Agriculture was the focus sector of Nigeria’s economy before the discovery of hydrocarbon, accounting for a significant portion of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and export earnings through cash commodities such as cocoa, groundnuts, palm oil and cassava.
Agriculture was the focus sector of Nigeria’s economy before the discovery of hydrocarbon, accounting for a significant portion of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and export earnings through cash commodities such as cocoa, groundnuts, palm oil and cassava. However, since the shift to petroleum exploration and production, the sector’s contribution to GDP has declined steadily.
The volatile nature of crude oil prices is forcing policymakers to diversify the nation’s revenue away from crude oil. This is gradually bringing the agriculture sector back to the spotlight.
Over the last decade, the Government has introduced several policy initiatives such as the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), ban on the importation of commodities, land border closure amongst others, in a bid to accelerate growth in the agriculture sector, encourage local production, and generate sustainable revenue.
However, the sector remains saddled with a myriad of challenges including insecurity, infrastructure deficit, high cost of finance and low adoption of mechanised farming practices.
This report discusses the role of agriculture in technology (“agritech”), which is the application of technology to the agriculture value chain, in addressing specific challenges. In order to examine the role of agritech in the industry, this report highlights challenges across the entire value chain and offers potential agritech solutions.
In addition, the report examines the barriers to the adoption of agritech solutions, lessons from Kenya and the recommended action points to enable the domestic agritech industry to attract the right funding.