Africa’s population is projected to hit 2.4 billion by 2050. More than half of this growth will occur in Nigeria where one-quarter of the population is said to be undernourished. This, according to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, poses serious challenge to global efforts to reduce food shortage and end poverty. But, experts are optimistic that prioritising mechanised agric will help position Nigeria to contribute significantly to tackling global food crisis, writes DANIEL ESSIET.
They are disturbing statistics that ought to challenge the ingenuity of the authorities in the agric sector as well as various actors in the agric value chain. With the United Nations (UN) Department of Economic and Social Affairs projecting that by 2050, Nigeria will be the world’s third most populous country, the implication of this growth is certainly not lost on Nigeria, where one-quarter of the estimated 180 million population is said to be undernourished.
Although the UN Department in its report, titled: ‘World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision’, said with this development, Nigeria will overtake the United States in terms of population, just as the world population will reach 9.8 billion, it, however, added that Nigeria’s population growth presented a challenge as the international community seeks to implement the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda (SDG) that hopes to end food shortage and poverty.
The report brought the reality nearer home when it projected that Africa’s population will grow to 2.4 billion by 2050; that more than half of this growth will occur in Nigeria, where one-quarter of the population is already battling to wade off crushing poverty and undernourished.
Disturbing, no doubt, experts, however, say that the report is a wake-up call to both the authorities and operators in Nigeria’s agric value chain. The thinking, and rightly so, is that Nigeria’s huge agricultural potential holds promises of meeting the continent’s nutrition needs, if the authorities get their acts right and operators embrace mechanisation to boost productivity.
For instance, Nigeria’s large arable land, favourable climate conditions, and even population, which is made up of millions of high potential farmers, are some of the factors that justify optimism that the country could help drive food sufficiency, if she adopts mechanisation in her farming.
At present, Nigeria has millions of high potential farmers, but their productivity has been declining, as many of them are said to rely on subsistent, traditional farming methods, which is largely unproductive.
Apart from the limited adoption of new technologies, the declining production is also said to be as a result of other factors, such as poor irrigation, inadequate storage techniques, lack of access to credit for farmers, and lack of research.
Other critical challenges that have continued to threaten food security include lack of supportive infrastructure (power and transport infrastructure), high post-harvest losses, and low export growth.
The Managing Director, Agro Nigeria, Mr. Richard-Mark Mbaram, was emphasised that meeting the challenge of sustainably feeding 2.4 billion Africans by 2050 would require transforming the sector.
According to him, achieving the transformation would require new approaches and extensive coordination among all stakeholders in the agricultural system. He said more nutritious food would need to be produced using fewer resources that would bring greater benefits to farmers and rural communities.
The agric expert, who noted the importance of political commitment and leadership in Nigeria to reduce hunger, said key areas for investment in food systems include rural infrastructure, access to markets, knowledge and technology, and improved storage and transport capacity to reduce post-harvest losses.
Mbaram noted that any significant improvement in agricultural productivity levels will immediately improve millions of lives.
He said Nigeria is a priority for investment, if Africa is to achieve food sufficiency, adding that any significant improvement in agricultural productivity levels will improve lives.
According to him, the Federal Government should work with the private sector and international partners to make things work in areas, such as creating stronger platforms for agriculture policy formulation and encouraging private sector involvement in agric.
Mechanisation, aggressive investments are key
African Development Bank (AfDB) President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has never hidden his revulsion over the fact that more than 500 million people in Africa are suffering from hunger and malnutrition.
His dislike stemmed from the fact that Nigeria and other African countries have great potential to raise agriculture-generated incomes, increase productivity and become more resilient to climate change and improve the nutritional value of crops.
Adesina said the time has come for increased investment in Africa to address global food insecurity, which, according to him and other experts, remains a real threat to global socio-economic development.
Addressing a crowd of global agriculture experts at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) headquarters in Rome, recently, Adesina said: “The future of food in the world will depend on what Africa does with agriculture.”
He said while only a few countries in Africa have yet successfully achieved high-income status, he believes that the potential is there for all of them, and it starts with modernising agriculture.
Also, in a keynote speech at this year’s Agricultural and Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C, United States, last month, Adesina lamented that Africa was spending $ 35 billion on food import yearly.
Sadly, Nigeria, despite her rich agricultural endowment, spends N6.6 trillion ($23.3billion) on food import yearly. This is more than the N6.06 trillion ($21.4billion) total national budget for 2016 alone.
But Adesina argued that this should not have been so, if farmers were able to harness the available technologies with the right policies. This, according to him, will rapidly raise agricultural productivity and incomes for farmers, and assure lower food prices for consumers.
As Adesina observed: “Technologies to achieve Africa’s green revolution exist, but are mostly just sitting on the shelves. The challenge is lack of supportive policies to ensure that they are scaled up to reach millions of farmers.”
He pushed for urgent collective action by state and non-state players to accelerate Africa’s agricultural growth and transformation. He said Africa and its partners must seize unprecedented opportunities for innovative partnerships.
The AfDB boss said technology transfer was needed and that evidence from countries, such as Nigeria, demonstrated that technology plus strong government backing was already yielding positive results.
Adesina cited Nigeria, where government’s policy during his tenure as Minister of Agriculture, resulted in a rice production revolution in three years.
“All it took was sheer political will, supported by science, technology and pragmatic policies…Just like in the case of rice, the same can be said of a myriad of technologies, including high-yielding water efficient maize, high-yielding cassava varieties, animal and fisheries technologies,” Adesina said.
The Nation learnt that AfDB was already pointing the way to how this could be done. It is working with the World Bank, the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The collaboration hopes to mobilise $1 billion to scale up agricultural technologies across Africa under a new initiative called Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT).
TAAT is taking bold steps to bring down some of the barriers preventing farmers from accessing latest seed varieties and technologies to improve their productivity.
“With the rapid pace of growth of the use of drones, automated tractors, artificial intelligence, robotics and block chains, agriculture as we know it today will change,” Adesina said.
As he projected, “It is more likely that the future farmers will be sitting in their homes with computer applications using drone to determine the size of their farms, monitor and guide the applications of farm input, and with driverless combine harvesters bringing in the harvest.”
AFDB, which Adesina leads, envisions a food secure continent, which uses advanced technologies, creatively adapts to climate change, and develops a whole new generation of what he describes as ‘agri-preneurs’, empowered youth and women, who he expects to take agriculture to the next level.
The AfDB president also recently took the case for expanded partnerships and investments in Nigeria and Africa’s agri-business sector to The Netherlands.
That was when he paid a three-day visit to The Netherlands, where he intimated Dutch officials and industry captains on attractive investment opportunities in Nigeria and other African countries.
In a statement obtained by The Nation, after the meeting, Adesina said the continent could feed itself in 10 years and the rest of humanity, if it gets the needed investment to unlock its agri-business potential.
Reiterating that “What Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world”, he added that the greatest agenda the bank has is how to unlock Africa’s agricultural potential.
Hear him: “If Africa can get the right technology to raise productivity, transform its savannahs, turn agriculture into a business and address the issue of nutrition, Africa can feed itself in 10 years and contribute to feeding the world in the years to come.”
The AfDB boss, at a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, in the Hague, Sigrid A.M. Kaag, commended The Netherlands for its support, which has extended to legal systems, water, food and nutrition, and gender.
“Africa is growing economically. Foreign direct investment is on the increase. This is due to political stability and improved governance. Africa is open and ready to do business,” Adesina said.
Infrastructure is critical
Much as Nigeria and indeed Africa is open and ready to do business, according to Adesina, lack of supportive infrastructure remains a major hurdle to cross if efforts to achieve food self-sufficiency must succeed.
For instance, noting that rapid population increase and high rates of urbanisation have exacerbated the need to increase local production through increased productivity, Mbaram said the costs of aggregating small quantities of production from widely dispersed farmers is a logistic challenge.
The expert added that high cost of transport has made farming unprofitable for farmers. This was why the Managing Director of OCP (Office Cherifien des Phosphates), Mustapha El Ouafi, said investment was a necessary requirement to develop and organise the agricultural sector.
According to him, feeding the rapidly growing continent’s population is a complex and challenging undertaking. He, therefore, stressed the need to speed up the deployment of modern agricultural production techniques.
He said this will allow for reliable and affordable access to appropriate farming inputs and services, and ensuring that agricultural output find their way to markets.
As one of Africa’s leading fertiliser companies, El Ouafi said OCP intends to actively participate in the continent’s effort to bolster agriculture. The centrepiece of its agriculture strategy, he said is to enable Nigeria and other governments to supply all their fertiliser needs.
OCP has also created Agri-booster, a farmer-centred market funding model aimed at supporting small farmers. Agri-booster provides access to good quality inputs, financial services, and enhanced market linkages, as well as training and extension services centred on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
The firm is training 10,000 small holder farmers across 12 local government areas in 72 communities within Kaduna State on soil analysis opportunities, and soil specific fertiliser recommendation for improved productivity.
Even with such efforts, transportation hiccups remain, prompting experts to call for increased focus on the creation of local transportation and distribution corridors. This, according to them, should include attracting investments in areas such as roads and electricity.
As El Ouafi pointed out, transport and storage infrastructure were essential to allow access to markets and support any increased agricultural output, whether the destination is local, regional or international.
He also said one of the best prospects for feeding Africa’s rapidly growing population is to increase the sustainable use of fertiliser, adding that there is the challenge of lack of a secure and affordable supply of fertiliser that meets the needs of local soils and crops.
According to experts, Africa (Nigeria inclusive) currently has the lowest fertiliser consumption rate in the world — representing only two per cent of global consumption. This is despite holding 20 per cent of the world’s population.
It is also said when Nigeria and other African farmers use fertiliser, they pay two to six times more than the average world price. Farmers, El Ouafi added, also need better education and training to boost soil fertility and access to financing.
Renewable energy holds promises
Global improvements in the development of renewable energy technology have brought down costs and made it easier to install renewable energy grids.
The importance of renewable energy for Africa is reflected by the fact that the AU’s Agenda 2063 has also identified renewable energy as a priority area for the first 10 years.
Already, the Federal College of Agriculture (FECA), Akure, Ondo State, has keyed into the agenda. Its Provost, Dr. Samson Odedina, said the institution was promoting a sustainable agriculture model using renewable energy.
Subsequently, the institution has invested in a biogas recovery system, which transforms cow manure and other waste into enough electricity to power farm homes.
Aware that the system requires a lot of maintenance, which many farms don’t have the manpower to manage, the college, according to Odedina, has been training manpower to handle the system.
The increasing focus on agricultural development alongside renewable energy, The Nation learnt, stemmed from farmers’ realisation that renewable energy is now more reliable and cheaper than fossil fuel power.
It also contributes to strengthening energy security and creating more jobs. Already, some experts point to Africa as having advantage in developing solar and wind power, which will improve the competitiveness of agriculture.
The belief is that Africa is blessed with potential for solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal energy resources; it only needs to unlock its energy potential – both conventional and renewable-to push back food shortage and stem poverty.
In leveraging renewable energy, experts say that Nigeria could borrow a leaf from Morocco, which, according to them, is an ideal partner for advancing Nigeria’s energy security goals, considering the significant strides the country has made in the energy sector.
Morocco is said to be the leading renewable energy country in Africa. Morocco is implementing an ambitious strategy to develop the energy sector that will require investments of $40 billion by 2030, including $30 billion for renewable energies.
For experts, Nigeria needs to explore long-term energy options, including focusing on “green” energy solutions that lie within its natural competitive advantage.
Those pushing for investment in renewable energy argue that access to energy is essential for agricultural growth particularly in Africa where more than 640 million people are said to be without electricity.
Interestingly, the AfDB’s new and ambitious Desert-to-Power initiative, which aims to generate 10,000MW of power across Africa’s Sahel region, will be critical to reducing migration and climate change impacts.
“We will do this through a blended finance mechanism with guarantees,” Adesina said, adding that at less than 20 per cent the rural electrification rate in sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest in the world.
Across Africa, electrification of rural areas faces challenges such as the high costs of capital, low revenue collection rates, and insufficient generation capacity (infrastructure), amongst others.
This has affected continent-wide food production. And for analysts, access to electricity is important for improving agricultural productivity to employment. Even though Africa is endowed with inexhaustible raw energy potential, over 640 million people do not have access to electricity.
Nigeria’s anchor borrower’s programme to the rescue
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Audu Ogbeh said the government was determined to achieve a hunger-free society.
Noting that for decades agric was the economy’s backbone, he regretted that its contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has dropped significantly.
The Minister said the agric sector has been underperforming for years and has now faded to one of the lowest levels of productivity due to reasons typical of the underachievement felt in all sectors of the economy and not only in agriculture.
Ogbeh, however, said one of the Federal Government’s interventions that has yielded positive results particularly in the areas of rice and wheat production was the Anchor Borrower’s Programme (ABP).
Through the ABP, a scheme created by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) aimed at improving the commercial sustainability of smallholder rice and wheat farmers, government has been trying to reduce its huge import bill on those food crops.
Introduced as a pilot initiative in late 2015, the ABP encourages domestic production by facilitating access to financing and supplies such as tractors and fertiliser, while also improving links between smallholder producers and anchor companies involved in processing.
Under the scheme, farmers with at least one hectare of land qualify for loans at nine per cent, well below the benchmark interest rate of 14 per cent. The CBN is funding the programme using N40 billion ($130m) allocated from its N220 billion ($720million) Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund.
The ABP has shown initial signs of success, with total unmilled rice output growing 17.4 per cent between 2014 and 2016 to 7.85m tonnes, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Apart from the need to sustain the programme and perhaps, introduce new ones, experts said for Nigeria to raise agricultural output and achieve food self-sufficiency, she must bring potentially-cultivable land into cultivation, increase yields and shift to cultivation of high-value and high-yielding crops.
Also, the Federal Government, they said, must pursue pragmatic partnerships and collaborations aimed at leveraging modern, innovative technologies to boost agric production.
