Agriculture in Nigeria is a sector that required a lot of money (capital intensive) but the sector has enormous potential to strengthen the economy and improve the lives of many Nigerians. With the huge potential in agriculture, some challenges are still obstructing the opportunities.
In view of this, there is a need to boost the agricultural sector and promote export growth through partnership. Increasing the productivity of the farm sectors in various states is essential in meeting the economic growth targets and boosting food availability.
Agriculture has a bright future and the government must do everything within their powers to tackle issues affecting the competitiveness of the sector. Among the challenges are; the cost of doing business, regulation, access to capital and critical infrastructure improvements.
There is a need for the government to push investments in rural areas in order to increase smallholder productivity and farm incomes. This can be achieved by strengthening capacity building, service delivery, and market linkages.
Productivity can be boosted if the state government can provide agro-inputs such as fertilizer, cassava cuttings, rice seeds and herbicides to local government within their states because I’ve come to realize that Agra-inputs that is being distributed during some federal government initiatives programmer doesn’t get to the end users (farmers); most times, the inputs are being siphoned.
Partnership in this context does not have to be government and rural farmers alone. The partnership can also come via Agriculture Value chain. The agricultural value chain included the set of actors and activities required to bring agricultural products from production to consumption, including processing, storage, transportation, marketing, and retail. The value chain will also help boost agriculture productivity.
With the current population rise, food security remains a critical issue that needs to be looked into, and this can be addressed when we boost our agricultural productivity through partnership.
I think its high time will also strengthen various farmers’ groups and building their technical and business capacities because it will also contribute to boosting agriculture productivity.
