Netherlands Urges Nigeria to Enhance Agricultural Systems for Food Security

Oluchi Chibuzor

The government of the Netherlands has expressed its commitment to supporting Nigeria’s agricultural sector while calling on the country to improve its agricultural systems to achieve sustainable food security.

This was communicated by the Consular General of the Netherlands in Lagos, Mr. Michel Deleen, during a Public-Private Dialogue themed, “Inclusive Agribusiness in Nigeria,” to mark the end of the 2SCALE agriculture accelerator programme in Nigeria.

2SCALE, an acronym for Toward Sustainable Clusters in Agribusiness through Learning in Entrepreneurship, is an agricultural accelerator programme launched in 2012 and funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs to scale up agricultural production across Africa.

Deleen emphasised the urgent need to expand sustainable agricultural systems across Nigeria to address growing food insecurity, noting that the country’s current agriculture sector still produces below potential and global yield capacity.

“Nigeria needs a green revolution. The level of yields that a Nigerian farmer gets today is way below what is possible. It is way below international standards and way below what is possible in Nigeria. The yields need to increase.

“To achieve this, we need to work on all different levels, from training, to input, to fertilisers, to markets, to storage, to transport. Everything needs to improve, and that is the duty we all have; to work on all these elements,” he remarked.

Highlighting the imperative of a sector-wide approach to closing existing gaps, he urged the government to strengthen policy responses by expanding the adoption of high-performing strategies across the country’s agricultural industry.

“The 2SCALE programme, as successful as it has been, cannot change the agricultural system in the entire country. But it changed systems in those locations where it was active, making sure that agriculture was done in a more professional way and that the link between the farmer and the market was really established in a better way,” he said.

Speaking, 2SCALE Country Team Lead, Mr. Maxwell Olitsa, explained that over the course of its 13-year operation, the programme had engaged stakeholders to curate strategies that connected 130,000 farmers to markets, promoted women and youth inclusion in agriculture, and drove sustainable agribusiness.

On his part, the CEO of the Bank of Agriculture, Mr. Ayo Sotirin, stated that with the bank targeting a N1.5 trillion market recapitalisation, it hopes to increase its impact by supporting more farmers with access to funding across the country.