Nigeria’s rising import bill has become an issue of major concern to stakeholders and other players in the agric sector.

The country recorded the highest imports of agricultural goods in 2021 as produce valued at N2.7t was imported. Though it dropped in 2022, when N1.9t worth of food imports transactions were conducted, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), experts say the development signals danger to the economy, as the country has the potential to upturn what they tagged as trade imbalance.

Data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revealed that the country’s total agricultural imports from 2018 to 2022 amounted to N6.916t, while total agricultural exports within the period was N1.997t, resulting in an agricultural trade deficit of N4.919t.

The data also show that there has been steady increases in agricultural imports into the country since 2018, which recorded N857b imports; and rose to N959b in 2019; N1.2t in 2020; N2.7t in 2021; before a moderate decline to N1.9t in 2022.

One of the outcomes of this scenario is the revelation that the sector contributed less to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country in Q1 2023, compared to the same period last year. The sector showed a decline of 0.9 per cent after years of positive growth, unlike in previous year when the sector was the largest contributor to the country’s GDP in Q2 at 23.3 per cent.

This impasse has been largely linked to farm insecurity in the form of banditry and herders-farmers clashes; natural disasters, limited access to credits, cattle rustling, kidnapping; poor execution of government interventions and policies.

Another big challenge is late release of fund to the sector, which many say has largely contributed to impeding the capacity of Federal and state governments to drive socio-economic development, including food and nutrition security within the policy thrust of the diversification of the economy towards agriculture.

The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Ilorin, Kwara State, Dr. Olufemi Oladunni, said the implication of the development is job loss.

“In the first instance, you’ve exported jobs to those countries where the food is being imported from. Unemployment will increase in all the phases of the agricultural value chain.

“There will be low income for those in the sector, which will lead to increased poverty. In fact, it can lead to youth unrest and increase the rate of crime in society. This may further reduce food production.”

Oladunni enumerated the need to stimulate food production through improved seeds and seedlings; reduction of drudgery along the value chain; making imported food unattractive through pricing; development of agricultural pricing model that will stimulate all-year-round production; agricultural production with the principles of climate smart agriculture; reduction of post harvest losses; and promotion of Agricultural Marketing Extension among others as necessary steps to address the challenge in the country.

“Government at all levels must stimulate the consumption of locally produced food, encourage backward integration for agricultural raw materials by the local industry, ensure price competition between local and foreign products, with local food prices higher and unattractive to consumers. These will go a long way in reducing our food import bill.”

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer, Fourteen Farms, Ifeware/Ife, Osun State, Julian Akinremi, said, spending a lot of money on food imports can jeopardise a nation’s food security, noting that over reliance on food imports will leave the food sector vulnerable to supply disruptions or price fluctuations in international markets, hence the country suffers from unstable market prices of products.

“We also know how imports have affected sales and development of local farm products in the past. We have had issues of farmers losing money immediately farm products are imported. They come at so low a price that the local market fails to appreciate the quality and nutrient level of the local products.

“The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund(UNICEF) reports that over 25 million Nigerians are at a risk of food insecurity this year and we also know that over 35 per cent of Nigerian children are malnourished. The more money is spent on imports and the more Importation of food is encouraged, the less control we have over the quality of food in our markets,” he said.

Akinremi added that the money spent on importing food can be spent on development, training and support for local farmers and processors, noting that issues with farm product logistics, value addition and infrastructure development have also added to the stunted growth of the sector, because of the focus on imported foods.

He said: “And as regards climate change and agriculture, we also know that encouraging domestic production can be more environmentally sustainable, as it reduces the carbon footprint associated with long-distance transportation.

“It’s worthy of note that a number of food processing organisations have shut down due to the drift to imported alternative to their products. In addition, a higher food import bill can contribute to a trade deficit, as more money leaves the country to service the cost of the imports.

“Finally increased reliance on imports can lead to higher food prices domestically, contributing to inflation and affecting consumers’ purchasing power.”

Continuing, Akinremi said, “To reduce the food import bill, we need to develop the local food processing industry. This is through the provision of soft loans, subsidising the prices of inputs and chemicals. Supporting modern logistics service providers to enable easy access of city markets by various aggregators and wholesalers

“Encouraging farmers and processors to do more by reducing Importation. If the price is right and the demand is there, we know people will grow more crops the following year. We see this is the case of palm oil and cassava from time to time.

“Creating markets for local products in other countries so as to make up for the money spent on import. If our processors are supported we can improve on the quality of our local food products and sell them in other countries.

“Supporting small holder farmers, cottage industries and value chain actors. The major support should go to the bottom of the pyramid; rural development and support of on site value addition in rural areas would go a long way to encourage increased local food processing.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Green Sahara Farms, Plateau State, Suleiman Dikwa, who described the development as complex, said this is due to the fact that food importation is driven by the industries that either use it as raw materials or end products.

“The major food industry players have failed to make the right investments not only in funds, but also to know how, as well in backward integration.
They prefer to import such items as corn and soya, for example, using food shortages as an excuse.

“On the part of government, they have failed to direct the right funding and incentive mechanism to stimulate the production of key food and cash crops.

The failure is at the design stage whereby focus has been on training the farmers without training the managers, the codification and definition of what is aggregation and at what stage of aggregation will scale be achieved to improve food security and livelihoods.”

He added that there is also the issue of insecurity and extreme poverty, which has prevented a significant farming population to thrive.

“They are all connected and the right design to achieve food security and reduce imports requires a different kind of skill and enterprise to achieve set goals.

“Government must focus on backward integration similar to what obtains in building roads to agriculture so that companies can use tax credit to develop the back end independent though professionals industrial aggregators,” he said.