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Farming in Nigeria: Future Prosperity Through Commercialisation?
Many challenges lie ahead, yet with a new strategy in place the outlook is bright
The federal government of Nigeria currently spends NGN6 billion a year on wheat imports – and as food prices rise, this figure will become increasingly painful for the country’s economy. Sugar consumption is more than 1.2 million metric tonnes per year, but the country only produces 200,000 metric tonnes per annum. The vast majority of Nigeria’s farmers are subsistence farmers. Commercial farms are few and far between. The critical ‘food belt’ areas of the country are urgently in need of irrigation in order to ensure a constant supply of produce, all year round. If things carry on the way they are, grain imports will more than triple in sub-Saharan Africa by 2025, eating into Nigeria’s GDP.
In order to see an agricultural sector able to operate on an industrial scale, Nigeria’s aging infrastructure is in need of significant investment. In an effort to reduce grain loss at the end of the harvest, the government built metal storage silos to act as reserves.
