Nigeria’s agriculture sector is the backbone of its economy, employing millions of people and contributing significantly to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, the sector faces numerous challenges, including low productivity, limited access to finance and technology, insecurity and inadequate infrastructure; BLESSING OKOLA writes.
Agriculture plays the role of providing employment, income, food, raw materials, and foreign exchange earnings for people. The ability and the inability of agriculture in playing the provisioning roles, in varying degrees, define the poverty status of those engaged in it.
It is a paradox that the majority of those who are engaged in agriculture, especially in developing countries, tend to be associated with such poverty-linked characteristics as low income, hunger, deprivation, and vulnerabilities. There is therefore the need to refocus on defining the concept of agriculture with a view to bringing out its role in the development process and how the roles can be effectively achieved by the majority of those engaged in it through positive initiatives.
The agriculture sector has the potential to drive economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve food security. However, it faces numerous challenges that hinder its growth and development.
Challenges
One of the major challenges facing the nation’s agriculture sector is low productivity. The sector is dominated by smallholder farmers who still use traditional farming methods, resulting in low yields and limited production.
The use of outdated farming techniques, lack of access to improved seeds and fertilisers, and inadequate irrigation systems all contribute to low productivity.
Nigerian farmers also face significant challenges in accessing finance and technology. Many farmers lack access to credit facilities, making it difficult for them to invest in their farms.
Additionally, the sector lacks modern technology, including tractors, irrigation systems, and storage facilities, which are essential for improving productivity and reducing post-harvest losses.
Insecurity and inadequate infrastructure are also major challenges facing the sector.
The Boko Haram insurgency in the northeastern part of the country has displaced thousands of farmers, leading to a significant decline in agricultural production. Additionally, the country’s rural roads and storage facilities are in poor condition, making it difficult to transport and store agricultural produce.
Opportunities
Despite the challenges facing the sector, there are opportunities for growth and development. The sector has the potential to create millions of jobs, reduce poverty, and improve food security.
The government has launched several initiatives aimed at boosting agricultural production, including the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, which provides loans to farmers at single-digit interest rates.
The country’s agriculture sector is critical to the country’s economic growth and development. However, the sector faces numerous challenges, including low productivity, limited access to finance and technology, insecurity, and inadequate infrastructure.
Addressing these challenges will require significant investment in the sector, including the provision of credit facilities, modern technology, and infrastructure. With the right policies and investments, Nigeria’s agricultural sector has the potential to drive economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve food security.
Implements
The federal government on Tuesday in Abuja said it has received more than 250 new tractors, with additional shipments arriving weekly. According to the Ministry, the tractors arrived in the country in 85 containers, each conveying three units.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, revealed this to State House Correspondents at this year’s first edition of Meet-The-Press organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
This forms about 10 per cent of the 2000 tractors expected from Belarus, under the government’s $1 billion agriculture mechanisation programme.
At its 142nd held on June 27, 2024, the National Economic Council approved the programme to set up 1, 000 agro-sector service providers across the country with tractors.
Kyari noted that the federal government was participating in a new deal with Belarus Tractors to supply 2, 000 tractors per year for the next five years, with 9, 000 implements and spare parts, among others.
Before this, the government had contracted John Deere and Tata to provide 2000 tractors before the end of 2024. But in March of that year, Kyari expressed worry over the delay in the delivery of 2,000 tractors by the two auto giants.
Speaking Tuesday last week, the minister said, “While some of the members of the committee were with him, they had to call the agents and they told us that 85 containers have arrived, and they are coming almost on a weekly basis.
“So, if you interpolate, every container takes about three tractors. We are looking at over 200 tractors that have arrived.”
He, however, noted that the ultimate goal is not just about the number of tractors already in place but rather the delivery of 2, 000 tractors and 9, 000 accompanying implements.
Each tractor will be paired with a plough, a harrow, a planter, and a boom sprayer – totalling 2, 000 of each implement – while there will be 1, 200 trailers, partly because some trailers are being rehabilitated by NASENI.
On January 20, 2025, the President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim, said, “Once you have an insecurity that is preventing our farmers from going to their farms seamlessly, definitely the productivity is impaired.”
He maintained that as long as farmers are killed and kidnapped indiscriminately while trying to produce food for Nigerians, food production will continue to decline if the situation is not addressed.
Ibrahim, however, informed that there is a need to incentivise the smallholder farmers who are the engine room of food production, to address climate change and post-harvest losses.
He said, “All the things that we need to do to mitigate the effects of climate change, we must start doing them seriously, because we committed to it in COP28 and even in COP29. Once we don’t stop the emission of greenhouse gases, climate change will be there, we have been in denial but you can see that for four years consecutively, we have been having flooding and drought. Before now, we used to have flooding in 10-year intervals.
“We also need to incentivise the smallholder farmers because up till now in Nigeria, the engine room of food production is still the smallholder farmers, because we have very low mechanisation; we have very few commercial farmers. So, these are the things the government has to do.
“For the short term, the government has to invest massively in subsidising many of the farm inputs so that the smallholder farmers will be able to produce optimally.
“If the smallholder farmers and small-scale producers are properly incentivised, we can get to a position of food security because other countries, even in Africa have gone very far. So, the things that we need to do is to refocus and realign our policies and strategies to food production, and we should minimise post-harvest loss because it is one thing to produce, and another thing to lose because you have no energy, your power sector is almost gone.”
Meanwhile, the government in 2025 has taken some steps to address some of these challenges.
Recently, the government, through the National Agriculture Development Fund (NADF), signed a contract with AGCOMS International Trading Limited to procure 2000 John Deere tractors valued at $70 million.
The executive secretary of NADF, Mohammed Abu Ibrahim, said NADF has been mandated to implement one of the four mechanisation programmes of the Federal Government.
He explained that there are various mechanisation programmes, and the NADF was implementing one which is the John Deere 2, 000 tractors which include ridgers, harrowers, combined harvesters and other equipment.
“We got the conveyance of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in October and we have taken 3 months to go on very robust and intensive negotiations with John Deere; we have also had a stakeholders’ engagement. The John Deere tractors hopefully would be delivered before the wet season.
“We have also entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) which would hopefully provide the AGCOMS with a space within the port where they will set up their assembling plant and have these tractors delivered to the various parts of the country as will be contained in the implementation programme,” he said.
The NADF has been mandated through a presidential directive to spearhead the deployment of 10,000 John Deere tractors across Nigeria, with an initial rollout of 2, 000 units scheduled for first and second quarter of 2025 and scaling up to 10,000 over the next five years.