•Nigeria must develop the enormous potential of its agro-allied industry
A recent declaration that Nigeria is losing an estimated US$ 1 billion annually due to the importation of processed tomato products underlines the tragedy of a nation that has consistently refused to wean itself off its unwholesome dependence on crude oil for its foreign exchange earnings.
This utterly unnecessary situation is compounded by allegations that most of the imported tomato products are unfit for human consumption because they are either fake or substandard. Foreign businessmen are said to go to Asia, where cheap tomato products are produced through the addition of starch and colouring, and then smuggled into Nigeria.
Why does Nigeria waste so much of its own agricultural produce, only to import much of it in processed form at great cost in foreign exchange? The answer lies in the inability of the nation to develop a fully integrated agricultural sector encompassing cultivation, transportation, storage, processing and export.
In the instance of tomato production, for example, the country is said to waste up to 70 per cent of its annual crop mainly due to post-harvest wastage emanating from inadequate storage and the absence of processing facilities. Such wastage is all the more alarming given the huge potential: Nigeria is ranked the second largest producer of tomatoes in Africa, and 13th in the world. Tomato production is said to take up an estimated one million hectares producing 1.701 million tonnes per annum at an average of between 20 and 30 tonnes per hectare.
Tomatoes are just one of a whole range of agricultural products the country is fully or potentially self-sufficient in, but which are imported in processed form from other nations. They include rice, oranges and other fruits. Even yam and cassava, where Nigeria’s comparative advantage is outstanding, and whose processed products are in demand globally, are vulnerable to this situation.
The consequences for Nigeria are obvious. Although the country’s food import bill dropped from U.S. $7 billion to U.S. $ 4.3 billion in 2014, the reduced amount is still far too large for a nation that was an agricultural superpower at independence in 1960. In addition, national economic development is stunted due to a consistent inability to build up a thriving agro-allied industrial base; thriving economies like Malaysia, South Africa, Israel and Brazil all got their initial economic boost in this way.
If Nigeria is to resolve the related issues of post-harvest waste and the development of agro-allied industry, it must first look at the crucial issue of crop storage. No matter how bounteous the nation’s harvest is, such productivity will count for little if the crops cannot be stored. During the Babangida era, there was a renewed emphasis on the construction of a network of storage silos across the nation, but it appears that successive administrations have not displayed a similar zeal. This must change.
Another strategy is to fast-track the construction of food-processing plants as part of the overall agricultural expansion strategy, and to promulgate legislation that would reduce the importation of processed food items. Many companies in the food-processing sub-sector continually complain about the way in which cheap imports have devastated their business. Unless uncontrolled importation and smuggling are fought to a standstill, there can be no sense in setting up indigenous food-processing firms.
It might also be necessary for the country’s politicians to lead by example, by emphasising the use of locally-processed food products at state occasions. It is the height of hypocrisy to make all the right noises about the agro-allied industry, only to waste scarce resources on food imported from other nations. The sales of processed palm wine are negligible in Nigeria, but the country is one of the world’s top consumers of French champagne.
Ultimately, the drive to develop a robust agro-allied industry and substantially reduce post-harvest waste will require determination, consistency and patriotism.
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