Once upon a time, agriculture was the heartbeat of Nigeria. Long before oil began flowing from the Niger Delta creeks, it was cocoa from the West, groundnuts from the North, and palm oil from the East that built our railways, funded our schools, and fed our families.
Farming was not just a profession it was a proud, sustainable way of life. Today, however, that once-thriving sector is gasping for air.
What happened to Nigeria’s farms? Why is a country blessed with over 70 million hectares of arable land still struggling to feed itself? The answers are painfully obvious and yet, nothing seems to change.
Neglect, Not Nature
To begin with, Nigeria’s agricultural decline is not due to poor soil or bad weather. In fact, we are one of the luckiest countries in the world when it comes to fertile land, sunshine, and rainfall. The real culprit is neglect. For decades, successive governments have paid lip service to agriculture while pouring national attention and resources into oil. When the oil prices soar, we talk diversification. When they crash, we panic and remember farming again but only for a while.
Farming is still largely left to smallholder farmers using cutlasses and hoes, facing insecurity, lack of mechanization, no access to finance, and poor road networks. Meanwhile, other nations are embracing technology drones, irrigation systems, AI-powered data and turning agriculture into a billion-dollar business. In Nigeria, our farmers are still praying for rain and hoping that bandits don’t raid their fields.
Security Crisis = Food Crisis
Today, parts of the North that once served as Nigeria’s food basket are now war zones. Farmers can no longer go to their land without risking their lives. Entire communities have been displaced by banditry, terrorism, and ethnic clashes. We are not just talking about insecurity here we are talking about national starvation.
Food prices have skyrocketed. Rice, garri, tomatoes basic staples are now luxury items for many Nigerians. And when food becomes unaffordable, poverty deepens, children drop out of school, malnutrition rises, and crime increases. It is a vicious cycle.
The Youth Don’t See a Future in Farming
And can we blame them? Young Nigerians watch as farmers toil under the sun all day, only to be cheated by middlemen, ignored by banks, and abandoned by policy makers. There is no dignity or profit left in farming only frustration. So our young people flee to cities in search of white-collar jobs that barely exist. Meanwhile, the average Nigerian farmer is now over 50 years old. What happens when they can no longer farm?
Policy Without Impact
Yes, there have been programs. Anchor Borrowers Programme. National Agriculture Technology and Innovation Plan. Plenty of seminars, “empowerment” schemes, and white papers. But these have either been poorly implemented, marred by corruption, or designed to benefit a few elites rather than the real farmers on the ground. Policies that don’t translate into food on the table are just political grammar.
A Way Forward – If We’re Serious
If Nigeria is to survive its growing economic and social crises, agriculture cannot remain an afterthought. Here’s what we need not tomorrow, but now:
Secure the farmers: If our rural communities remain under siege, no amount of funding or innovation will matter. Peace is the first fertilizer.
Invest in infrastructure: Good roads, cold storage, and rural electricity are not luxuries they are necessities for any modern agricultural system.
Fund the right people: Cut out the middlemen and political cronies. Give real farmers access to credit, inputs, and markets. Let them grow.
Make farming attractive to youth: Introduce agricultural tech hubs, startups, and training centers. Farming can be cool but only if it pays.
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Move from policy to performance: Enough of the paperwork. We need honest tracking of results. Who is producing what, where, and how much? Where’s the impact?
Lastly, Nigeria cannot import its way out of hunger. We are sitting on gold not the black liquid kind, but the green, growing kind. Our survival as a nation depends on whether we choose to revive agriculture or continue to let it wither in the sun.
Because when the farms die, so does the nation.
