If President Tinubu is serious about expanding agricultural output in response to the cost of living crisis, he needs to float a Nigerian National Seed Company producing the following products, with the government taking say a 25% stake

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Cocoa - We need to boost our annual harvest to 1m tonnes from the current 330,000 tonnes

[2] Rice - We need to boost our national harvest to 10m tonnes from the current 8.5m tonnes

[3] Sugarcane - We need a 10m tonne crop, up from the current 1.5m tonnes

[4] Palm oil - We need to boost output to 20m tonnes from the current 1.4m tonnes

[5] Wheat - We desperately need to boost production to about 10m tonnes from the current 200,000 tonnes

[6] Coconuts - We need to boost production to 10m tonnes from the current 265,000 tonnes

[7] Natural rubber - We need to boost our crop to about 3m tonnes from the current 160,000 tonnes

[8] Maize - We need a crop of at least 20m tonnes, up from the current 12.7m tonnes

[9] Cotton - We need to boost production to at least 3m tonnes from the current 105,000 tonnes

[10] Tomatoes - We need to boost production to about 10m tonnes from the current 4m tonnes

As Ben Bruce would say - This is just common sense!

[1] I have not picked these crops at random as they are all key. What we need are high-yield hybrid seeds of all these crops, that will quadruple unit per hectare

[2] With the likes of rice, wheat, sugar, palm oil and natural rubber, we have squandered billions of dollars importing large quantities over the last six decades

[3] With the likes of cocoa, cotton, palm oil and coconuts, we could make a fortune if we mass-produced them and processed these goods into finished products

[4] As per maize, we desperately need it to replace the millions of tonnes of wheat we import annually

[5] With all these crops, I have looked at output in countries similar to Nigeria like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Mexico, The Philippines, Brazil, etc

[6] If they can grow all these crops in large quantities, so too can we

[7] Nigeria could easily save about $10bn in foreign exchange annually with a sensible agricultural policy. We could then generate an extra $30bn from the export of processed foods if we are serious about it

[8] I sometimes wonder if those responsible for Nigeria’s agriculture live in the real world at all. Why spend $22bn on food imports annually when you could float a hybrid seed company to produce high yielding crop varieties for less than $1bn?

[9] Move your subsistence peasant farmers off the land and into food processing factories, which will then free up farmland for commercial agriculture. This is just basic common sense!

[10] Can we float a private sector Nigerian Seed Company? Maybe get our millionaire evangelical pastors to be the main stakeholders in it. Then the federal government can take out a 25% stake, with foreign investors taking out maybe another 20%