
Nigeria can’t beat down inflation unless we return to agriculture – University don

…Urges Nigerians to embrace agribusiness
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

A university don has asserted that Nigeria cannot tackle the prevailing galloping inflation in the country unless Nigerians return to agriculture and embrace agribusiness.
Dr. Phillips Nto, the pioneer Director, Agribusiness Incubation Centre (ABIC), Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUA), made the assertion while addressing the first 2025 Monthly Congress of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abia State Council, as a Special Guest of Honour.
The ABIC Director told the Congress which held at the 66 Aba Road Press Centre of the Union in Umuahia, that the desire of President Bola Tinubu to reduce inflation from the current 40 percent to 15 percent this year may not be feasible unless Nigerians make agriculture the mainstay of the economy.
“However, unless we turn to agriculture, this projection (reduction of inflation) may remain a mirage,” he said, emphasizing that time has come for every Nigerian to become a farmer or take interest the agribusiness value chain.
“Whether we like it or not, the time has come for everyone to become a farmer or take an interest in the agribusiness value chain. It may not be your primary occupation, but it could be a secondary option.
“It is also time for us to embrace simple, yet mechanized methods of agriculture and agribusiness, employing technology and improved seedlings,” he advised, saying this would help Nigeria tackle the problem of food insecurity.
The former Commissioner for Finance in Abia State said it was a shame that Nigerian cannot feed herself even with enough arable landmass, compared to the State of Israel which has little land space but could feed herself and equally export food crops.
Comparing Nigeria and Israel, in terms of statistics concerning food production and self sufficiency, Nto said that Israel has a population of about nine million people which have access to about 410000 hectares of land for agriculture, showing that Israel has about 0.045 hectares per person.
However, Nigeria, the Lecturer said, has about 200 million people with access to 70 million hectares that entitles every Nigerian access to 0.35 heactares of land for farming which clearly shows that Nigeria has significantly more available land than Israel.
According to the university teacher, Nigeria has favorable agricultural climatic conditions, including rainy and dry seasons, with rivers and oceans across the country, while Israel depends more on water recycling, which is reticulated from North to South to irrigate agriculture;
He further shared that Israel’s GDP of about $575 billion, is higher than Nigeria’s GDP of about $370 billion.
“Interestingly, Israel’s economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, while Nigeria’s mainstay is oil,” he observed, adding “little wonder, Israel is ranked 24th in the global Food Security Index, while Nigeria is ranked 107th.”
Nto equally expressed concern also that while America, which has six time zones, has its economic activities running smoothly 24/7, Nigeria, with only one time zone, cannot even achieve remarkable economic growth outside oil.
He said that it was to address Nigeria’s food insecurity and encourage commercial agriculture that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) conceived ABIC in 2017, which was established by MOUAU in 2023, to enhance sustainable livelihood development through agribusiness and entrepreneurship across the country.
“The ABIC vision,” he explained, “is to be a hub where trainees acquire knowledge of agribusiness and entrepreneurial skills and, most significantly, to enhance the capacity of trainees for practical demonstrations of the lectures received, helping to fast-track the attainment of self-sufficiency in food and nutrition for the country and promoting import substitution for the Nigerian economy.”
He said that in line with MOUAU’s vision, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Maduebibisi Ofo Iwe, quickly domesticated ABIC’s vision which enables the Centre “to serves as a Centre of Excellence to support food security and research from farm to industry, enhancing local economic opportunities for youth and women, providing employment, creating wealth, and reducing poverty,” as well as “a model for advancing competitiveness and innovation in the food ecosystem.”
“At ABIC, we pride ourselves as the pacesetter in Nigeria’s food security agenda. We understand the diverse challenges facing Nigeria’s food security goals and have designed programmess that serve as catalysts to ensure innovation and entrepreneurship in the agri-food industry,” he added
According to Nto, MOUAU’s ABIC Centre has hosted different training and capacity-building programmes for farmers and designed a a radio programme tagged “Farmers Friday” to disseminate farming techniques to farmers in Abia who could not attend their training programmes physically, to enhancing their proficiency in food production.
“There are numerous opportunities in the agri-food value chain that provide significant value to people,” he told the Congress, adding, “at ABIC, we offer training on a variety of options, each with investment potential for your members. These options include, but are not limited to:
“Production of confectionaries from indigenous root/tuber crops (value addition to root/tubers) such as cassava, sweet potato, cocoyam, etc. production of seasonings and mixed spices from garlic, ginger, and other local ingredients; production of value-added products from cereal crops such as maize, beans, soybeans, and other legumes. production of confectionaries from cereal crops and production of cheese, milk, yogurt, etc., from soybeans.”
Others are production of drinks, juices, local beer, dried fruits, jams, among others, micro-gardening of tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, etc, and poultry and fish farming and processing, honey production, agri-food preservation and post-harvest handling of products, packaging of various products and determination of their shelf-life; capacity building and training in agribusiness and supply chain management, as well as agricultural export management, including regulations and standards determination.
“We need the media to drive this initiative of diversifying our economy from oil to agriculture, thus boosting our economy,” he appealed to the journalists.
The OUAU’s ABIC Director expressed gratitude to the Chairman of Abia NUJ, Comrade Chidi Asonye, for giving him the opportunity to bring the ABIC message to the NUJ.
Comrade Asonye said the Council was impressed with the remarks by the ABIC Director and would explore avenues for partnership with the Centre to contribute its quota to realizing food security in the state and country.