14/06/2011 (Business Day) - The agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy has since the discovery of crude oil been neglected by government as more of the farmers in the country are now engaged in subsistence farming, where only small quantity of agricultural produce are provided for the immediate family.

Nigeria, according to Emmanuel Ijewere, chairman, Agriculture Group of Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), currently loses over N1.2 trillion for not paying attention to developing the sector that could provide more jobs for Nigerians.

Analyst say agriculture currently employs over 60 percent of our population, either directly or indirectly, and contributes over 40 percent of the nation’s GDP. Importation of rice alone annually is currently over $1billion.

Ijewere in an interview with BusinessDay disclosed that it was estimated two years ago that Nigeria loses over N1.2 trillion annually for not paying attention to agriculture.

Taking a look at the parameters for the annual loss of the sector, he explained that because government had not paid attention to agriculture, it still spent so much money importing some agricultural produce that could easily be produced here for export and so a lot of money was lost to import.

“List out those agricultural produce we currently import that Nigeria can produce, check how much we are losing from there. Calculate how much work that would have been provided for Nigerians to produce those things; calculate the amount of economic empowerment it would have given to individuals, you will discover that a lot is lost to lack of government attention to developing agriculture,” Ijewere stated.

Nigeria used to export cocoa, oil palm in large commercial quantity to other countries but over the years, there was urbanisation that came on, where the youths migrated to the cities to chase jobs created by the petroleum sector, he stated.

According to him, if we had developed agriculture, Nigeria would have had excess of what we import and only import what we need, and we would have been able to export some of our agricultural produce.

“Produce like cassava, there are over 122 products that can be made from it. Our farmers lack storage facilities and as a result some of the agricultural produce are destroyed before they get to the farms,” he added.

On challenges of accessing finance, Ijewere, who is also an accountant and engages in agricultural business, said the banks must understand the problems and intricacies of the farmers and the farmers must also understand the problem of the banks, saying “the money in the bank is depositors’ and shareholders’ money, it is not government money.”

For Jite Okoloko, GCEO/managing director of Notore Chemical Industries Limited has noted that government had always had a positive outlook towards agriculture, but government would have to continue to create the enabling environment for businesses to grow.