The Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), Dr. Aliyu Abdullahi, plans to prioritise soil health by 2025 to significantly increase Nigeria’s yield-per-hectare, which currently lags behind the African average.
Abdullahi made the call when the Deputy Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr. Bernard Vanlauwe and, the Senior Programme Officer in charge of Soil Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Christian Witt, paid a visit in Abuja
Earlier the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), had said that the national average of farm size in Nigeria is 0.85 hectares, which compares unfavourably with 1.4 hectares for Ethiopia, 2.56 hectares for Ghana, and 4.57 hectares in Niger.
Determined to increase the yield-per-hectare of farmlands in the country, Abdullahi said the policy accelerates a combination of measures focused on soil health that would be enforced in 2025.
“Nigeria’s yield-per-hectare was lower than the African average across a range of crops,” Abdullahi said.
“If you conquer the soil, the yield gap Nigeria is experiencing can be bridged, what is important is to support the Nigerian farmer to be more productive. If they can get 10 tonnes per hectare, why leave them at two tonnes per hectare?
“You can imagine the nutritional status, life-changing improvement, and poverty-alleviating effects that would occur if you properly take charge of your soil.
“beginning next year” the minister said, “accelerating a combination of measures focused on soil health” would be prioritized.
While “fertilizer and other agro-inputs had remained a challenge” Abdullahu noted that reports have indicated that in some places farmers were “under-fertilizing their farms”.
Although he emphasised the attendant impact of higher yield-per-hectare on the nation’s food and nutrition security, the minister called on IITA to properly align its activities and operations with Nigeria’s national interest, urging a closer relationship with relevant institutions.
Also, he invited IITA to assist Nigeria with the revitalisation of its six zonal Soil Laboratories, which are located in the zonal coordinating research institutes in the country.
Reviving the Soil Laboratories, Abdullahi said, would be useful not just to Nigeria but also to the Regional Hub being conceived by IITA.
Assuring support, the Deputy Director General of IITA, Dr. Vanlauwe said the institution was desirous of more active engagement with the relevant technical team at the FMAFS.
He stressed the need to ensure the trickle-down of research findings to end-users to maximize agricultural production output.
From the Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Witt acknowledged the launch of the Nigerian Soil Health Card Scheme for farmers, while stressing the need for actionable research and the effective dissemination of findings to farmers, the statement signed by the Principal Information Officer at FMAFS Ogbuagu Chika disclosed.
