Constraints to Increasing Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria: A Review

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food security and poverty reduction. The program was initially funded by the government with $45 million in unilateral trust funds, but was later complemented by $22 million from the Chinese government (Obasanjo 2005). This complementary funding has enabled expansion of the scope of the NSPFS to cover water control, aquaculture, integrated rice-fish culture, poultry-fish culture, small ruminants production, and biogas technology. The government planned to increase participating sites from 109 in 2005 to 327 by March 2007 at an additional cost of $256 million. Government documents claim that the program has doubled crop yields and that 98 communities have potable water as a result of the program. No doubt, the NSPFS I and II have attracted considerable investment from government. Absence of publicly available detailed financial information about the program continues to make it very difficult to determine whether such investment generated attractive returns or not. While rigorous evaluation of the program has not been carried out, anecdotal evidence suggests that the performance of the NSPFS has been mixed. Some pilot projects have been clearly successful, while others have failed to meet set objectives. Constraints to Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria This subsection discusses the conceptual framework for analyzing constraints to the growth of agricultural productivity. It also reviews both constraints general to the sector as well as constraints specific to certain agricultural commodities. Conceptual Framework There are alternative approaches to conceptualizing the constraints to increasing agricultural productivity in Nigeria. The approach adopted in this review is to recognize and abstract from the key characteristics of the agricultural production systems, namely, agricultural inputs, outputs, post-harvest activities, and the relevant socioeconomic factors in the commodity value chain. Figure 3 illustrates a generalized value chain for commodity production and consumption. Figure 3 presents a schematic representation of a typical production-to-consumption system for agricultural commodities in sub-Saharan Africa. Over 90 percent of production takes place on small farms. Inputs cover the whole spectrum for agricultural production in Africa. Imported inputs consist of small hand tools used by small-scale farmers, tractors, machinery, and fertilizer and other agricultural chemicals used mainly by medium- and large-scale farmers. Large-scale agro-industries, which produce fertilizer, agricultural chemicals, and farm production machinery (tractors, ploughs, etc.), are widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. Small-scale and artisan agro-industries that produce hand tools and processing machinery are more important in the cassava system and provide a link to the industrial sector. Some agricultural commodities are transported by head load, as well as by trailers and small trucks where the road network allows them to be used. For instance, cassava roots are processed into a wide variety of products for human and industrial 19
Figure 3. Conceptual Framework: Typical Commodity Production – Consumption System Import Source: Adapted from FAO & IFAD (2005) Manufacturing Trade/tariff policies Source: Adapted from FAO and IFAD (2005) Inputs Production Transport Processing Products Consumption Land Labour Hand Machinery Seeds/ planting materials Fertilizers/ Chemicals Tariff, credit, subsidy Small scale Large scale Credit, research & Extension Head load Tractors & trucks Credit, research & Extension policies 20 Hand tools Semimechanize Industrial Research policy Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Product 4 Product 5 Domestic Export Trade, research & credit policy
Page 1 and 2: NSSP Background Paper 6 Constraints
Page 3 and 4: Constraints to Increasing Agricultu
Page 5 and 6: Table 13. Adoption rates (%) of sel
Page 7 and 8: NEPAD New Partnership for African D
Page 9 and 10: presidential initiative commodities
Page 11 and 12: When research is poorly funded, agr
Page 13 and 14: harvesting is about N70,000, if all
Page 15 and 16: facilities in abattoirs at wholesal
Page 17 and 18: establishment of a poultry products
Page 19 and 20: fostering many other economic activ
Page 21 and 22: challenge is to develop and dissemi
Page 23 and 24: Table 2. Activities, targets, and i
Page 25: Figure 1. Plot of indices of area p
Page 29 and 30: largely ineffective because the gro
Page 31 and 32: constraint to agricultural producti
Page 33 and 34: There is a growing demand to weigh
Page 35 and 36: It is relevant to add that, from th
Page 37 and 38: technologies, partly because the NA
Page 39 and 40: inadequate extension services as im
Page 41 and 42: Table 15. Parameters for classifyin
Page 43 and 44: Table 17. Distribution of farmers b
Page 45 and 46: Transport Materials (e.g., bags) As
Page 47 and 48: Taking the case of cassava pellets
Page 49 and 50: tuber contains 60-70 percent moistu
Page 51 and 52: Most of the maize processing in Nig
Page 53 and 54: Figure 4. Map of Nigeria showing ri
Page 55 and 56: As was noted for maize, the cost pe
Page 57 and 58: (GPS) affects productivity, especia
Page 59 and 60: those affecting feeds and nutrition
Page 61 and 62: The government should sustain the c
Page 63 and 64: Carter, J. 1995. Alley cropping: Ha
Page 65 and 66: Proceedings of an international con
Page 67 and 68: Spencer, D., A. Doward, G. Abalu, D
Page 69 and 70: the realization of the full potenti
Page 71: Appendix 3: Nigerian National and A

Constraints to Increasing Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria: A Review

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