Nigeria’s agricultural history is one of ups and downs. From precolonial and colonial times until the First Republic, agriculture was the foundation of the economy for a very long time before the commercial discovery of oil and gas, Entrepreneurng report.
Nevertheless, when the Black Gold emerged, successive leaders lost sight of the country’s interests and gradually abandoned mining, agriculture, textiles, and other thriving industries that provided the nation a competitive edge over other nations.
The largest employer of labor is still agriculture, after many years of neglect. Although mostly at a subsistence level, more than 70% of Nigerians are employed in the industry, in which the current administration is investing. Furthermore impressive is the sector’s GDP contribution.
Agriculture contributed to 22.35 percent of the GDP between January and March 2021. Nigeria produces more than 70% of the world’s yams and has 70.8 million hectares of land, with maize, cassava, guinea corn, yams, beans, millet, and rice as its main crops.
The amount of rice produced increased from 3.7 million tons in 2017 to 4.0 million tons in 2018. A shortfall of around 3 million metric tons results from the fact that only 57% of the 6.7 million metric tons of rice consumed is domestically produced. The government forbade imports in 2019 to boost domestic manufacturing.
Nigeria was the world’s greatest producer of cassava in 2017, producing 59 million tons (20 percent of global production). There is a tremendous amount of economic potential, with substantial revenue yields from domestic value addition and derived income as well as revenues for the government. Production is predicted to rise with improved cultivars and methods.
The production of animals is still being underutilized. Small ruminants like goats (76 million), sheep (43.4 million), and cattle are the animals that farm families raise the majority of the time (18.4 million). The nature of the country’s northern region makes it renowned for livestock husbandry.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, there are 180 million chickens in the world in addition to small and large ruminants. Despite numerous efforts by development partners to boost production and protect against diseases, especially transboundary animal diseases, domestic demand still exceeds domestic supply.
With an annual fish consumption of roughly 3.2 million metric tons, Nigeria is the fish-eating nation in Africa. Fisheries and aquaculture are two of the sectors with the fastest growth rates. Having a coastline of 853 kilometres and inland waters covering more than 14 million hectares, annual fish output is close to 1 million metric tons (313,231 metric tons from aquaculture759,828 metric tons from fisheries).
Poor people depend heavily on fishing as a source of income and protein in their homes. The nation’s desire for self-sufficiency in fish production and dietary requirements is thought to be very easily satisfied by the aquaculture sub-sector.
Nigeria’s agriculture sector, despite its economic contribution, suffers numerous obstacles that lower output. Poor land tenure systems, low irrigated farming, land degradation, low technology, high production costs, unequal input distribution, restricted financing, significant post-harvest losses, and limited market access are a few of these.
In addition to increasing food imports due to population growth, these issues have hampered agricultural output, which has a negative impact on the sector’s GDP contribution and a downward trend in food sufficiency levels.
Since the e-debut, Naira’s the CBN has accepted many suggestions intended to broaden the platform’s use in industries including healthcare, agriculture, bill payment, etc. Rakiya Muhammad, head of information technology, discussed private projects related to agriculture in an interview with Economic Confidential.
In conclusion, the e-Naira platform was undoubtedly developed to remedy everything and address all issues, in addition to assisting Nigeria’s transition to a fully cashless economy. Nigerians can’t just keep ignoring the many opportunities the platform offers, as earlier reported by https://guardian.ng/news/e-naira-taking-agriculture-in-nigeria-to-new-technological-heights/
Source: The guardian
