Your World of Legal Intelligence
 United Kingdom | +44 (0) 20 7284 8080

Promoting Commercial Agriculture in Nigeria Through a Reform of the Legal and Institutional Frameworks

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Pages64-83
DOI10.3366/ajicl.2018.0220
Published date01 February 2018
Date01 February 2018
INTRODUCTION

Agriculture was the centrepiece of Nigeria's economy in the 1960s and early 1970s with the country being the leading exporter of groundnuts and having appreciable share of the world palm oil and cocoa exports.1 Apart from providing food for the teeming population and raw materials for industry, employment for the poverty-stricken masses and the derivation of revenue from exports, agriculture became a major source of investment with high-income yields for local and foreign entrepreneurs. With 68 million hectares of arable land, fresh water resources of about 12 million hectares and ecological diversity enabling the country to produce a wide variety of crops and livestock, forestry and fisheries products,2 the country had the great potential of harnessing her vast natural resources for sustainable agricultural development.

The exploration and discovery of crude oil was the turning point in the performance of commercial agriculture and its contribution to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).3 The windfall from ‘oil money’ with the attendant negative consequences,4 the re-directed focus of government in maximising crude oil production to the neglect of agricultural development and the dwindling political will in promoting agriculture and agro-allied industries, consequently led to low productivity in agriculture over the years. The National Food Security Programme document,5 which contains the recent policy of the federal government on the state of the nation's agriculture, provides that although ‘agriculture remains a key component of the country's economy currently contributing about 40.0% of the GDP and employing about 70.0% of the active population, the sector has significantly underperformed its potential.’6

The downturn in the oil sector portends great dangers for sustainable national economic development, leaving agriculture as a potent option for a country with vast arable lands and rich aquatic resources. Factors responsible for the low level of productivity have been identified as an inefficient system of land tenure, problems of access to land in appreciable quantity for commercial agriculture, poor irrigation systems, a lack of sufficient focus on biotechnology, poor credit facilities to motivate investment in the sector, and weak legal and institutional frameworks in enhancing sustainable agriculture, among others.

This article examines the efficacy of the extant legal and institutional frameworks in addressing the challenges that have stifled the agricultural sector in the last couple of decades and suggests reforms with a view to promoting sustainable commercial agriculture, fostering food security, reducing poverty levels, ensuring increased investment in the sector and boosting revenue generation for the country.

 LAW, POLICY AND AGRICULTURE

Many African7 and Asian8 countries have made significant progress in the process of agricultural transformation. The general policies engendered in the agricultural sector from the late twentieth century expressed through pieces of legislation have been influenced by the need for food security, the alleviation of poverty through enhanced revenue, the provision of employment and rural development.

In Nigeria, as far back as 1976, ‘Operation Feed the Nation’ was launched by the then Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, with the aim of encouraging self-sufficiency in food production and participation in agricultural production.9 Commercial banks were to ensure that 6 per cent of the total loan disbursed was allocated to the agricultural sector; 50,000 tons of fertilisers at highly subsidised prices were made available to farmers and feeder roads were constructed linking rural to urban areas to facilitate the transportation of agricultural products.10 The country also launched the rural banking and agricultural credit guarantee schemes, established agricultural commodity marketing and pricing boards and promulgated the land use policy. An agricultural extension and technology transfer policy, and input supply and distribution policy, and an agricultural research policy ‘aimed at co-ordination and harmonisation of agricultural research and extension linkage’11 were also put in place. A water resources and irrigation policy was achieved through the establishment of eleven River Basin Development Authorities, agricultural cooperatives policy and agricultural mechanisation policy.12 However, laudable as these policies were, there were flaws in their planning and implementation.13

There was the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) (1980–9) introduced at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to tackle the problem of economic instability with the central focus of restoring the agricultural sector to the level it was before the oil boom. In particular, it was to transform agriculture from the peasant level to large-scale production ‘in order to increase its contributions to the GDP while using it as a tool for employment creation’.14 In addition to the inauguration of the Green Revolution policy, the government also embarked on the creation of several agricultural research institutes15 with the aim of increasing agricultural research and encouraging the study of agriculture by the youth of the country.16

The post-SAP era witnessed a decline in the volume of export crops as a result of a lack of an efficient and focused implementation of the policies introduced. Various other policies with increased agricultural productivity for exports, a reduction in the importation of certain food items and the formulation and implementation of initiatives to drive the economy were put in place between1990 and 2003.17

As part of a government initiative to reduce poverty by 50 per cent by the year 2015, the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (NEEDS) initiative was introduced in 2003. The initiative which gave priority to agriculture and peasant farmers was meant as a medium-term strategy by the federal, state and local government. NEEDS identified the need for private sector participation and the constraints inhibiting such participation with a view to tackling them. Among other initiatives, NEEDS developed new agricultural policies based on targets set18 in order to achieve the effective implementation of an export-driven agricultural sector as well as an increase in the cultivation of arable land through private sector participation, using adequate incentive schemes.

The vision 20:2020, following global concerns, has incited government efforts in the direction of land and major institutional reforms as steps towards agrarian/agricultural and rural development. To this end, a Presidential Technical Committee on land reform was set up at the federal level to undertake reform of the land tenure situation in the country following from the various problems emanating from the Land Use Act 1978.19

The formulation of the Nigerian Agricultural Transformation Agenda (NATA)20 to revitalise the agricultural sector is the high mark of our government policies. The vision in the transformation strategy is to achieve a hunger-free Nigeria through an agricultural sector that drives income growth, accelerates achievement of food and nutritional security, generates employment and transforms Nigeria into a leading player in global food markets to grow wealth for millions of farmers.21

At the federal and state levels, there are laws22 meant to foster sustainable agriculture and boost productivity. These laws border on land use and management, agricultural sustainability, credit facility for farmers and environmental protection to enhance productivity.23

The robustness of the various laws and policies in existence and the targets set by them notwithstanding, sustainable agriculture and productivity still elude Nigeria, and many factors have been responsible for this. In the first place, the piecemeal approach to legislation in the agricultural sector with laws that are mostly uncoordinated and sometimes duplicating responsibilities for agencies, often leads to inefficiency within the system.24 Non-harmonisation of the various laws creates challenges with regard to implementation, resulting in ineffective laws.25 Buck passing between different agencies complicates enforcement of these laws and provides an avenue for non-compliance. Whereas the main objective of these laws and policies is to encourage private sector participation in the agricultural sector, government agencies still dominate all aspects of agricultural productivity making it difficult for private sector participation to thrive.26

Other factors identified for the failure of laws and policies of government to stimulate agricultural productivity have been identified as ‘inadequate policy co-ordination, poor implementation of policies as well as lack of transparency during the planning and implementation of the policies’.27 Sometimes, legal provisions do not coincide with government policies. For example, while the macroeconomic policies of government have been identified as market liberalisation and private sector participation, most of the laws are not known to favour private sector participation in agricultural production.28 Corruption and an inefficient judicial system are also known to be impediments to implementation and/or enforcement of laws in the agricultural sector,29 while weak political will to actualise the main objectives of the various existing Laws cannot be ruled out, as successive administrations persistently jettisoned the policies of previous administrations, substituting new policies for old without justification.

 LAND LAW AND AGRICULTURE

Notable among the various pieces of legislation on agriculture30 are the country's land laws. These laws form the bedrock of agricultural productivity as well as the basis for all economic activities and development.31 But to what extent have the extant land laws in Nigeria boosted access to land, assured...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT