The diversification of the country’s economy became imperative following the crash of the price of crude oil at the international market. Campaigners for the diversification of the economy are of the opinion that the agricultural sector can ameliorate the pains of the crash of crude oil taking cognizance of the current Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA).

CALEB AYANSINA x- rays the strategic collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Prior to the oil boom era of the 1970s, agriculture was the main pillar of Nigerian economy, contributing about 70 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

But in 1980, agriculture’s contribution to GDP declined to as low as 25 percent, giving way to the oil sector. However, oil revenue dwindled between 1986 and 1999 as a result of the introduction of Structural Adjustment Programme of 1986.

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This again brought the agricultural sector to lime light, accounting for about 40 percent of the GDP.  Today,  its contribution to GDP has dropped to 30.9 percent, giving room for the wide agitation for diversification of the economy.

Experts opined that the shift in attention from the renewable natural resources in the agricultural sector to the non-renewable oil resources was not only a mark of ignorance, but also a suicidal step that was not going to take more than a decade to crash.

There is no doubt that Nigeria’s economy is experiencing a hard time because of the falling price of crude oil, forcing the Federal Government to introduce austerity measures.

The dwindling price of crude oil in Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), particularly in Nigeria, makes agriculture an alternative means of revenue generation.

In the past, agriculture in Nigeria (particularly forestry, livestock and fishing) served as the major preoccupation of the majority of Nigerians. The people engaged in agriculture purely as a means of survival rather than a deliberate effort to sustain the economy.

But the recent focus on agriculture and particularly designing ways of involving the youth, who are the strength of any nation, is heart warming and apt.

The recent launching of the Youth in Agriculture initiative by the Federal Government was the icing on the cake of the strategic agenda to boost the foreign reserves through increased agricultural production.

Speaking at the launching in Abuja, President Goodluck Jonathan said his administration would not relent in the execution of programmes that would engage the teeming Nigerian youths in profitable and viable economic activities especially in agriculture.

“Nigerian youths will not just take agriculture as a way of life; they will run agriculture as a business,”he said.

“Nigerian youths have showcased Nigeria in positive light more than the politicians and Nigeria needs younger and more entrepreneurial commercial farmers, as the ageing population of farmers are posing challenges to the system.”

The initiative, which resulted from a partnership between the NYSC, the CBN, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, is to design appropriate mechanism for the diversification of the economy through an agricultural value chain strategy.

To the pro-NYSC, the initiative is long overdue and remains the best launching pad for any initiative that involves the youth. With about 250,000 young graduates passing through it yearly, the NYSC remains the best option as the initiators of the agenda have rightly discovered.

Consequently, an inter-agency committee was raised to ensure the realization of the initiative.

According to the committee, the collaboration will use the agricultural value chain window in four selected commodities (rice, wheat, fish and dairy products) to create jobs and conserve foreign exchange.

The specific targets for the increase in agricultural output for the four selected commodities are 1.08 million metric tons, 400,000 metric tons; 250,000 metric tons and 200,000 kg for rice, wheat, fish and dairy respectively.

Foreign exchange

It is expected that by 2015, that is the first year of the commencement of the programme, a total of 1,667,959 direct jobs including 302,860 new youth and women agropreneurs will be created in the production of targeted commodities and foreign exchange savings of $1.265 billion. Thereafter, the number of jobs to be created is expected to increase to above two million annually.

According to the strategic document released by the committee, the implementation budget for the programme is estimated at N69,528 billion to be financed by major stakeholders driving this initiative.

Each corps members participating in the programme would be given three hectares of land to ensure profitability and sustainability, 500 fingerlings per farmer for aquaculture, and five animals per farmer for milk production. This excludes the indirect job creation through services from transportation and the estimations are based on the availability of adequate land to meet production targets.

Participants would be required to spend their service year farming while government provides fund which they would use. Corps farmers will be allowed to go with the profit while the capital will be refunded to government.

There are several benefits attached to the programme as corps members participating in the scheme will be provided with certified seeds and other agricultural inputs in collaboration with agro dealers and research institutes while agro-allied firms will be encouraged to start or sustain out-growers schemes through backward integration to guarantee raw materials required for their production process.

This will provide capacity building opportunities for young graduates participating in the programme to learn the rudiments of sustainable mechanization farming and also encourage the learning of best practices under a communal approach and offers opportunity for scale economies.

It will provide channels for product sorting, cleaning, drying, standardization and quality assurance and minimize post-harvest losses and price stability. It will provide steady market for agricultural products as farmers will be given a guaranteed minimum price for their output in case they are not able to get a better price at the open market.

Other incentives will include the government introducing fiscal/trade policy to boost local production and utilization while measures will be put in place to discourage importation of goods that can be produced locally.

Investment incentives such as tax holiday/pioneer status, infrastructural support will be put in place, while trade incentives will be extended to local manufacturers that use local raw materials as a way of encouraging them to patronize local farmers.

Experts believe that the NYSC remains the best platform for government to achieve its aim of inducing youths into agriculture as the scheme already has farm land in states, but the fear is, will there be political will to follow up this?

Like the saying goes, ‘it is easier said than done’. Government has in the past initiated several beautiful schemes only to abandon them at implementation.

Also it is expected that the National Assembly will pass a bill on the initiative into law, so as to institutionalize it while the National Economic Council should also adopt it as the blueprint to save the economy from collapse in the face of dwindling oil price.