The Federal Government on Tuesday announced a raft of new agricultural incentives it said could generate 21 million jobs, but farmers have voiced doubts, warning that without action, the promises may not go beyond paper.
Vice President Kashim Shettima unveiled the reforms at the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s National and Subregional Hand-in-Hand Investment Forum in Abuja. He said Nigeria could secure food sufficiency if it fully tapped its irrigation capacity.
“Strategic investment in irrigation alone could triple yields, free us from seasonal dependency, and fortify our resilience against climate shocks,” Shettima stated.
Calling hunger “the great equaliser that reveals our vulnerabilities and the shared fragility of our existence,” the Vice President added, “Food is not merely a matter of survival, it is a matter of global security.”
According to him, the new incentives include a single-window system for land registration, stronger agricultural credit systems, mechanisation and major irrigation projects. He stressed that the 2021–2025 National Development Plan targets lifting 35 million people out of poverty and creating 21 million rural jobs.
“Nigeria is open for business, and we are ready to partner with you. Let us work hand-in-hand to build Nigeria and a sub-region where no one goes to bed hungry, where rural communities are hubs of wealth creation, and where agriculture is the true foundation of our prosperity,” Shettima said.
Agriculture Minister Abubakar Kyari highlighted Nigeria’s large arable land, weather and digital economy as unique opportunities for investors. Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu, added that agribusiness remained central to Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
The FAO representative in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Dr Hussein Gadain, praised Nigeria’s “clear agricultural development priorities,” describing Shettima as a driving force in attracting investment. The EU envoy, Gautier Mignot, also pledged support, citing an 80 million euro investment in value chains across seven states.
But farmer groups said such promises had been made before without results.
The National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Kabir Kebram, urged the government to act beyond speeches. “Definitely, it will boost if they are implemented. Of course, you can have a policy but unless you implement it very well, you cannot see the results,” he said.
Chairman of the Competitive African Rice Forum, Agric, Peter Dama, echoed the concern. “Pronouncements are different from implementation. While we welcome all these pronouncements, we are still hoping that the pronunciations will be met with practicality… Somebody can come and read a speech, but then the actual implementation is something that might take some time,” he cautioned.
The Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria (SWOFON) was even more critical. Its National Secretary, Chinasa Asonye, said interventions had not benefited the smallholder women farmers who supply much of the country’s food.
“Government interventions on single-digit loans, women-friendly machines, access to land and inclusion in policies have not yielded results. One-third of what we have been advocating for has not been implemented,” Asonye told journalists.
She added, “Nigeria currently spends less than 1.9 per cent on agriculture, far below the 10 per cent commitment under the Malabo Declaration. If we keep waiting for the government, we will never do anything.”
Asonye also questioned transparency in agric spending, noting that billions were earmarked without visible results. She lamented that even the school feeding programme, which once supported farmers by off-taking their produce, no longer helps smallholders.
“We will continue to talk, we will continue to tell them our issues, and probably one day the government will listen. They know our problems, but if they fail to look into them, farmers will keep struggling by themselves,” she said.
