Land is one of the most stressed resources and its multiple uses contribute to overlapping challenges, including climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss. At global, regional and national consensus, revisiting land use to fit into current realities – food production with minimal impact on the environment– has become a priority and central to solving many wicked problems such as food insecurity and poverty. For Nigeria, addressing these problems will require revising its Land Use Act and practices. This will be imperative to any success the current administration might want to see in its agricultural and climate change agenda.
History has it that one of the reasons for the Land Use Act of 1978 was to ease the availability of land for agriculture to foster ease of mobility of labour and investment in agriculture. A product of the military administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo, the Act which started out as a decree does not directly make provision for agriculture in terms of its use and coverage for – crop and livestock production. Instead, the Act encourages extensive practices, that is opening more land for agriculture, which has ended up in the encroachment of marginal land areas including depleting forest and water resources to meet the food needs of the growing populace.
While the share of total land used for agriculture has been declining globally over the last three decades, it has increased significantly in Nigeria (figure 2). This increase in agricultural land as a share of total land explains the prevailing pressure on the need to feed growing population and further ascertains the lack of foresight of the current Land Use Act on the potential depletion of land resources due to population growth. More importantly, the prevailing consequences of other human activities which, forty-five years on, threaten land use, food production and livelihoods.
Figure 1 (Data source: FAOSTAT)
Figure 2 (Data source: World Bank)
For a fact, prevailing climate challenges such as desertification and desert encroachment are pushing southwards of Nigeria at 0.6km per annum accounting for the loss of 351,000 hectares of viable crop and rangeland every year This has an impact on conflict in agricultural land use (e.g. nomads and farmers’ conflicts), displacement and security of farms and the farming populace. As reported in a recent study, land cover changes in northern Nigeria over thirty-two years (1984 – 2016) show a loss in vegetation in the North East and North West regions of Nigeria, attributed to desertification. All these overlapping challenges have over time impacted Nigeria’s agricultural productivity and its ability to meet the food needs of its growing populace, but lack of clear policies to change our approach to land use and recognise that extensive practices through promises of opening more land for agriculture has and will not solve Nigeria’s agri-environmental problems.
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In the case study below, I demonstrate the shortcomings of policies promoting extensive practices and its impact on productivity
Maize production as a case study
Nigeria is Africa’s second largest producer of maize and the country boasts the largest land under maize production, dwarfing rivals like South Africa, Ethiopia, and Kenya (Figure 3). Yet, a closer look at Figure 4 reveals a sobering truth: Nigeria's maize output falls far short of its potential. Across a five-year average (2018-2022), Nigeria cultivated twice the maize area of Ethiopia and 50% more than South Africa. However, its total production lags significantly behind due to low crop yields. On average, Nigerian farmers achieve only 1.7 to 2.2 tonnes of maize per hectare, compared to 4 tonnes in Ethiopia and a whopping 5 tonnes in South Africa. This stark disparity points to a critical issue: Nigeria's maize productivity is stagnant and desperately needs a boost.
Figure 3 (Data source: FAOSTAT)
Figure 4 (Data source: FAOSTAT)
Figure 5 (Data source: FAOSTAT)
Low agricultural productivity is a recurring problem that needs urgent attention. Nigeria has the potential to feed its populace and export many of its staple crops should relevant policies focus more on improving productivity rather than opening more land for agricultural production. From figures 4 and 5, it’s obvious Nigeria currently operates far below its potential and if maize yield were to be at the same level as Ethiopia and South Africa, Nigeria has the potential to more than double its current production. The question is what does Nigeria need to do differently?
Shifting land policies towards addressing low agricultural productivity
Solving the problems of low productivity, which culminate from overlapping agro-ecosystems challenges as already stated, would require a holistic approach. First, there is a need to revisit Nigeria's current Land Use Act and redesign comprehensive and inclusive agro-ecological policies, bearing in mind the need to model new approaches to land use that protect marginal land areas. There is a further need for policy shift from extensive practices - ‘opening more lands for agriculture’- to sustainable intensification practices, as clarified, extensive practices have and cannot impact productivity geometrically to meet the populace's food needs! A national emergency intervention programme on sustainable intensification and climate-smart agriculture is at this point required to tackle low productivity and ensure nutritional security. Sustainable intensification involves innovative approaches to adapt and mitigate climate risks without degrading the environment.
The Agricultural Transformation Agenda policy, for example, conscientiously promoted improved and high-yielding seeds and in addition, designed a framework to develop agri-food value chain through the Growth Enhancement Schemes. We must revisit policies such as this to understand the loopholes and develop new frameworks promoting climate-smart practices. For this to be successful, it will require addressing adoption challenges, for example, availability and cost are typical barriers to uptake of sustainable intensification practices and farmers cannot grow what they cannot afford. The use of hybrid maize in Nigeria is still quite low and according to an IITA report, less than 10% of Nigerian farmers use hybrid maize varieties, policy interventions should at this point be strategic in promoting improved seeds in combination with soil and land-improving climate-smart practices. Depleting land areas and increasing desertification suggest the need to profile existing damages and draw out plans to promote local soil improvement practices such as organic fertilisers etc.
The approach to transformational initiatives requires the engagement of agri-food systems stakeholders leveraging trans-disciplinary approaches to address land use and agricultural problems – e.g. locally-led innovations and interventions. Complementary investment such as public-private partnership (PPP) is also crucial. However, one of the shortcomings of past policies is the ineffective public investment in the agricultural sector, so PPP cannot be an excuse for persisting ineffective public investment.
Nigeria is well-placed to sustainably transform its agrifood systems, the current regime must however understand that agriculture is part of a wider socio and agro-ecological system and policies need to be cognisant of variations and inclusive in its implementation approaches. It starts with understanding the weakness in its current land use and institutional frameworks which is foundational to many current vices in the agricultural sector, and to bear in mind the need to foster stakeholder-led innovations and interventions.
