OREDIPE BLAMES POOR IMPLEMENTATION, FUNDING GAPS IN AGRICULTURE FOR RISING FOOD INFLATION
*Nigeria’s rising food inflation, despite signs of easing headline inflation, has again exposed deep structural weaknesses in the country’s agricultural system, with a Senior Economist at the World Bank, Dr. Adetunji Oredipe, declaring that the country is not lacking policies but is failing in execution, coordination, and sustained funding.*
Speaking during an exclusive interview on _Frontline_ , a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese-Ijebu, Ogun State, on Tuesday, Oredipe said Nigeria’s agricultural crisis is no longer about ideas or frameworks, but about the inability to translate existing policies into tangible outcomes that can feed the population, generate foreign exchange, and create jobs at scale.
He said, *_“Agricultural policy in Nigeria has come a long way. We've had a number of documentations around what should be and how we should deal with the three objectives that we can derive from agriculture. First and foremost, we must feed our people. The second pillar of the objective has to do with making money for Nigeria. Agriculture has great potential of making money for Nigeria. When I say money, I mean serious money, like foreign exchange. The third leg of it, which is the current issues that we are dealing with, is employment. It can create jobs. And that is why, you see, at the international level, we pay attention to three issues. Food, security, and job creation. Job creation because of our very youthful population.”_*
He added, “ *_So for me, we are not in deficiency around policy. What we need to deal with now is how to move with what we have… because the policies are there, the ideas are there, but the results are not matching what we expect.”_*
Oredipe stressed that while Nigeria has rolled out multiple agricultural programmes over the years, inconsistency and weak implementation have prevented them from delivering lasting impact.
He said, *_“You know, when we have different government coming at different times, there is no government that will come that will not think differently. If two people are to implement a program, they will have two different approaches. But what is basic is the underlying principle that we are all driving. Like I said, three objectives. One, to make sure we feed the population. That we've not been able to conquer. The second one is about how to make money from agriculture. Again, that is struggling. The third leg is about job creation. And you and I know that we have a long way to go.”_*
He continued, *_“But when I talk about not being in the deficiency around policy, the various governments that have come in Nigeria, they have come with different documents. You know about the very old OFN, Operation Feed the Nation. You know about the very recent policy of Minister Akinwunmi… the Agricultural Transformation Agenda. And the recent government modifying it a bit to suit their overarching objectives.”_*
*ATA GAINS, FUNDING CHALLENGES*
Oredipe, who worked on the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) under Akinwunmi Adesina, acknowledged the programme’s achievements but said it struggled due to insufficient political will and funding continuity.
He said, *_“The ATA, very, very bright ideas, but needed a lot of political will to drive to sustain it. The government that followed, because of the efficiency of resource availability, I want to believe, so they could not sustain. Because you needed a lot of money to push the input support that was the main investment around the ATA.”_*
He further explained, *_“Making sure that farmers get the necessary input, fertilizer, seed, where they are in their various communities. The minister made sure that we were able to come up with a platform, we call it eWallet, that enabled farmers to sit in their different locations, receive information from the central authority, and they can go to the nearest agro dealer to claim their inputs. So that required a lot of political will to make funds available for such venture.”_*
He further noted that the ATA recorded significant milestones, successfully reaching about 14 million farmers nationwide with properly documented data, but maintaining that level of impact proved difficult due to the lack of sustained funding and commitment.
He added, “ *_ATA made a lot of landmark achievements, reaching out to 14 million farmers across the nation, documented with full information… but sustaining that scale required consistent investment, which was not maintained.”_*
*ANCHOR BORROWERS, FRAGMENTED FARMERS*
While acknowledging newer interventions, Oredipe said structural inefficiencies, particularly poor farmer organization, continue to limit impact.
He described the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme as a strong intervention that was sustained by the succeeding administration, noting that with backing from the Central Bank of Nigeria, it provided widespread financial support to farmers, but stressed that the key gap now lies in properly structuring and organizing the agricultural system.
He said, *_“The Anchor Borrower was a very good one, even the government that followed. That again, with the support of the CBN, it went a lot, it covered a lot of grants in terms of supporting the farmers directly. But what is missing now is for us to better organize the system.”_*
He stressed, *_“The farmers are there. We need to make sure that they come together in what we call formidable groups. And if we aid aggregation… if I'm interested in taking up their produce, I cannot be going from farm to farm. If there is a central location where farmers can gather their products, it makes a lot of sense for me to visit that location and pick that up.”_*
He continued, “ *_Once we are able to organize the farmer in such a way that we know where we can meet all of them at a good point, in good number, then it becomes very easy and logistically sensible for me to invest. So investors, they want something that they can run with.”_*
*INSECURITY BEYOND FARMER-HERDER CRISIS*
On insecurity, Oredipe said the situation has evolved beyond farmer-herder clashes into a broader national crisis affecting all sectors, including agriculture.
He said kidnapping has now spread widely across the country, overtaking the earlier focus on farmer-herder conflicts, and has become a major national security concern driven by a mix of political and economic factors, as well as criminal elements exploiting it as an illicit means of making money.
He said, “ *_The issue of kidnapping has even taken over everywhere. You know, so it has gone beyond the farmers' crisis that we talk about. It is now a very big issue. Security is a very big issue. And for a number of reasons, some of them political, some of them economic, some of them from fraudsters. Kidnapping is to make money in a very, very illegitimate way.”_*
He added, “ *_So for us, narrowing it down to farmers' crisis… in fact, they seem to have clouded the judgment of everybody in terms of what's the root cause of those crises. Because the farmers' crisis is just a very small percentage of the crisis that we are facing as a nation.”_*
*OGUN STATE EFFORTS, MECHANISATION DRIVE*
Assessing subnational interventions, Oredipe said Ogun State has demonstrated commitment through mechanization support and farmer-focused initiatives.
He said, “ *_The government tried to help farmers to open up their land because that's the most costly aspect of agricultural production… they made some mileage around that. I'm also aware that they also helped to organize the farmers in the very high production area, like the Ilaro end.”_*
He added, “T *_hey worked with federal government to set up what we call a tractor center that is still working. We have one in the East here, around Ijebu Ode… it's helping a lot of farmers to open up. And once you do that, you help farmers with land preparation. You have covered the greater parts of their costs.”_*
He noted that in collaboration with the federal government, tractor service centres were established such as the one around Ijebu Ode, which remain operational and are helping farmers with land clearing, significantly reducing the bulk of their production costs tied to land preparation.
*GLOBAL SHOCKS, LOCAL STRAINS*
Oredipe linked policy disruptions to both domestic fiscal constraints and global shocks such as the Russia-Ukraine War, which affected food systems worldwide.
He said, “ _*You will have seen the way some of our economies have been changing… recently, you saw the impact of the war in the advanced countries and how it has affected every aspect of our lives.”*_
He added, “ *_When you have a shock, a shock is a shock. And there's no way it will not have its own effects… and all nations were at a loss once that was happening.”_*
*SUPPLY, NOT PRICE CONTROL*
On rising food prices, Oredipe aligned with supply-side solutions, rejecting price control as a primary tool.
He recounted that the President’s response focused on increasing supply, noting that a higher volume of goods in the market naturally drives prices down, in line with the basic principle of supply and demand.
He said, “ *_When I listened to my president… a very sharp response that there should be more supply in the markets. When you have more supply, what is the price that we see today? It's just a very simple theory of supply and demand.”_*
He added, “ *_There are two sides to it; while you think about the farmers producing, you also have to think about the right of the people… so policy must balance both.”_*
*FUNDING GAP, DIVERSIFICATION CHALLENGE*
Oredipe revealed that Nigeria continues to underinvest in agriculture, falling short of global benchmarks.
He said, *_“Is it enough? The standard recommended to be put in agriculture is about 10%. Most countries have not been able to achieve that. What is Nigeria doing? Nigeria has been oscillating between 4% and 5% of recent.”_*
He added, “ _*You remember that we have a very peculiar situation now when the security challenge is heavy. So you see a lot of money has to go into that direction. Otherwise, all of us cannot exist. And if you are not secured, you cannot thrive.”*_
*LIVESTOCK REFORM, RUGA DEBATE*
Defending the creation of a livestock ministry and RUGA settlements, Oredipe described them as necessary reforms for efficiency and conflict reduction.
He said, “ *_Livestock sector is a very big sector in terms of economic inclusion and providing the right nutrition for our people… we needed to face clearly the issue of this farmers-herders crisis.”_*
He continued, “ *_It's not helping anybody for the animal to move around. It's not even helping those who are raising them… when you walk around, you lose a lot of energy… and that is a lot of money… so you want a fat animal, what you put in should not just go out by walking long distance.”_*
*YOUTH, DIGITALISATION, AND THE FUTURE*
On the future of agriculture, Oredipe emphasized the need to attract young people through innovation and technology.
He said, “ *_We need to make it more interesting for this young one… I don't want to repeat the word sexy… but we have to make it more interesting. Digitalization is a key aspect of what we need to do.”_*
He added, “ *_If we really want to catch them young… then we must move away from the old system and bring in something that they can relate with, something that is modern, something that can give them value.”_*
Oredipe maintained that Nigeria’s agricultural challenge is not rooted in lack of ideas but in the failure to sustain and execute them effectively.
He said, “ *_As a planner, there is no way you plan a program without putting emphasis on sustainability… the problem we have is sometimes the resources are not just flowing as expected… what is important is for us to pay attention to all those nodes where major decisions have to be taken.”_*
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