Stakeholders in the Nigerian agricultural sector, comprising farmers, researchers, government functionaries, parliamentary Committee representatives, non state actors, sector-specific advocacy groups and the media, have called on the governments, but more particularly the National Assembly, to give urgent attention to some critical issues in the agric sector value chain in order to optimize the performance of the sector in the years ahead.
Specifically, the stakeholders, after critically deliberating on some key areas in the agric sector and how Nigeria has fared in carrying out necessary reforms to optimize the efficiency of such policy issues, charged the federal and state governments and the National Assembly to work with relevant groups, agencies and take adopt innovative strategies to ensure that the constraints were tackled urgently.
The issues and areas which the stakeholders identified as requiring one action or the other include, Nigeria’s CAADP performance and value chain development advocacy; agric sector policy inconsistency, porosity of the Nigeria-Benin Republic trade borders, National Agricultural Sample Census (NASC), the Joint Sector Review (JSR) and NAIP, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA) and implications for small farmers; and legislative lapses in agricultural sector budgeting, amongst others.
The participants, who converged on Abuja at a one-day ‘Policy Dialogue On Key Thematic Issues on Agriculture in Nigeria’ organised by the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) in collaboration with TrustAfrica, lamented areas of policy, administrative and legislative lapses in the areas and called the national and sub-national executive and legislative authorities to urgent action.
For instance, noting that Nigeria has performed poorly in the implementation of the CAADP where the country did fairly well in three of the 18 indicators (thematic areas), the participants urged the Nigerian Government, especially the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), to undertake a thorough examination of the country’s performance with a view to improving thereupon, particularly with regard to data collection.
Similarly, the stakeholders, after noting the inadequacies in the JSR and NAIP, charged the FMARD to facilitate the conduct of a Joint Sector Review (JSR) especially with regard to logistic support for the review team to come up with a draft that would be subjected to validation as well as the production of the final copies of the validated draft.
This is even as they recommended that the National and Regional Stakeholders’ validation of the investment financing and implementation plan for the Agriculture Promotion Policy, (APP) the “Green Alternative should be given urgent attention, in addition to the conduct of Biennial Review in line with the Malabo Declaration of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union.
On the issue of the National Agricultural Sample Census, an exercise which ought to be conducted once every 10 years in compliance with FAO’s recommendations but which was last conducted by the government in 1993/1994, the participants described the prolonged delay of the exercise as undesirable for the growth of the nation’s agricultural sector.
They therefore called for the immediate conduct of a National Agriculture Sample Survey (NASS) , which is meant to update the report of the National Agriculture Sample Census (NASC) before the next round of the census.
In addition, the participants canvassed the need for capacity development in monitoring and evaluation and the development of an M&E framework as well as sensitization and realigning of the key operations of the sector at national, regional and state levels with the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP).
Also, after a lengthy deliberation on the AfCFTA and its potential implications for small scale farmers (SSFs), the stakeholders advised the Federal Government, through any of its relevant agencies, to conduct an analysis of the AfCFTA on SSFs and their livelihoods, especially with a view to making evidence-based decision regarding the market access, safeguard measures and Rules of Origin negotiations.
At the conclusion of their dialogue, the participants noted the negative impact of policy summersaults on Nigeria’s agriculture; for instance, the GESS which has now been substituted with another programme tagged AIMS, and called on the Legislature and government to ensure that policy inconsistent syndrome be frontally addressed in the agricultural sector.
As a way forward, the stakeholders made a strong case for the alignment of the GESS concept and model with the AIMS and other agric-related initiatives that have been identified as successful, with a view to ensuring that they are backed by law to encourage continuity and not easily discarded at the whims and caprices of political leaderships.
They charged the National Assembly to strengthen its oversight responsibility so that budgetary appropriations and other investments in agriculture would be delivering measurable targets and milestones. The participants urged the lawmakers also to eschew late passage of budgets with particular emphasis on agriculture as delay has serious implications for agricultural practices, especially given that the sector is seasonal in nature.
Finally, on the risks associated with the Nigeria-Benin Republic Trade Relations, the participant rued the use of the borders and corridors along the Nigeria-Benin Republic routes by smugglers and unscrupulous business actors in view of the serious negative impacts on local farmers agricultural produce and the domestic economy as a whole.
To tackle the challenge, they called on the Federal Government to institutionalize a strong bilateral engagement between the two countries for effective monitoring and checks in order to reduce and eliminate the economic trauma and haemorrhage.
