How Agricultural Policies Has Morphed In Nigeria

Christian LovePartner, Livingstone Attorneys

An African adage states that “Once you cross the thresh hold of affordability of three square meals, you are above the poverty line.” This assertion remains relevant in this modern era as food remains a basic human need. From Thomas Hobbes to the 21st century, agriculture, particularly food security is critical to human survival, success and succession. 

This paper highlights agricultural policies and practice Frameworks from pre-colonial era, Colonial era, Post-colonial era (Military and Civilian Administrations) in Nigeria. By harmonizing these Policies, we  intend to set the appropriate foundation for an improved knowledge on agricultural legal framework to all stakeholders in the agricultural and related sectors and ultimatelya bedrock of a 21st Century National Policy and Practice Framework.

A cursory look at the United States Farm Bill 2018 (The Agriculture Improvement Act, 2018) shows that the legislation harmonizes the Pre-independence policies, the Northern policy, the Southern Policy (776 -1861), the Homestead Act of 1862, the Morril Act of 1862, the Hatch Act of 1887, Smith Lever Act of 1914, the Great Depression policy of 1930, Food Security Act of 1985, the 1990 Farm Bill, The farm Bill of 1996, the 2002 Farm security and Rural Investment Act, the Food Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 among others.

Hence, examining the nation’s policies on agricultural policies will enable the nation benefit from previous policies and practices. A seamless integration between the old, the new and the now policies of National, State and Local Government will also be created upon a keen examination of the gaps identified in defunct policies.

The emergence of the agricultural sector as the focal point for Foreign Direct Investment to the Nation has further reiterated the need to ensure a robust policy in the sector with consideration of the nation’s interests, resources and advancement.

PRE-COLONIAL ERA

Agricultural policies and Programs in Pre- colonial Agricultural was highly regarded in the pre-colonial era (before 1861) however the policies were largely communal based and segmented.

Trade relations across the Tran Sahara and Atlantic Ocean provide evidence of large scale agricultural activities notwithstanding the unavailability of documents stating the policies.

Each community, ethnic and tribal group had distinct framework on how farming was done closely knitted to its land tenure system. A common feature of the colonial era was the respect for the monarch who established the policies with or without inputs from chiefs and religious leaders. Climate conditions, Customs, traditions and religious beliefs largely determined the livestock, planting seasons and farming practices.

The Yoruba people of the current day South West Nigeria for instance, had festivals to herald the commencement of each agricultural season and had rites to be observed by farmers. The king or “Oba” was regarded as supreme and his injunctions on farming practices were final[1]. 

Northern Nigeria occupied by the Hausas/Manga people and the nomadic pastoralists known as Hausas had more flexible agricultural practices. This was due to seasonal rainfall, dry climatic condition and intense sunshine. The traditional faming policies integrated raising of livestock with farming to achieve optimum results[2]. 

Agricultural policies and Programs in the Colonial era 1900 to 1959

The advent of the British colonialists marked the commencement of a new era for agriculture in Nigeria. The colonialists required higher quantity, quality and consistent production of farm produce. This required documentation of regulations and procedures codified as policies in the era.

  1. Forest Policy 1937 – The policy was based on the proposal of Chief Conservator of Forests after a forest conference.The policy addressed the problem of depreciating forest capital as a result of unregulated exploitation.
  2. Forest Policy 1945 – The 1945 Policy was a revision of the 1937 policy.It incorporated the new position of government that agriculture must take priority over forestry, the satisfaction of the need of people at the lowest rates (prices) must take precedence over revenue and maximization of revenue must be compatible with sustained yield.
  3. Agricultural Policy 1946 – This was the first all-embracing policy statement in respect of agriculture. Nigeria was demarcated into five agricultural areas; Northern provinces pastoral or livestock production area, Northern provinces Export crop (groundnut and cotton) production area, Middle belt food production area, Southern provinces Export crop (palm oil and kernels) production area and, South West food Export (cocoa and palm kernels) Area.
  4. Policy for the marketing of Oil seeds and cotton 1948 – This Commodity–specific policy was directed toward stabilizing post-second world war prices in Britain.
  5. Forest Policy for Western Region 1952 – The Territorial policy was declared during the trial of the regionalization concept focused on forest matters.
  6. Agricultural Policy 1952 –ATerritory-based Policy focused on agricultural matter for the Western Region.[3]

Farm Settlement Scheme (FSS) – This was initiated by some regional governments in Nigeria and was a critical element of Western Nigeria Policy of Agricultural and Natural Resources of 1959. The main objective of this scheme was to settle young school leavers in a specified area of land, making farming their career thereby preventing them from moving to the urban areas in search of white collar jobs.

POST-COLONIAL ERA 

Agricultural policies and Programs from (1st October 1960) to 15th January 1966

New policies were formulated in the post-independence era to actualize more equitable growth in agriculture. The earlier surplus extraction policies were quickly translated into the pursuit of an export-led growth. This led to the demarcation of the country into the Western Region (cocoa), Northern Region (groundnut) and Eastern Region (oil palm). There was no programme, project or scheme set out to accomplish the goal of these policies and no agricultural programme or project emanated within this period.

15TH January 1966 to 29TH May 1999 (military era)

  1. National Accelerated Food Production Programme (NAFPP) in 1972 during General Yakubu Gowon’s regime. The programme focused on bringing about a significant increase in the production of maize, cassava, rice and wheat in the northern states through subsistent production within a short period of time.
  1. Agricultural Development Projects (ADP) in 1974. The framework was initially known as the Integrated Agricultural Development Projects (IADP) established in 1974 in the North East (Funtua), North West (Gusau) and North Central (Gombe) states as pilot schemes. The programme relied on small scale farmers as the main people to-herald increase in food production. It also had a feedback information mechanism which is a decentralized decision making process that allowed farm families/households to give their responses on an innovation/technology. The programme included incentive, subsidies for farmers as determined by the
  1. Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) of 21st May 1976 by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo. The programme was launched in order to promote increased food production in the entire nation through the active involvement and participation of Nigerians in Agriculture. Nigerians were required, notwithstanding their profession to be capable of partly or wholly feeding him or herself by participating in farming.
  1. River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) in 1976. River Basin Development Decree was promulgated in 1976 to establish eleven River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAs) (Decree 25 of 1976). The initial aim of the authorities was to boost economic potentials of the existing water bodies particularly irrigation, fishery with hydroelectric power generation and domestic water supply as secondary objectives. The objective of the programme was later extended to other areas most importantly to production and rural infrastructural development.
  1. Green Revolution (GR) in 1980 by Shehu Shagari. Green Revolution (GR) was a programme inaugurated by Shehu Shagari in April 1980. The programme aimed at increasing production of food and raw materials in order to ensure food security and self-sufficiency in basic staples. Secondly, it aspired to boost production of livestock and fish in order to meet home and export needs and expand the nation’s foreign exchange earnings through production and processing of export crops.
  1. Directorate for Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI). The Directorate was initiated in Nigeria in January 1986 under General Ibrahim Babangida’s administration. The programme was designed to improve the quality of life (improvement in nutrition, housing, health, employment, road, water, industrialization etc.) and standard of living of the rural dwellers. The Programme required the use of many resources that exist in the rural areas and mass participation of the rural people.
  1. Better Life Programme (BLP) For Rural Women. The Programme was founded in Nigeria by Mrs. Maryam Babangida (wife of the then president of Nigeria) in 1987. The programme emphasised stimulating and motivating rural women towards achieving better living standards. The programme also sensitized the rest of Nigerians to challenges faced by rural women in a bid to facilitate assistance.
  1. National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA). The authority aims at giving strategic public support for land development, assisting and promoting better uses of Nigeria’s rural land and their resources, boosting profitable employment opportunities for rural dwellers, raising the level/standard of living of rural people, targeting and assisting in achieving food security through self-reliance and sufficiency.
  2. Family Support Programme (FSP)/ Family Economic Advancement Programme (FEAP). The programme was initiated in 1996 by late General Abacha and his wife Mrs. Maryam Sani Abacha. The programme stressed on areas like health, education, women in development, agriculture, child welfare and youth development, disability, destitution and income generation. The programme also facilitated the provision of shelter for the less privileged in the society leveraging on the housing programme of government at the time.
  3. National Fadama Development Project (NFDP). NFDP was designed in the early 1990s to promote simple low-cost improved irrigation technology under World Bank financing.

29TH May 1999 to 2003

  1. National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS). NEEDS was initiated by Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999. The key elements of this development strategy included poverty eradication, employment generation, wealth creation and value reorientation through agriculture.
  2. National, Special Programme on Food Security (NSPFS). This Programme was launched in January 2002 in all the thirty six states of the federation during the Olusegun Obasanjo’s regime. The broad objective of the programme was to increase food production and eliminate rural poverty.
  3. Root and Tuber Expansion Programme (RTEP). RTEP was launched on 16th April 2003 under Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. It covered 26 states and was designed to address the problem of food production and rural poverty.[4]

2008 to 2011

The National Food Security Programme (NFSP) issued in August 2008 by the federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources was designed to attain food security by ensuring that all Nigerians have access to good-quality food while making Nigeria a major exporter of foodstuffs.[5]

From 2011 to 2015.

The Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) which sought, amongst other things, to reintroduce the Nigerian economy to sustainable agriculture centered on business-like attitude driven by the private sector.[6] The Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) was built on the principle that agriculture is a business and agricultural policies should be about supporting agriculture as a business. The ATA focused on how to make Nigeria’s agriculture more productive, efficient and effective, create jobs, generate foreign exchange and reduce spending on food imports.[7]

From 2016 to 2020

The Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP) created under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, aimed to cure two economic issues- the shortage of food for local consumption &importation and the meagre foreign exchange earned from the export of agriculture produce. The policy seeks to:

  • Prioritize improving productivity into a number of domestically focused crops and activities. These are rice, wheat, maize, fish (aquaculture), dairy milk, soya beans, poultry, horticulture (fruits and vegetables), and sugar.
  • Prioritize for export markets the production of the following crops and activities: cowpeas, cocoa, cashew, cassava (starch, chips and ethanol), ginger, sesame, oil palm, yams, horticulture (fruits and vegetables), beef and cotton.

Gaps identified in the agricultural policies highlighted in this survey include:

  1. Non interaction between and among stakeholders
  2. Weak agricultural policy
  3. Role conflict between different programmes and projects
  4. Short duration of agricultural policies and programmes
  5. Inconsistency/incompatibility of regional policies/programmes with the national policies/programmes
  6. Emphasis on mainly food and animal production
  7. Delay, embezzlement, misappropriation and lack of fund to pursue specific policy/programme to an expected end
  8. Inadequate virile technical advisory/extension services
  9. Lack/inadequate monitoring and evaluation of programme/project[8]

There is an urgent need for the nation to stop meandering policies and practices subject to successive governments. Nigeria has to initiate a (R)evolution of accelerated policies, programs and practices that guarantee incremental predictable progress. As earlier noted, a harmonized (R)evolution process will make agriculture fulfill its potential as the highest employer of labour and foreign earnings.

[1] A.L Mabogunje and G.J Afolabi Ojo (1962) Yoruba Culture, A geographical Analysis (London University of London Press), pp 104 – 30

[2] Adams, William. M., “Agricultural intensification and Flexibility in the Nigerian Sahel” The Geographical Journal163.2, Environmnental Transformation in Developing Countries pp. 150-60.

1 Ayoola (2001) Essays On The Agricultural Economy: A Book Or Readings On Agricultural Development Policy And Administration In Nigeria. TMA Publishers Ibadan P. 84. https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JLPG/article/viewFile/2334/2335

[4] Iwuchukwu J. C. and Igbokwe E.M. Journal of law, policy and globalization, “Lessons from agricultural policies and programmes in Nigeria”, ISSN 2224-3240 (Paper) ISSN 2224-3259 (Online) Vol 5, 2012, www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JLPG/article/viewFile/2334/2335

[5] Inter-reseaux publication “Nigeria’s agricultural policy: seeking coherence within strategic frameworks”. http://www.inter-reseaux.org/publications/revue-grain-de-sel/51-special-issue-nigeria/article/nigeria-s-agricultural-policy?lang=en

[6] Ikechukwu Ibeawuchi- “Review of the Agriculture Promotion Policy (2016-2020)”, https://www.acioe.com/2018/03/11/a-review-of-the-agriculture-promotion-policy-2016-2020

[7] The Agriculture and Promotion Policy (2016-2020) document. Pg. 7.

[8] Supra note 2.