In Nigeria like other West Africa countries, a lot of policy measures
and programmes have been adopted since independence aimed mainly elevating
agriculture from its pitiable position of
subsistence level to market-oriented level. Some of these policy measures and
programmes include:
The National Accelerated Food Production Project (NAFPP) NAFPP was
established in 1973 aimed at accelerating the production of major stable crops.
The programme which has three components of research, extension and
agro-services used improved practices in place of traditional ones. It also
provided facilities like credit, marketing, storage and processing facilities
to farmers.
The River Basin Development Authorities (RBDA): The Federal Government
in 1976 established eleven River Basin Development authorities under Decree No.
25. The RBDAS were aimed at development of land and water resources for general
development of agriculture in Nigeria.
Operation Feed the Nation (OFN); OFN was launched in 1976 by the
Obasanjo Military Administration. It was aimed at mobilizing Nigerians to take
active part in growing their own food which will lead to increase in food
production in the country thereby leading to self sufficiency in food
production, OFN tried to encourage Nigerians irrespective of their occupation
is to take part in farming no matter the size of the farm.
Land Use Decree: The land use decree was
promulgated in 1978 and incorporated into 1979 constitution. The decree was
aimed at reforming the Land Tenure System which had constituted a bottleneck to
large scale farming in Nigeria. The decree gave a boost to agriculture by
making land readily for large scale agricultural activities in the decree, all
land were vested in the hands of State Government that held them in trust for
the federal government.
The commodity Boards in 1977, the federal government established seven
commodity boards under decree No. 29. The seven marketing boards replaced the
dissolved regional boards. The seven boards took care of cocoa, rubber, cotton,
groundnut, grains (for cereals) root crops (for cassava, yam and cocoa yam) and
palm produce (palm oil and palm kernel). The seven boards were established
mainly to encourage the increase in production and marketing of the various
commodities, conduct research into production and encourage the processing of
the commodities assigned to the various boards.
Green Revolution: The civilian second republic or Shagari‟s
administration in an effort to curb shortage of food in the country and
increase food production launched green in 1980. The programme mainly aimed at
boosting increase in 1980. The government
mainly aimed at boosting increase in agricultural production in order to meet
the food need of the country and reduce the drain in the country‟s foreign
reserves through food importation.
Credit Availability: The recognition of the role of credit facility to
agricultural development prompted government to establish the Nigerian.
Agriculture Development Bank with its head quarters in Kaduna. The bank gives
loans directly to individual farmers, organizations and established
institutions. Other credits are made available for agricultural development by
commercial bank credit guidance directives and Federal Government Agriculture
Credit Guarantee Scheme.
Government expenditure: In a bid to avoid fund
hampering increase in production of agriculture, the various governments in
Nigeria have spent fortunes in the area of agricultural sector. Considerable
priority was given to agriculture in all development plans launched in Nigeria.
For instance, about N1, 646 million was planned expenditure on agriculture in
the Third Development Plan (1975-1980).
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