Nigeria’s Move to Convert Degraded Forests into Farm Estates Boosts Hope for Food Security

The Government of Nigeria, through the National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), recently unveiled an ambitious plan to reclaim degraded forest reserves across the country for commercial agriculture.

Executive Secretary of NALDA, Cornelius Adebayo, said the agency would partner state governments to rehabilitate abandoned and degraded forest lands into large-scale farm estates under the Renewed Hope Mega Farm Estate Programme.

Each mega farm cluster, he said, would cover at least 5,000 hectares and provide farmers with access to irrigation facilities, mechanisation services, security infrastructure, road networks, and financial services.

The initiative, according to him, derived from NALDA’s statutory mandate to develop abandoned and under-utilised agricultural land into productive assets.

“We are not acquiring land for private business interests. Our responsibility is to develop the land in collaboration with host communities for their collective prosperity over an agreed period,” Adebayo said.

This move has the capacity to not only support national food security and rural development but also reduce insecurity and create new economic opportunities for rural communities.

A Direly Needed Rescue Operation

The move by NALDA comes as a rescue operation. Many of Nigeria’s forest reserves are abandoned, neglected, and unpoliced. They have thus become havens for illegal logging, illegal mining, agricultural encroachment, and criminal elements.

Environmental stakeholders at the Third Nigeria Socio-Ecological Alternatives Convergence (NSAC) held in Abuja recently warned that Nigeria’s forests are disappearing at the rate of 250,000 to 300,000 hectares annually and that the country has already lost more than 70 per cent of its forest reserves.

Meanwhile, food insecurity continues to stare citizens in the face every day.

By reclaiming depleted forests, NALDA hopes to expand Nigeria’s cultivable land to transition from subsistence to large-scale, automated farming, paving way for increased food production.

Similarly, by clearing and managing abandoned forest reserves, the agency hopes to blow the cover of terrorists, bandits, and other criminal elements who currently use the forests as sanctuaries, thereby addressing rural insecurity. Without a doubt, insecurity in rural communities has been a major factor limiting food production across the country.

Furthermore, turning abandoned forests into secure farming clusters will generate jobs, and NALDA is specifically focusing on empowering thousands of rural youth and women.

Finally, concentrating farmers within organised clusters will also significantly reduce production costs while making government interventions more efficient.

Not All States Are Cooperating

Some states have already committed land for the programme, according to Adebayo. They include Kwara, Niger, Katsina, Plateau, Bauchi and Ekiti.

Kwara State Government, for instance, has already partnered with NALDA to rehabilitate degraded forest reserves, which will subsequently be allocated to members of Cashew Processors Association of Nigeria (CAPAN) for commercial cashew cultivation, he said.

However, several other states are yet to respond even though requests were submitted to them more than two years ago, he said.

The NALDA chief said discussions were ongoing with Enugu and Bayelsa States to ensure broader national coverage.

The Green Hope Project

Adebayo also unveiled the Green Hope Project, a nationwide horticulture initiative designed to decentralise vegetable production through a combination of open-field cultivation and greenhouse farming.

The programme is being implemented in collaboration with Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI) and National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), which will provide capacity building, production inputs, and technical support.

According to him, facilities have already been established in Giri, Abuja, and Shagamu, Ogun State. Lagos has 30 completed greenhouses, with another 50 under construction, while Abuja has 20 with plans for additional 60.

NALDA has also established 38 open-field horticulture sites nationwide, each spanning at least 500 hectares.

The first phase of the project will directly empower about 4,000 women through access to irrigated farmland, technical training, improved seedlings, and guaranteed market linkages.

Each beneficiary will receive approximately 1,000 square metres of irrigated farmland equipped with solar-powered irrigation facilities alongside storage, welfare, and processing infrastructure, he said.

Aquaculture Expansion

The NALDA boss said the agency was equally expanding aquaculture through the establishment of fish villages in the Niger Delta, with a pilot project already underway in Akwa Ibom State to boost domestic fish production and export.

A History of Not-So-Successful Projects

This is not the first time that NALDA has initiated laudable projects. In July 2021, the agency commissioned the Suduje Agricultural Mechanisation Project in Daura, Katsina State. Conceived as an integrated farm spanning livestock, poultry, and crop production, the project set out to empower local widows and orphans.

Other projects by NALDA include the Acharaubo Farm Estate in Emekuku, Imo State, the Gombe Wheat Production Project, and the Osun Poultry Empowerment Programme.

Available information on some of these projects points to significant operational collapses. For instance, reports say the site of the heavily publicized Suduje project was deserted shortly after the end of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration that commissioned it.

Going Forward

NALDA must now take into account the factors that led to the failure of previous projects and devise alternative routes to success for the current projects. These projects must go beyond mere symbolism and political optics.

The success of the present projects matters for national food security, human security, rural economies, and  the environment.