Nigeria’s agric sector lags in technology, ex-AfDB adviser warns

FILE: Prof. Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka

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A former Senior Special Adviser on Industrialisation to the African Development Bank, Prof. Oyebanji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka has insisted that industrialising agriculture remains the only sustainable pathway to economic growth, food security, and poverty reduction in Nigeria.

Delivering a lecture titled, “Industrialising Agriculture for Economic Development and Food Security,” at the  Oyo State International Agribusiness Summit 2025, which ended at the weekend,  held at IITA, Ibadan, Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, warned that Nigeria’s agricultural structure remains technologically backward and incapable of supporting national development.

Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, a development Economist and Visiting Professor at The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK,  said, “We stand today at a critical crossroads in our nation’s history,” adding, “We are blessed with vast, fertile lands, yet we remain a food-deficit nation and a net importer of wheat, rice, sugar and fish.”

While lamenting Nigeria’s over N1 trillion annual food import bill, the ex-AfDB adviser said the system “hurts farmers, displaces local production, fuels unemployment and cripples agro-processing and manufacturing.”

The don also described industrialisation of agriculture as “the only sustainable pathway to economic transformation for countries like Nigeria that sit on massive land resources but rely excessively on imports.”

According to him, Nigeria’s growth trajectory has remained weak because agriculture was still treated as a subsistence sector rather than a science-driven, value-adding industry.

“You can not build a competitive economy on the back of raw commodity exports and food imports. That model guarantees poverty. Real development begins when agriculture feeds industry and industry feeds exports,” he stressed.

Oyelaran-Oyeyinka criticised Nigeria’s constant policy flip-flops, especially import bans and sudden reversals, arguing that such decisions destroy farmers’ confidence and cripple private investment.

“When the government crashes the price of locally produced commodities through unplanned imports, you wipe out a full year of farmers’ labour and push them out of business. That is how you destroy jobs you should be creating,” he pointed out.

Continuing, he maintained  that countries that transformed their economies, such as Brazil, Malaysia, and Vietnam, did so by integrating agriculture with processing, storage, logistics, and manufacturing, even as he argued that Nigeria must prioritise research-driven production, mechanisation, farmer financing, and market-linked value chains to unlock real industrial growth.

“Agri-industrialisation is not about tractors on television. It is about science, data, processing plants, efficient logistics, and competitive clusters that turn raw produce into export-grade products,” he stressed.

Oyelaran-Oyeyinka urged federal and state governments to stabilise policies, strengthen agricultural research institutes, and create an enabling environment for private sector-led investments.

“Nigeria has the land, people, and domestic demand to build one of Africa’s strongest food and industrial economies. What we lack is consistency and execution,” he said.

The professor added that without urgent reforms, Nigeria will continue to experience food inflation, job losses, and declining productivity despite having one of the continent’s largest youth populations.

“This economy will not grow on oil. It must grow on the agro-industrial value chain. That is where the future is,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, in his remarks, said the state took deliberate steps to reposition agriculture as a business rather than a subsistence activity.

He explained that the administration began by strengthening partnerships with research institutes to modernise farming models.

“We asked ourselves: why don’t we bring in all these institutes where they’re carrying out research and doing quite a bit to improve the model we’re using?

“We decided that charity will begin at home, and we partnered with IITA to start with. For cocoa rejuvenation, we are now partnering with both IITA and the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria.”

Makinde also highlighted progress on Oyo State’s Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones, saying, “We have two zones – the Iseyin and Iruwa zones, coming up to complement the Fashola.

“Land preparations are ongoing, investors are onboarding, and both zones will soon become operational.

These will create investment-ready clusters that will drive jobs and exports,” Makinde disclosed.

The Director-General, Oyo State Agribusiness Development Agency, Dr. Debo Akande, who described the state as “the agribusiness industrial hub of Nigeria,” pointed out,

“We are exporting wealth and importing poverty,” he said, referencing Nigeria’s continued export of raw commodities without adding value.

He lampposted the NBS data showing N1.3 trillion in agricultural exports in Q2 2025, mostly raw products, contrasting it with Brazil’s US$125 billion export value, 72 per cent of which is processed food.

The Belgian Ambassador, Peter Lindner, in a video goodwill message, commended the Oyo State Government for aligning with global best practices, just as he reaffirmed Belgium’s support for agribusiness cooperation in Nigeria.

The PUNCH Senior Correspondent, Grace, has over 17 years experience covering education, arts, business and health sectors. She’s a graduate of Sociology

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