Nigeria Risks Becoming Dependent on Food Import
Nigeria Risks Becoming Dependent on Food Imports
According to the United Nation, poorest countries risk a greater dependence on food imports except investment in rural agriculture industries is intensified
The crave for less nutritive and inorganic food products ensue by urban population rise would always favour commercial farmers who are prime producers of food exports and industrial complexes. Hence lack the propensity to meet the food need of the ever increasing urban cities.
Notwithstanding changes in diets, there will always be rise in appetite of certain food items like meats, vegetable, naked food and local recipes. To meet such demand, investments in rural areas both on and off the farms to improving outputs and sustainability must be heightened
True be told, small scale farmers are difficult customers to international partners. They consume higher efforts, expenses among other things
FAO has reiterated the fact that developing and under developed nations will add about a billion people by 2030 with urban area having the fastest increase. Small scale and family farming produce 80% of the food supplies in these places, while urban areas consume the bulk
Before now, Nigerian rural farmers contributed more than half of the GDP. Despite the use of traditional tools and crude farming practices, family farming generated 70% of our exports and 95% of the country food needs. Nigeria was the world's second largest producer of cocoa, largest exporter of palm oil and leading exporter of cotton, groundnut and rubber.
Agriculture will forever remain the world's largest business and devoid the perception that large scale farmers are the only option capable of achieving increases in productivity on a competitive basis through rationalized cultivation. FAO record shows that;
There are more than 570 million farms in the world. More than 90% of farms are run by an individual or a family and rely primarily on family labour.
Family farms occupy a large share of the world’s agricultural land and produce about 80% of the world’s food.
Smallholders can be highly productive. In Brazil, family farmers on average provide 40% of the production of a selection of major crops working on less than 25% of the land.
In the United States, family farmers produce 84% of all produce – totalling US $230 billion in sales, working on 78% of all farmland.
Family farmers in Fiji provide 84% of yam, rice, manioc, maize and bean production working on only 47.4% of the land.
It went further to emphasize that "The world needs a paradigm shift in agricultural development, from a 'green revolution' to an 'ecological intensification' approach. This implies a rapid and significant shift from conventional, monoculture-based and high-external-input-dependent industrial production towards mosaics of sustainable, regenerative production systems that also considerably improve the productivity of small-scale farmers."
Going by the study from FAO, Sub Saharan Africa food markets is projected to more than triple to $500 billions through 2030. Rural agriculture investment and rural entreprenuership are one of the favorite policies, key to halting urbanization; doors to increasing dependence on food imports
Indices projecting dependence of Nigeria advancing her food imports in spite of government intervention which depicts that rural farmers are not reach but corporate entity;
Monoculture based farming
Rise in food prices as against declined inflation rate
Absence of Local Government autonomy and rural development
Unprecedented increase in rural urban migration
Undocumented small scale farmers, practices and produce types
To this end, I stand with women and small scale farmers in Nigeria, Africa and the world to debunk the propaganda that industrial farming is superior to rural farming in social, economic, environment and ecological terms while striving balance for up to date knowledge and innovation among small scale farmers towards sustainability
According to the United Nation, poorest countries risk a greater dependence on food imports except investment in rural agriculture industries is intensified
The crave for less nutritive and inorganic food products ensue by urban population rise would always favour commercial farmers who are prime producers of food exports and industrial complexes. Hence lack the propensity to meet the food need of the ever increasing urban cities.
Notwithstanding changes in diets, there will always be rise in appetite of certain food items like meats, vegetable, naked food and local recipes. To meet such demand, investments in rural areas both on and off the farms to improving outputs and sustainability must be heightened
True be told, small scale farmers are difficult customers to international partners. They consume higher efforts, expenses among other things
FAO has reiterated the fact that developing and under developed nations will add about a billion people by 2030 with urban area having the fastest increase. Small scale and family farming produce 80% of the food supplies in these places, while urban areas consume the bulk
Before now, Nigerian rural farmers contributed more than half of the GDP. Despite the use of traditional tools and crude farming practices, family farming generated 70% of our exports and 95% of the country food needs. Nigeria was the world's second largest producer of cocoa, largest exporter of palm oil and leading exporter of cotton, groundnut and rubber.
Agriculture will forever remain the world's largest business and devoid the perception that large scale farmers are the only option capable of achieving increases in productivity on a competitive basis through rationalized cultivation. FAO record shows that;
There are more than 570 million farms in the world. More than 90% of farms are run by an individual or a family and rely primarily on family labour.
Family farms occupy a large share of the world’s agricultural land and produce about 80% of the world’s food.
Smallholders can be highly productive. In Brazil, family farmers on average provide 40% of the production of a selection of major crops working on less than 25% of the land.
In the United States, family farmers produce 84% of all produce – totalling US $230 billion in sales, working on 78% of all farmland.
Family farmers in Fiji provide 84% of yam, rice, manioc, maize and bean production working on only 47.4% of the land.
It went further to emphasize that "The world needs a paradigm shift in agricultural development, from a 'green revolution' to an 'ecological intensification' approach. This implies a rapid and significant shift from conventional, monoculture-based and high-external-input-dependent industrial production towards mosaics of sustainable, regenerative production systems that also considerably improve the productivity of small-scale farmers."
Going by the study from FAO, Sub Saharan Africa food markets is projected to more than triple to $500 billions through 2030. Rural agriculture investment and rural entreprenuership are one of the favorite policies, key to halting urbanization; doors to increasing dependence on food imports
Indices projecting dependence of Nigeria advancing her food imports in spite of government intervention which depicts that rural farmers are not reach but corporate entity;
Monoculture based farming
Rise in food prices as against declined inflation rate
Absence of Local Government autonomy and rural development
Unprecedented increase in rural urban migration
Undocumented small scale farmers, practices and produce types
To this end, I stand with women and small scale farmers in Nigeria, Africa and the world to debunk the propaganda that industrial farming is superior to rural farming in social, economic, environment and ecological terms while striving balance for up to date knowledge and innovation among small scale farmers towards sustainability
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