Abuja, June 27, 2019 (NAN) The Joint Sector Review (JSR) says Nigeria’s agricultural sector showed eight institutional performance improvement in the Comprehensive African Agricultural Rural Development Programme (CAADP) in 2018.
The JSR made this known during its presentation on Thursday in Abuja, North central Nigeria at the national workshop on agricultural joint sector review, biennial review report and the Second National Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIP).
The JSR, anchored by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), with six critical stakeholders, showed that the agricultural sector recorded improvement in Comprehensive African Agricultural Rural Development Programme (CAADP).
The areas cited by the JSR was policies, support institutions and human resource, people engaged in agriculture and access to financial services, inclusive institutionalised mechanisms for mutual accountability and peer review.
The review also listed public agriculture expenditure as a share of total public expenditure, annual growth of agriculture output and increase of agricultural value added per arable land.
The eight improved performance was the increase of supplied quality agriculture inputs to the total inputs requirements for agriculture commodities.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Joint Sector Review process facilitates the National Agricultural Investment Plan and the Biennial Review Report for the Nigerian agriculture.
The performance review was essentially aided by targets specified in the frameworks of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP), and CAADP.
In terms of funding, the review said that agriculture’s contribution to grow domestic product at 24 per cent was still at a remarkable level.
It stressed that the remarkable level was only obtainable if the rising impact of the communications, services and entertainment sectors in the economy was considered.
The JSR review said that access to land was still limited, as the use of free land was low even for farmers to obtain documentation which allows them to use farm land for collateral.
Also on production factors, inputs and services, the review said that the usage of purchased seeds at less than 30 per cent was yet to meet the expectation of the Agricultural Promotion Strategy.
It further stated that local fertiliser production increased in 2018, percentage of farm lands using fertiliser also improved but fertiliser usage was still below recommended target.
The review said that agricultural production performance was generally below target.
On agricultural production, prices and trade, it said that individual agricultural product prices had risen considerably over years.
However, the JSR made recommendations which include realigning fiscal and monetary policies in annual medium term revenue/expenditure framework to encourage agriculture’s access to credit, increase the share of commercial banks’ loans to agriculture.
It said that institutional linkage should be strengthened to promote agricultural export along ecological comparative advantage, standardisation and quality assurance measure for the production of exportable agricultural commodities.
The review also emphasised the export of high value added products via private driven initiatives on agribusiness undertakings in agricultural value chain, among others. (NAN)
