However, not much rational concern was shown because the problems were thought to be the temporary effects of a series of crises which eventually culminated in the civil war (1967 – 70).
The second decade of Nigeria’s independence (1970 – 79) witnessed a rapid deterioration in the country’s agricultural situation. Not only were there widening food supply-demand gaps and rising food import bills, there were also rapid declines in government revenue from agriculture, in foreign exchange earnings from agricultural exports and in the labour force required in agriculture. The situation was further compounded by the residual effects of the civil war, severe droughts in some parts of the country, government fiscal and monetary policies and above all, an “oil boom” which created serious distortions in the economy and accelerated the rate of migration of labour from agriculture.
In an effort to tackle these serious problems, government initiated a number of agricultural policies, programmes and projects, largely within the framework of three successive rational development plans from 1970 to 1974, from 1975 to 1980 and from 1981 to 1985. Experience from these policies, programmes and projects have however, convinced the government and all those concerned with agricultural development efforts in Nigeria that there is no alternative to well-designed and articulate agricultural policies as instruments for promoting agricultural growth and development in Nigeria.
It is therefore, in realization of this fact that the government has adopted a comprehensive package of policy instruments to further develop and improve the5 performance of the country’s agricultural sector. These policy instruments are expected to remain valid for about fifteen years that is up to year 2000 A.D.
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by iKml1 | Feb 23, 2024
Introduction
The important goal of every nation is to attain food security. Over the years, Nigeria has made concerted efforts and developed several agricultural development policies to achieve food security, inclusive growth, sustainable economic diversification and wealth creation. The outcomes of the policies and strategies implemented are mixed. While substantial progress has been recorded, particularly in the production of millet, sorghum, maize, cassava, rice, yam, cowpeas, oil palm and poultry, the country still imports wheat, maize, rice, sugar, fish, beef and dairy products. Also, the share of the agricultural output is dominated by crop production representing 85% while other sub-sectors such as livestock, fisheries and aquaculture and forestry accounted for only 15% (NBS, 2020).
The strategic importance of the agricultural sector to the Nigerian economy cannot be over-emphasized. Its contribution to GDP hovered between 24.45% in 2016 and 25.70% in 2020 (NBS, 2021). The potential of agriculture to rapidly help in achieving food security and economic diversification remains largely untapped. The sector is essentially subsistent with small farm holdings, inadequate cooperative groups, limited technology adoption, low application of good agricultural practices, low access to quality inputs, finance and market. Other constraints include ineffectual synergy among MDAs, poor cooperation among agricultural research and training institutions, input providers and farmers; limited extension services delivery, inadequate rural infrastructure, climate change, poor nutrition, underdeveloped rangelands and grazing reserves; insecurity of agricultural land and investments; insufficient value addition and inadequate agro- industrial processing facilities; lack of standardization of agricultural inputs and outputs as well as outbreaks of Trans-boundary Animal Diseases (TADs).
As the country was charting a new roadmap to scale up the successes of the previous policies to overcome constraints to agriculture, the COVID-19 pandemic struck at the core of its productive sectors. The pandemic disrupted global and domestic socio-economic activities with the agricultural sector severely affected through the shutdown of production facilities and the restrictions on the movements of people and goods. The Committee on World Food Security postulated that the pandemic
would directly impact global food supply and demand, and indirectly reduce production capacity and purchasing power. FAO however predicted that food scarcity is not imminent in post-COVID-19, unlike in the 2007-2008 global food crisis.
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