Beyond campaign promises: Who will feed Nigeria in 2030?
A national agriculture agenda for the Nigeria we want
By Chi Tola Roberts
Nigeria is approaching another cycle of political promises. We will hear about roads, electricity, jobs, security, infrastructure, education and economic transformation. We will hear candidates tell us what they intend to do when they are elected.
But there is one question I believe every political candidate—at every level—must be made to answer:
Who will feed Nigeria in 2030?
Not just who will distribute fertiliser.
Not who will commission a tractor.
Not who will launch another agricultural empowerment programme.
Who will build a food system capable of feeding a growing population, creating wealth for farmers, employing our young people and competing in the global market?
Because food security is no longer simply an agricultural issue.
It is an economic issue. A security issue. A public health issue. A youth employment issue. And ultimately, a national survival issue.
Nigeria doesn’t need another agricultural slogan
For decades, we have talked about Nigeria’s agricultural potential.
We have said we have fertile land.
We have said we have a young population.
We have said we have a favourable climate.
We have said we have enormous opportunities in crops, livestock, fisheries and agro-processing.
All of this is true.
But potential does not feed a nation.
Planning does. Investment does. Infrastructure does. Technology does. Markets do. Policy continuity does.
Nigeria does not simply have an agriculture problem.
We have a planning, value-chain, infrastructure, financing and political continuity problem.
And until we confront that honestly, we will continue producing agricultural programmes instead of building an agricultural economy.
Don’t just promise production. Build the value chain.
One of the biggest mistakes we can make is measuring agricultural success by how much we produce.
Production is only the beginning.
A farmer can produce ten tonnes of tomatoes and still lose money because there is no cold storage.
A cassava farmer can harvest a bumper crop and remain poor because processing capacity is miles away.
A rice farmer can increase production while imported or poorly processed alternatives dominate the market.
So when politicians tell us how many hectares they will cultivate, I want them to answer a more important question:
What happens after harvest?
Where is the storage?
Where is the processing?
Where is the packaging?
Where is the transportation?
Where is the market?
Where is the export strategy?
Where is the manufacturing industry that will turn agricultural commodities into finished products?
The future of Nigerian agriculture cannot be:
Farm → Harvest → Sell raw produce.
It must become:
Farm → Process → Manufacture → Package → Market → Export.
That is how agriculture becomes an industry.
That is how farmers become wealth creators.
That is how rural economies grow.
Don’t Just Give Young People Farms. Give Them Agricultural Businesses.
I am particularly concerned when politicians tell young Nigerians to “go into farming” as though agriculture is simply about carrying a hoe and working on a farm.
Agriculture is much bigger than farming.
The young Nigerian of tomorrow can be a precision-agriculture specialist.
A food processor.
A greenhouse operator.
A farm manager.
A logistics entrepreneur.
An agricultural engineer.
A drone operator.
A cold-chain business owner.
An agricultural data analyst.
A seed producer.
An exporter.
A food manufacturer.
An equipment-leasing entrepreneur.
Agriculture should not be presented to our young people as an escape from unemployment.
It should be presented as one of the most sophisticated and profitable business ecosystems available to them.
And What About Women?
We cannot seriously discuss Nigeria’s agricultural future without discussing women.
Women are already deeply involved in production, processing, trading and food distribution across the country.
Yet too many women remain excluded from the land, finance, technology, formal markets and decision-making structures required to scale their enterprises.
If Nigeria wants agricultural transformation, women must move from being participants in the value chain to being owners of the value chain.
That means access to:
– Land and secure tenure
– Affordable finance
– Modern equipment
– Agricultural technology
– Processing facilities
– Storage
– Market information
– Export opportunities
– Business development
– Leadership and policy platforms
This is not charity.
It is an economic strategy.
When women build successful agricultural enterprises, families, communities and entire local economies benefit.
Where is the National Land Strategy?
Nigeria cannot build a serious agricultural economy without confronting land.
We need a more deliberate national conversation around agricultural land access, documentation, aggregation, land-use planning and responsible investment.
We need to know:
What land is available?
What is it suitable for?
Who can access it?
How can it be protected from misuse?
How do we encourage investors without displacing communities?
And importantly:
How do we build agriculture with the land, not simply on the land?
Sustainability cannot be an attractive word in a policy document while we exhaust the soil, destroy ecosystems and ignore the long-term consequences of our agricultural practices.
Nigeria Needs Agricultural Clusters, Not Scattered Projects
We should stop thinking about agricultural development as isolated farms scattered across the country.
Imagine agricultural clusters built around the strengths of each region.
Production. Processing. Storage, Transport. Research. Finance. Skills development. Manufacturing. Export. All connected.
Rather than every state trying to do everything, we should ask:
What can each region produce exceptionally well—and how can Nigeria become globally competitive in it?
That is where real agricultural transformation begins.
The Politics of Food Must Change
Politicians often discuss food prices during campaigns because food inflation affects everybody.
But food prices cannot be solved permanently by political speeches, temporary palliatives or emergency imports.
We need to address the entire system.
The cost of land.
The cost of inputs.
The cost of finance.
The cost of energy.
The cost of transportation.
The cost of storage.
The cost of processing.
The cost of insecurity.
The cost of poor infrastructure.
And ultimately, the cost of doing business.
If we reduce the cost of producing food, moving food and processing food, we begin to address the cost of eating food.
And Please, Let Agriculture Survive Elections
Perhaps this is my biggest appeal.
Nigeria needs a 10–20 year national agricultural strategy that does not disappear every time a new administration takes office.
A new government should improve the strategy, not throw it away.
A new minister should inherit the work—not reinvent the wheel.
A new governor should build on what works—not abandon it because it belongs to the previous administration.
Agriculture does not operate according to four-year political cycles.
Trees take years to mature. Soil takes years to restore. Farmers take years to build businesses. Agro-industries take years to establish. Markets take years to develop.
Our agricultural policy must therefore think beyond election cycles.
*So, To Every Politician Seeking Our Votes…*
I am not asking you to give us another agricultural manifesto.
I am asking you to give us an agricultural roadmap.
Tell Nigerians:
What will we produce?
Where will we produce it?
Who will produce it?
How will they finance production?
How will they access land?
Where will the crops be processed?
Where will they be stored?
How will they reach the market?
Who will buy them?
What percentage will be exported?
How many jobs will the value chain create?
How much wealth will remain in the communities producing the food?
And perhaps the most important question:
What happens to this plan when your administration leaves office?
Because Nigeria does not need another agricultural programme that ends with an administration.
Nigeria needs an agricultural system that outlives administrations.
Campaigns Will End. Nigeria Will Remain.
The posters will eventually come down.
The campaign songs will stop.
The rallies will end.
The political promises will be tested against reality.
But Nigerians will still need to eat.
Our children will still need jobs.
Our farmers will still need markets.
Our women will still need economic opportunities.
Our young people will still need a future.
And Nigeria will still need to feed itself.
So before we ask politicians what they will do for Nigeria, perhaps we should ask them one simple question:
Who will feed Nigeria in 2030?
And when they answer, let us not be satisfied with promises.
Ask for the plan.
Ask for the numbers.
Ask for the timeline.
Ask who will be responsible.
Ask how it will be funded.
Ask how it will be measured.
And most importantly,
Ask how the plan will survive the politician.
Because Nigeria is bigger than any political party, any administration and any election.
Our agriculture must be too.
Roberts, Founder, Women in Agricultural Advancement and Sustainability Africa (WAASA)#
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