The President Muhammadu Buhari regime’s agriculture agenda have failed to yield the intended results, claims a report by CSL.
“Despite series of intervention funds injected by the CBN, growth in the agricultural sector has remained underwhelming,” the report said.
“The agricultural sector grew by an average of 3.42% in 2017, lower than the 4.05% average growth recorded in 2016 when the economy was in recession. Latest data from NBS revealed that the growth in the sector slowed down to 1.79% in Q2 2019, lower than 3.17% in Q1 2019.”
Citing data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it pointed out that 1,132,260 million jobs had been created along the agricultural value chain under the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS).
As of June 2019, the report quoted the CBN as saying that a total of 255 private and 14 state government anchors had participated in the Anchor Borrowers' Programme (ABP) of the CBN.
It noted that the programme had also benefited 1,140,854 million farmers in 17 different agricultural commodities.
The firm blamed structural issues such as poor distribution networks, obsolete farming techniques and friction between farmers and herders, as the force dampening the effects of the government’s interventions.
“In recent times, the challenges in the sector have been exacerbated by conflicts in food-producing regions in the form of communal clashes between farmers and herdsmen, a precarious situation that has caused many farmers to desert their farmlands.”