Strive To Thrive: Nigeria's Agro Revolution Story

From the beginning of time, man has relied on agriculture for sustenance and survival. As man evolved, so did agriculture in the way and manner man cultivated the land. In other words, agriculture has endured its own unique revolution. Simply put, the agricultural revolution is the name given to a number of transformations that allowed humans to change from hunting and gathering subsistence to agriculture and animal domestication.

Every region has its own unique agro-revolution story. For Nigeria, agro-revolutions have always been at the center of most agroeconomic policies of the government with the objective of diversifying the base of the economy using crude oil as a springboard.

Some of these factors have contributed to Nigeria's agrorevolution are :

Ÿ The increased availability of farmland.

Ÿ A favorable climate.

Ÿ More livestock

Ÿ Improved crop yield.

Agriculture is the mainstay of Nigeria's economy upon which the country's nationalists founded their agitation for independence. Nigeria was a leading agricultural economy in the 50s, being the largest producer of palm oil, groundnut, cotton, and cocoa globally. The sector employed over 70 percent of the labour force, and accounted for as much as 62.3 percent of the nation's foreign exchange earnings.

However, the discovery of crude oil in the 1950s progressively led to the neglect of the sector, which made Nigeria fall in the global market rankings for which it was taking the lead. To remedy this, agricultural policies have been dished out by different leaderships of the country in order to revolutionize the sector to support food security

Strive: Post-independence Policies

In the bid to cushion the effect of the Nigerian civil war on the country's food security, the then Nigerian Head of state, Yakubu Gowon, rolled out the National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP) in 1972.

It was an agricultural extension programme established to tackle a food crisis by increasing the country's food production through proper education of farmers on farming and production.

Also, in 1973, the military leader established the River Basin Development Authority (RBDA) policy with the aim of providing irrigation facilities through the construction of dams, provision of potable water, and construction of feeder roads to ease agricultural activities.

In 1975, there was a bilateral agreement between the Nigerian government and the World Bank to boost food production and the standard of living of small-scale farmers. Sequel to this, the Agricultural Development Project (ADP) was established; while in 1976, Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) was introduced by the federal military government headed by Olusegun Obasanjo. Its target was to make food cheap by increasing food production, thus, ensuring a higher nutrition level. The OFN lasted until the civilian government of Shehu Shagari in 1979.

In April 1980, the Shagari administration introduced the Green Revolution Programme to ensure self-sufficiency in food production and to introduce modern technology into the Nigerian agricultural sector. In 1986, Ibrahim Babangida established the Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), with the aim to identify, involve and support viable local community organisations so as to ensure the effective mobilisation of the rural populace for sustainable rural development.

Thrive: 1999–To Present Day

President Olusegun Obasanjo established the

National Special Programme for Food Security (NSPFS). It was aimed at helping farmers to increase output and income, strengthen extension service delivery, and promote simple farm technologies, and other resources for food production.

In Obasanjo's eight years reign as a civilian president, agriculture had the highest average contribution to the nation's GDP in recent times.

Under Umaru Yar'Adua's seven-point agenda, the National Food Sector Plan (NFSP) was launched to ensure food security. In 2011, the Agriculture Transformation Agenda (ATA) was launched by Goodluck Jonathan. It was created with the hope of boosting the income of smallholder farmers' and rural entrepreneurs, who are engaged in the production, processing, storage, and marketing of selected commodity value chains on a sustainable basis.

When President Muhammadu Buhari came in 2015, he launched the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP). According to the president, Nigeria's agricultural revolution has led to the creation of over 13 million direct and indirect jobs in the last seven and half years.

Focused interventions in agriculture transitioned the country from being a net importer of rice, Nigeria's staple food, to becoming self-sufficient in its production. The revolution in the sector has also improved the country's capacity in the agro-allied sector, making it more efficient in enhancing and maximizing production yields and post-harvest losses.