Source: IFPRI Nigeria
MOTIVATION
Agriculture is the single largest contributor to the well being of the rural poor in Nigeria, sustaining approximately 86 percent of rural households in the country. Improved agricultural development and growth can provide a pathway out of poverty. In an effort to assist Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture to meet CAADP goals and commitments, IFPRI and partners including the Canadian International Development Agency and USAID developed the Nigeria Strategy Support Program in 2007. Collaborating with local researchers and government officials, the program conducts research covering a wide swath of topics such as agricultural inputs and technologies; agricultural financing; governance; the rice sector; commodity value chains; social networks; nutrition and food security; and Nigeria’s role in regional food security, capacity building, and data analysis. This research provides a solid foundation for policy analysis. The program, with research staff based in Abuja, also builds upon national capacity to improve the policy research that feeds into Nigeria’s rural development strategy.
OUTCOMES
- IFPRI’s support to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture led to rapid progress in Nigeria’s CAADP process. For example, from 2009 to 2010, the Nigerian government sharply increased budget allocations in order to meet its CAADP commitments.
- IFPRI facilitated revisions to the national agricultural strategy, which was submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture in 2010 as an input into the National Agricultural Investment Plan.
- IFPRI and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) held a policy dialogue on the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). IFPRI completed several activities in support of ATA, including hosting a conference, “Informing Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda with Policy Analysis and Research Evidence,” in November 2012. Additionally, IFPRI’s Statistics of Public Expenditure for Economic Development (SPEED) database on agricultural public expenditures in Nigeria was included in the Nigerian government’s 2011 “Agricultural Transformation Agenda,” the linchpin strategy document of the Minister of Agriculture.
- In 2012, IFPRI completed a capacity assessment for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) on the implementation of the Agricultural Transformation Agenda. The study identified several capacity gaps, including gaps in policy analysis within the Ministry. FMARD is currently in the process of sourcing funding to establish a policy analysis unit within the Planning, Research, and Statistics (PRS) Department of the Ministry.
- In Nigeria, IFPRI’s Land Governance Monitoring and Assessment Partnership Program helped to reinvigorate the Presidential Technical Committee on Land Reform. Upon request from the government, the research team completed an appraisal survey to examine wealth and gender disparities in land registration and titling.
- In 2009, findings from IFPRI’s Nigeria Public Expenditure Review spurred a national interest in the level of agricultural spending, and team members were invited to meet with members of the Nigerian Parliament.
- In 2012, IFPRI completed a study of the Nigerian rice economy that is currently under review for policy implementation.
- IFPRI led a team to develop a policy matrix as an input into Nigeria’s New Alliance Cooperation Framework. Approved by the Federal Government of Nigeria, the policy matrix is one of the principal documents in the Cooperative Framework packet.
