The Federal Government has called on Nigerian farmers to lead an agricultural revolution by shifting from raw production to local processing and export-driven agriculture, as the country pushes to diversify its fragile economy.
The call was made on Thursday in Abuja by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, during the General Assembly of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) — a gathering meant to unite farmers, policymakers, private investors and development partners under one national agricultural agenda.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the General Assembly of Farmers (GAF) serves as a national platform to strengthen collaboration and reinforce AFAN’s role as the unified voice of Nigerian farmers.
Kalu said the Federal Government, under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, remained committed to achieving food security, citing projections from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 2026 Macroeconomic Outlook, which forecasts agricultural GDP growth of 3.5 to 4.5 per cent.
The projected growth, he said, would be driven by increased investment in farm inputs, extension services and post-harvest infrastructure.
But Kalu warned that growth figures alone mean nothing if they benefit only commercial mega-farms while millions of smallholder farmers remain trapped in subsistence production.
“The challenge is not merely to grow agriculture, but to grow agriculture inclusively,” he said.
He explained that the Tinubu administration had elevated agriculture to a strategic national priority, arguing that the controversial removal of fuel subsidies — though painful — had freed up resources for mechanisation, input distribution and rural infrastructure.
Kalu also pointed to the declaration of a national state of emergency on food security, alongside policies such as the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) and the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI), as early signs of reform gaining traction across key farming regions.
“Easy policies do not create transformation; they create illusion,” he said, commending the administration’s “political courage.”
However, Kalu stressed that Nigeria’s true agricultural revolution would not be driven by a handful of industrial farms, but by over 40 million smallholder farmers scattered across the country.
To illustrate his point, he noted that a smallholder increasing yield from 1.5 tonnes per hectare to 2.25 tonnes contributes more to national output than a single large estate scaling from 10 to 15 tonnes per hectare.
According to him, productivity gains among smallholders generate broader employment, strengthen local economies and promote national stability.
Kalu challenged AFAN to remain firm in policy advocacy while ensuring that modern cultivation practices, value addition and post-harvest systems are embedded into all agricultural programmes.
He highlighted Nigeria’s weak export performance as a major structural failure.
Nigeria currently earns about $3 billion (₦4.44 trillion) annually from agricultural exports — mainly cocoa, cashew and sesame — a figure dwarfed by Côte d’Ivoire’s $4 billion cocoa exports alone and India’s $40 billion agricultural export industry.
“We export raw cocoa, not chocolate. We export unprocessed cashew, not finished products. We export sesame seeds, not sesame oil,” Kalu said.
He argued that a strategic push toward value addition and export diversification could generate millions of jobs and earn Nigeria over $10 billion in foreign exchange within five years.
The Deputy Speaker urged farmers to invest in processing, export-grade production and international market access, assuring them of policy backing and partnerships. He also called on state governments to dedicate at least five per cent of their budgets to agricultural infrastructure and urged the private sector to invest more aggressively in processing, logistics and market systems.
Earlier, AFAN National President Dr Farouk Rabiu-Mudi said the Assembly’s theme — “Empowering Farmers, Fostering Collaboration” — reflected the urgent need to place farmers at the centre of Nigeria’s agricultural transformation.
He identified persistent challenges such as poor institutional coordination, limited access to finance and inputs, weak extension services and low adoption of innovation, noting that the Assembly was designed to confront these gaps directly.
The reports that the highlight of the opening session was the presentation of an award to the Deputy Speaker in recognition of his contributions to agricultural development in Nigeria.
Nigeria has policies. Nigeria has farmers. Nigeria has land.
Yet the country still exports raw crops instead of finished products — and poverty instead of prosperity.
The question now is simple: will this agricultural revolution finally move beyond speeches — or remain another harvest of promises?