Smart Farming: A pathway for food security in Nigeria, by Prof. MK Othman
Deep Thought with Othman
The world population in 2024 is slightly less than 8.2 billion from the population of 2.5 billion in 1952, a wolfing increase of 5.7 billion people over 72 years. This analysis is made from the information obtained from Worldmeters (http://www.worldometers.info/). The Worldometers is one of the respectable organizations that presents estimated world population based on statistics and projections from the most reputable official organizations such as the United Nations Population Division, World Health Organisation (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and World Bank. Population in the world is growing at around 0.87% per year in 2024 (from 0.88% in 2023 and down from 0.97% in 2020 and 1.05% in 2019). The current population increase is estimated at around 71 million people per year, with an estimated population of 9.6 billion people in 2050. Many countries have a yearly population increase rate much higher than the global average. As of the time of writing this piece, Sunday, November 9th, 2024, the population of Nigeria is 234,414,855 based on the latest United Nations estimates. Nigeria’s population is equivalent to 2.85% of the total world population. Presently, Nigeria ranks number 7 on the list of countries by population. The population density in Nigeria is 215 per square Kilometer, and the total land area is 910,770 square kilometers. The Nigerian population is predicted to be 450 million in the year 2050, making it the third most populous country in the world after China and India. Food production to feed the teeming population is an enormous challenge for many developing countries like Nigeria, especially as more than half of the Nigerian population (51%) lives in urban areas. This makes farming even more difficult due to competing land demands in the metropolitan areas. The current insecurity situation has exacerbated the food insecurity.
Globally, the agricultural sector will face enormous challenges in feeding this ever-increasing population. According to experts, food production must increase to 70% by 2050, and this has to be achieved despite the limited availability of arable lands and the increasing need for freshwater by many competing issues (industries, domestics, and Agriculture). Agriculture consumes 70 percent of the world’s freshwater supply. This is because producing one kilogram of meat requires between 5,000 and 20,000 liters of water, and similarly, producing a kilogram of food crop requires between 500 and 4,000 liters of water depending on the climatic condition of the production environment. In addition, agriculture faces other less predictable factors, such as the impact of climate change, which, according to a recent report by the UN, could lead, among other things, to changes in seasonal events in the life cycle of plants and animals. In Nigeria, the impact of climate change has already been witnessed in recent years.
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Nevertheless, many efforts are being made to develop agriculture at all levels globally. Despite these efforts to achieve food security over the past decades, about 800 million undernourished and 1 billion malnourished people worldwide remain. At the same time, more than 1.4 billion adults are overweight, and one-third of all food produced is wasted. At the same time, global food consumption trends are changing drastically; for example, increasing affluence is driving demand for more meat-rich diets. This is evident even in Nigeria, where one considers the diets of the average household from twenty years ago to now.
The massive adoption of improved technologies is an easy pathway for the world to achieve food sufficiency. The most potent technologies that could address production constraints and increase the quality and quantity of agricultural production are “precision agriculture,” also known as “smart farming.”
Smart farming is not a rocket – science technology; it is already being adopted in some climes; something is happening as corporations and farm offices collect vast amounts of information from crop yields, soil mapping, fertilizer applications, weather data, machinery, and animal health for the development and perfection of smart farming. In a subset of smart farming, Precision Livestock Farming (PLF), sensors are used to monitor and detect reproduction events and health disorders in animals early. Thus, smart farming can help improve food security for the poor and marginalized groups while reducing food waste globally.
Smart farming can be viewed from two angles: climate-smart agriculture and innovative farming technologies. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is the practice that sustainably increases productivity, enhances resilience (adaptation), reduces/removes greenhouse Gases (mitigation) where possible, and enhances the achievement of national food security and development goals. In this definition, the principal goal of CSA is identified as food security and development. At the same time, productivity, adaptation, and mitigation are recognised as the three interlinked pillars necessary for achieving the goal. CSA systematically integrates climate change into the planning and development of sustainable agricultural systems. Specific examples of CSA include sustainable soil management practices, drought-tolerant maize, dairy development, intensive farming of catfish, carbon finance to restore crop fields, waste-reducing rice agricultural machinery, rainfall forecasts, and incentive systems for low-carbon agriculture. In Africa, the Drought-tolerant maize for Africa (DTMA) project released over 160 drought-tolerant maize varieties between 2007 and 2018 to reduce vulnerability and improve food security. In Nigeria, the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) is at the forefront of breeding and releasing drought-tolerance maize. These varieties of maize are tested on-station and on-farm and found to be promising from both research and on farmers’ fields. The report indicates that DTMA technologies are disseminated to farmers in 13 African countries through national agricultural research systems and private seed companies. Although these CSA technologies are being promoted in Nigeria, their impacts are not noticeable, mainly due to the comatose condition of the Agricultural Development Projects (ADP) nationwide. Aggressive promotion of CSA and injecting the ADP system with life-reviving intervention will popularise the CSA technologies among our farmers in this country.
Now, returning to smart farming, what innovative agricultural technologies could attract Nigerian farmers and pave the way for food security in the country? There are several options; let us begin with the simple and easily adoptable ones. (To be continued)
Professor Mk Othman was a two term Executive Director of the National Agricultural Extension Liaison and Research Services, NAERLS, and is currently a Senior lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria.
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