Editor’s note: Mutiu Iyanda, the NAIJ.com partner blogger, in his latest piece explains real reasons Nigerians must invest in soil economy.
His blogs are: http://ift.tt/2iVtmAV, http://ift.tt/2iUENXl
More details in NAIJ.com’s step-by-step guide for guest bloggers
Nigerians like other human on earth are walking on the soil everyday and performing added essential socio-economic activities with a view of solving one needs or the other.
As a mixture of broken rocks and minerals, living organisms, and decaying organic matter, people and countries are deriving different benefits from it. Some countries are endowed with numerous natural resources such as crude oil, gold among others, and vir*gin soil for agricultural purposes.
A number of countries are blessed with both natural resources and viable lands for agricultural activities. Nigeria is one of such countries. In her pre-independence and early independence era, Nigeria generated her revenue mainly from exporting cash crops such as palm oil, palm kernel, rubber, groundnut and cocoa.
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From Sunday 15 January 1956, when oil was discovered in commercial quantity by Shell Darcy in Oloibiri Oilfield, Nigeria started losing her pride of agriculture due to the oil boom and neglect of her famous exportable crops. She exported crude oil over the globe, until the economy crisis that hit the world in 2008.
Earning from oil and agriculture
In its recent publication on the state of the economy, Budgit, a Lagos based open data Management Company, described Nigeria’s revenue from crude oil thus: “Just less than half a decade later, in 1970, the dynamics of Nigeria’s economy changed, as average oil production rose to 1.08million barrels per day, heralding a new era of Crude-driven government earnings.
"Despite the rise in oil production, Crude prices at $3.407 in 1970; oil revenue was a mere 26.2% of Total federally-collected revenue, which rose from N448.8mn in 1970 to N1.4bn as at 1972.
"In 1973, the start of the Arab Oil Crisis made the price of Crude quadruple, from $4.73 in 1973 to $12.21 per barrel in 1975. By the end of 1975, it was evident that Nigeria was willing to let Crude take the lead, with oil accounting for 77.5% of government revenue.
The influence of this hitherto relatively insignificant hydrocarbon resource suddenly grew within a decade, as global interest in the oil and gas sector skyrocketed.” From 2010 to 2014, Nigeria was wined and dined in billions of dollars due to the increased global oil price while soil economy is continued to be neglected.
The deserted of the agriculture sector led to low production of crops such as Yams, Cassava, Vegetables, Plantains and Maize which countries without crude oil are profiting from. For instance, Nigeria had $216,969.97 of value in production of these crops between 2010 and 2014.
Further analysis reveal dipping total gross production value of agriculture from 1991 to 2014. For 23 years, Nigeria only had total gross production value of $1,159,434.17.
If the trend continues, concerned stakeholders have been crying out that Nigeria would be in big crisis by 2020, when she needs to repay her loans in dollars.
One of such state actors is Chief Audu Ogbe, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, who recently hinted that the country would be in a serious trouble if it failed to earn between $10bn and $15bn from agriculture by 2020 because the loans would be due for repayment.
Available data show that Nigeria’s external debts from 2015 to 2017 stood at N9.5 trillion while the domestic debts have reached N15.5 trillion within the same period.
“If we are waiting for oil and gas hoping that the era will come back, none of you in another six or seven years will be a happy human being, because we do not have money and we are borrowing heavily. How do we repay the loans in dollars?”
How do we repay the loans in dollars?
Every Nigerian and government at all levels should provide answers to the Minister’s question. There is no doubt that Nigeria is blessed with arable lands in the south, east, north and west regions but the zeal and necessary resources to cultivate them remain elusive.
The 2016’s crop production section of agriculture contribution of over 87% due to the diversity in the sector has raised the country’s hope of generating more revenue from the soil economy.
To actually pay the loans in dollars, Enterprations has earlier reported that Nigerians and Nigeria should increase efforts on the cultivation of major crops such as beans; sesame; cashew nuts; cassava; cocoa beans; groundnuts; gum Arabic; kolanuts; maize (corn); melon; millet; palm kernels; palm oil; plantains; rice; rubber; sorghum; soybeans and yams.
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As at June, 2017, the price of Groundnuts was $1, 892.98 and Plantains was $1,098.07 per metric ton. Whereas, price of crude oil per barrel is plummeting every month.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that about five real reasons Nigerians must invest in coconut plantation business.
Mutiu is a research and communications professional.
He has a special interest in qualitative and quantitative methods of finding solutions to social and communication issues.
He currently works with Enterprations Limited, a management consulting company, which also provides a platform for working class professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs to own their business.
Enterprations offers strategic tools such as business plan, growth plan and turnaround plan among others for established and aspiring businesses. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of NAIJ.com.
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