Crop yield in Nigeria still below global average, says report


Despite Federal Government's claim that food production has increased across the country, the 2017 wet season National Agricultural performance survey report has shown that the overall farm yield is still below global and African average for the agricultural subsector.


The study highlighted challenges that affected food production during the 2017 wet season farming to include: climate change, absence of government input support, insecurity, kidnapping, poor support for agricultural extension.

The study carried out by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development noted that the constraints affected all the subsector of agriculture including crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture, and agro forestry value chain.

The report which was launched recently in Abuja noted that although there was increase in land area for food production, it only resulted in 35 per cent increase in livestock and aquaculture.

Presenting the report, Prof. Mohammed Othman, Executive Director, NAERLS, decried that the level of mechanisation in Nigeria is still very low, as over 34 states are unable to access tractor services in 2017, due to high cost of hiring services.

Besides not buying tractors for farmers, Othman said the survey indicated that 28 states could not access tractor services for their wet season farming due to unavailability, resulting into high cost of land clearing activities.

The report identified maize as the most cultivated crop in Nigeria, accounting for 5, 960, 920 hectares, producing 10, 813,980 metric tonnes (MT) compared to 12,107,580MT in 2016, representing a 11.96 per cent increase in national total output.



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