The Group Chief Executive Officer of AFEX, Ayodeji Balogun, has said access to adequate, secure, and timely supply of quality seeds remains one of the biggest obstacles preventing Nigeria from achieving food self-sufficiency.
He affirmed that the development of a comprehensive national seed policy has become urgent if the country is to successfully diversify its economy through agriculture and significantly boost farming productivity.
In his keynote address at the BusinessDay’s Future of Agriculture Conference on Wednesday, Balogun noted that despite the country is blessed with arable land, smallholder farmers do not have access to quality seeds and seedlings.
This according to him, has made the country’s yield per hectare persistently low when compared to its African peers in addition to other bottlenecks that has continued to limit productivity.
“We have production deficit in most of our food production from grains to cereals and poultry,” he said.
He explained that with access to quality inputs such as seeds, adequate infrastructure such as irrigation and logistics farmers can bridge the production shortfall.
“Agriculture is the greatest employer of labour in Nigeria, employing about 36 percent of the country’s population,” he said.
“If you put that into perspective, looking at every other sector, from telecoms to banking to trade to manufacturing to oil and gas, it gives a spectrum of how significant it is for us as a country and our survival,” he added.
According to him, the solutions to challenges limiting farm productivity is dependent on effective policies. Citing the waiver policy as an example, Balogun noted that farmers struggled with low demand and increasing input costs which led to financial losses.
“The government’s import policy is what has affected prices to a point where almost everybody who has produced in the last 12 months is in the water. They’re losing money, and depending on the crop, farmers have lost about 50-60 percent of their crops,” he said.
However, Balogun called on the government to address the country’s surging input costs, noting that a partnership with the National Agricultural Seed Council could develop a national seed policy that ensures production, certification, and distribution of high-quality seeds.
He also said that facilitating a land tenure reform could improve security of land rights, making it easier for farmers (smallholders & large-scale) to access credit and adopt modern technologies.
For pricing, Balogun called for the development of a robust Commodity Exchange Policy to standardise grades and pricing, improve transparency, and reduce market inefficiencies.
“Enhance transparent price discovery to establish fair pricing and improve market efficiency,” he said.
Frank Aigbogun, publisher of BusinessDay, represented by Lolade Akinmurele, the Editor, affirmed during his address that “coordinated systems, aligned incentives and sustained collaboration,” will determine the future of agriculture in Nigeria.
