Industrialising agriculture, key to Nigeria’s food self-sufficiency, economic growth — Ex-AfDB Adviser
By Faridat Salifu
Professor Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, former Senior Special Adviser on Industrialisation to the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has urged Nigeria to industrialise its agricultural sector to achieve food security, diversify the economy, and create sustainable jobs.
Speaking at the Oyo State Economic Summit at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Professor Oyelaran-Oyeyinka highlighted Nigeria’s paradox: despite vast arable land and being a leading global producer of crops like cassava and yam, the country remains food-deficient and heavily reliant on imports.
He noted that Nigeria spends over N1 trillion annually on wheat, rice, sugar, and fish, draining foreign exchange and weakening domestic agriculture and industrial competitiveness.
He argued that transforming agriculture into a modern, industrial enterprise is critical. “Industrialising agriculture does not erase our rural roots; it transforms them into engines of productivity, wealth creation, and national development,” he said.
This transformation, he explained, involves empowering farmers with technology, skills, infrastructure, and market access to increase productivity and generate surplus for processing and exports.
Professor Oyelaran-Oyeyinka highlighted structural challenges behind Nigeria’s low productivity, including weak education systems, limited skills, and underinvestment in technology and infrastructure.
He contrasted Africa’s cereal yields with East Asia, noting that African yields remain less than a third of East Asian levels, constraining competitiveness and industrialisation.
The economist outlined pillars for agricultural industrialisation: mechanisation, value addition, integrated supply chains, access to finance, improved seed systems, and targeted investment in human and technological capacity.
He called for treating farms as “factories without roofs”, linking them to agro-processing, manufacturing, and export markets.
Drawing lessons from Vietnam, he explained how deliberate agricultural modernisation turned the country from a food importer into a major exporter of rice, coffee, cashew, and seafood, generating tens of billions of dollars annually and underpinning industrial growth.
Key factors included consistent policies, agro-processing investment, strong farmer–industry linkages, and special economic zones to drive value addition.
Professor Oyelaran-Oyeyinka urged state governments to prioritise power, roads, logistics, and agricultural extension services, and to establish efficient special agro-industrial processing zones to attract domestic and international investment.
He also called on the private sector to view agriculture as a profitable business frontier rather than a social obligation.
“Subsistence agriculture is both a cause and consequence of technological backwardness, and no country has reached middle-income status without first modernising its agriculture,” he said. “The seeds of Nigeria’s prosperity are not buried in oil wells; they are sown in the fertile soils of our ecological zones.”
