Agricultural Biotechnology in Smallholder Agriculture in Nigeria: Opportunities, Threats and Policy Options for Agricultural Transformation By G. A. Abu, H. O. Obekpa and D. Abah Institute of Food Security, university of Agriculture Makurdi, Nigeria.

Outline of paper  Introduction  Nigeria’s agricultural challenges  Farmer’s development  Bio-technology can help solve the food challenges  Policy and institutional Issues  Conclusion

Introduction  Agriculture is currently a dominant sector in the economy  Employs 70-80% of the people  Over 30% of the GDP Our Challenge: 1960 vs. Today  Farmer Ignorance  Poor access to markets  Access to Finance  Poor access to appropriate technology and inputs  Risk of weather  Land tenure systems

Nigeria’s Agricultural Challenges  80 million hectares arable land: <2 hectares per farmer  800K MT of fertilizer consumption annually: Only 10kg/ha Whereas  Input use has been targeted as the key path to higher yields  Majority of Government agricultural budget goes into input subsidy (> $700M in 2010). Whereas;  Natural gas is abundant in the country  There is enough arable land to be a net exporter of food & seeds  Available funds and technical resource are sufficient to transform the sector  What gets to the farmer are:  Only 10% - 20% of subsidies  Very high input costs (>$500/mt)  Isolation and desolation  A vicious cycle of subsistence

Classification of Farmers (Fertilizer Usage) Mainly smallholders Produces 95% of the nation’s agricultural output

Farmers Development  Very low productivity and production  Poor access to critical inputs  Poorly organised and limited access to opportunities (Markets)  Poor capacity for adoption of good practice and growth  Trapped in poverty  Poor food security levels

Farmers Development

Farmers Development Cont’d

The resultant food challenge  Food insecurity and hunger ( Progress towards meeting the MDG target across regions. Source: FAO,WFP & IFAD 2012)

Bio-technology can help solve the food challenge  Yield of crops and livestock  Resistance to biotic stress, pest &diseases  Improved Nutritional quality  Cost saving  Increased land productivity  Responding to climatic changes  Salt and nutrient stress  Drought resistance

Bio-technology can help solve the food challenge  Biofortification

Policy and institutional issues  Will bio-technology benefit Nigeria small scale holders?  Where Should research priorities be?  Funding for bio-technology R & D  The challenge of regulation  The challenge of seed production and distribution  How will the PPP participate?

Policy and institutional issues  The challenge on the extension system  The infrastructural challenge and the attendant high cost

Conclusion  Bio-technology can solve the existing and emerging problems of food and nutrition security in Nigeria.  Small holder farmers are important stakeholders that must be in the adoption of biotechnology.  Additional investment in capacity building for R & D is imperative

Thank you