Constraints to Increasing Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria: A Review

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Government should support the NARIs by promoting awareness of the technology prototypes they have available. Private agroprocessing SMEs, NARIs, and financial institutions (especially commercial banks) should cooperate to develop these prototypes into commercial products. Government should also promote private ownership and operation of silos. This will help to both expand storage capacity nationally and relax the financial burden on the government. Since most of the community-level agroprocessing occurs through cooperative organizations, these agroprocessing cooperatives must be strengthened to ensure their ability and capacity to attract credit. Regarding the various constraints to increasing livestock productivity in Nigeria, these recommendations of the PCOL (2003) should be emphasized, namely the need for Increased capacity utilization in Nigeria’s feed industry; Enhancement of feed quality and efficiency; Stronger emphasis on feed inputs delivery system to small holders; Improved utilization of agroindustrial by-products and crop residues; Accelerated pasture seed production; Pasture improvement and rangeland rehabilitation; Strategic feed reserves; Agroforestry development; Establishment of cattle, sheep, goat and pig selective breeding centers and multiplication centers; Establishment of poultry breeding centers; Establishment of artificial insemination centers; Provision of market information services; Establishment of a poultry products processing program; Monitoring and enforcement of prescribed standards and laws for livestock and livestock products; Rehabilitation of existing abattoirs and milk processing plants and establishment of new ones, where necessary; Development of appropriate infrastructure at all levels of livestock marketing; Accelerated development of grazing reserves; Accelerated development of stock routes and grazing corridors; and Settlement and empowerment of pastoralists. Fertilizer subsidy programs in Nigeria need to be market responsive. Specifically, input subsidy programs should be used to develop, not weaken, competitive private sector-led input markets. Such programs should be targeted to poor farmers who, without subsidies, would not adopt key inputs. They should complement, not undermine, commercial sale outlets. They should be limited in duration—that is, accompanied from the start with a phase-out schedule. Agricultural commodities in Nigeria need adequate pricing, so that farm incomes will be high enough to enable farmers to purchase farm inputs. Adequate pricing must be accompanied by improved knowledge among farmers on the use of fertilizers, and adequate linkages among traders, suppliers, and farmers. There is the need for active private sector and government partnership to promote small-scale irrigation to reduce the risk associated with rainfall and to increase the profitability of adopting fertilizer, and also to develop domestic capacity for fertilizer production. 53
The government should sustain the current drive toward improved access for women to farmland, extension services, and related farm inputs, with the active support of local CBOs and international development agencies. Banks must ensure that loan terms flexibly relate to cash flows in the target business, the input demand and supply structure, and computable business risks. The federal government must strengthen its agricultural credit guarantee scheme, in order to reawaken the confidence of commercial banks. To achieve the desired impact of research funding on agricultural productivity in Nigeria, The government must encourage private investment in agricultural research and development and act with greater transparency and timeliness in the budgeting, approval, and fund release processes of agricultural research. Whatever agricultural extension model is adopted, the government’s direct promotion and practice of extension delivery in Nigeria must be divested. Larger participation by the private sector will reduce the budgetary burden and improve delivery efficiency. The National Assembly should review the Land Use Act of 1978. Communal ownership of farmland will be difficult to dismantle in the foreseeable future; however, the elements which appear to differ among communities need to be reviewed within the context of each community, towards improving individual titles to farmland, bearing in mind the need for gender equity. Finally, the government must make greater investments in transportation infrastructure, especially rural-urban roads and markets. Improvement in road quality will attract private investment in transportation, improve access to purchased inputs, credits and output markets, and enhance marketing efficiency. 54
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NSSP Background Paper 6 Constraints
Page 3 and 4:
Constraints to Increasing Agricultu
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Table 13. Adoption rates (%) of sel
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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 and 26: Figure 1. Plot of indices of area p
Page 27 and 28: Figure 3. Conceptual Framework: Typ
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: those affecting feeds and nutrition
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
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Constraints to Increasing Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria: A Review

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