Page 57 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 15

Innovate Afrika

ed districts The program aims at and wheat by 2019/2020. Successful har- to the core operations within the sector.”
increasing productivity in the staple vests will contribute in reducing inflation
sector, increasing food production and promoting economic diversification.” Infrastructure, including water in-
and thereby reducing poverty.70% frastructure, is having an immensely
of Nigerians live in rural areas and The Nigerian Agricultural Trans- positive effect on production.
are small farmers who produce 90% formation Agenda was initiated in
of the nation`s agricultural products. 2013. It is a program to alleviate Rice is the Nigerian staple. Local Ni-
Dire poverty in Nigeria is mostly in rural poverty and increase produc- gerian varieties of rice are found to
rural, agriculture-based communities tion.Since the discovery of crude be of a higher nutritional value than
and it is these communities that the oil, IMF`s globalist policy has been imported rice.The local rice is not
government are targeting. to advise on oil export and food as highly polished which increases
import which over the years harmed nutritional value and it consumed
According to the Nigerian State- the country`s agricultural industry fresher compared to imported rice
house website: with cheap foreign imports having a which can be many years old.
negative effect on domestic produc-
Economic Recovery and Growth tion. Nigeria`s self-sufficiency policy has
Plan caused `rice wars` with international
Rice self-sufficiency had reached exporters flooding the market with
“The Economic Recovery and Growth 84% by start of 2019. Government super cheap, low-quality produce.
Plan (ERGP) is a Medium Term Plan and private sector initiatives have This has resulted in a series of
for 2017 – 2020, developed by the Ad- provided support,credit,training and protests from within the country as
ministration of President Muhammadu seed, along with even distribution of people demand cheap rice. It has
Buhari for the purpose of restoring eco- rice milling (polishing) plants across been difficult for the government to
nomic growth while leveraging the ingenuity all regions. convince the nation that by sup-
and resilience of the Nigerian people – the porting the domestic market, they
nation’s most priceless assets.” Mechanization solutions and the will have a better product which
case for small modular processing will become cheaper over time as
The program aims to put the plants are some of the innovative production increases.
oil-based economy on an entirely ideas being pushed by Richard
different trajectory to transform the Ogundele, CEO of JMSF Agri- The black-market for rice is a
economy and thereby alleviate pov- business Nigeria, a key player in the continuing problem as Nigeria`s
erty.Key components are the Nige- agricultural transformation program. expansive borders are porous and
rian Railway Modernization Project According to him: rice is routinely smuggled across
which is part of the Nigeria Inte- from Benin.
grated Infrastructure Master Plan “Another thing that we could see work-
which includes the construction of ing here, is SME (Small and Medium In September 2020 the government
new, or modernization of existing, Enterprises) branding. The farmers who stopped tomato imports and has
ports, bridges and road networks. grow them and the processors at that lower adopted a similar tactic to boost
level, need to understand quality assurance tomato production by value adding
According to the Statehouse web- from the start to the market end. And and processing into puree, thereby
site: that`s where branding comes in, packag- supporting domestic tomato grow-
ing, handling,storage and distribution. ers and to encourage job creation.
“This Plan will use science, technology and So opportunity for logistics is also there.
innovation to drive growth. It also provides Logistics in agriculture is still a challenge The Nigerian government recently
a blueprint for laying the foundation for fu- across Nigeria, storage, transportation, announced the release of funding
ture generations by focusing on building the packaging, handling. We need improve- for 300,000 new affordable homes
capabilities of the youths of Nigeria to be ments in this value chain service provision which are to be built with 90% local
able to take the country into the future.” area. So if anyone is interested in this materials, further supporting the
sector, we can always guide them and talk national economy.
“Using agriculture to achieve food security, it through. And of course there will be the
create jobs and save foreign exchange for multiplying effect on the economy because
food imports. Plans are already in place more jobs will be created along the value
for national self-sufficiency in rice by 2018 chain for those who will be offering services

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