Facts have emerged that in spite of the Federal Government’s efforts to significantly boost agricultural production and ensure food security in the country, agricultural production is actually declining. In fact, growth in the sector, which was at a height of 4.5 per cent at the end of 2016, declined to the lowest level of 3 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, an indication that the country’s economic recovery remains challenging and that very urgent and drastic actions must be taken to significantly increase agricultural production and improve other sectors of the economy.
The declining growth in agricultural production is directly attributable to the security challenges in the Middle Belt zone, which suffered incessant herdsmen attacks on farmers, and the Boko Haram insurgency in the North Eastern part of the country in the last few years. The two areas are mainly agrarian and part of the food basket of the country. Thus, insecurity in the Middle Belt and in North East had resulted in significant decrease in food production in the country.
There are also fears that food supply in relation to demand may widen further if the insecurity in many of the Middle Belt states continue, thus leading to slower growth in the agricultural sector, shooting up prices and resulting in food insecurity across the country.
With the unsettling decline in our agricultural production put against rapidly increasing population growth, the country must focus on innovation and the use of technology to grow the economy, particularly in agriculture, manufacturing and business. Without innovation, our people will remain poor. We have a large population of young men and women who would need to embrace innovation and move the nation forward in all areas of human endeavour, be it in agriculture and manufacturing. Small and large scale businesses must also embrace agricultural production and processing for local consumption and for the export market.
Like the Chinese, Nigerian fabricators and forging engineers must embark on copy engineering to produce agricultural machines that will revolutionise agricultural production and processing. Peasant farming alone cannot provide all the food that we need in the country. We must be able to grow our own food, using Nigeria made farm equipment and inputs.
The hoes and cutlasses being used by our local farmers is a reason why the agricultural revolution embarked upon by the government has not yielded much. But, through copy engineering, we can produce tractors and other agricultural machines that will rapidly improve our agricultural production and processing in the country. Our research institutes and machine fabricators, if well funded and given the mandate, can produce whatever we need for increased agricultural production and processing.
Still on the subject of innovation, science and technology, we need local technology to build our roads and buildings. We need made in Nigeria technology and use it to organise our people for the 21st century.
In addition, time has come for us to start building our roads and our homes, using local technology and local contractors. If we embark on these actions, poverty and corruption will be a thing of the past in the country. In addition, we must henceforth place emphasis on agriculture, significantly increase our non-oil exports and drastically reduce our imports.
We have seen how our over dependence on crude oil exports has failed the nation due to changes in the international oil market. We have also seen how our over dependence on imported goods led to our trade deficit, with many countries, particularly China.
Henceforth, with commercial agriculture using home-made machineries and input, Nigeria will significantly increase its productivity and have much accretion to its foreign reserves. This, with time, will increase the purchasing power of our local currency.
If we are able to manufacture most of what we need at home, including refined petroleum products, through the private sector or using public private sector participation (PPP) arrangement, we would be able to provide more jobs for our youths and also improve the standard of living of Nigerians.
In addition, we must refurbish our education system to improve its quality and ensure that we have a world class education that can equate us with the best in the world. This means that we must adequately fund our education and ensure universal education for our children up to school certificate level.
Also, there must be affordable loan scheme for indigent students who want to pursue university education. Also, all school certificate graduates must be well versed in information technology (IT). We must follow this up by having an active linkage with the best in Silicon Valley in
America.
