The African Development Bank (AfDB) has called for stronger integration of plant breeding, seed delivery systems, agro-industrialisation and private-sector investment to accelerate Nigeria’s agricultural transformation and strengthen food security.
The Bank’s Officer-in-Charge, Vice-President, Agriculture, Human and Social Development Complex, Dr Martin Fregene, made the call on Wednesday at the 4th International Conference of the Nigerian Plant Breeders Association (NPBA) in Abuja.
Delivering the keynote address titled,“Agro-Industrialization and Agribusiness Investments in Nigeria: Opportunities for Plant Breeding, Seed Delivery Systems and Sustainable Partnerships,” Fregene said improved seeds and agricultural technologies could only deliver their full impact when supported by functional markets, infrastructure, finance, insurance, logistics and processing industries.
He said, “Plant breeding innovations can only transform national food security and rural livelihoods if robust seed systems, well-funded production, agro-industry and logistics are in place.”
According to him, agricultural transformation requires an integrated value chain covering production, aggregation, processing, marketing and supporting infrastructure.
Fregene, a former plant geneticist and breeder, cited improved wheat, cassava and maize varieties as examples of how breeding innovations had contributed to increased agricultural productivity and food security.
He noted that Nigeria’s cassava production had grown substantially over the decades, while improved cassava varieties developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) had contributed to higher yields and the development of value-added cassava industries.
He also highlighted the contribution of improved maize varieties, including Striga-tolerant and disease-resistant varieties, to the expansion of maize production in northern Nigeria.
Fregene said Nigeria and other African countries must move beyond the production and export of raw agricultural commodities by investing more heavily in processing and manufacturing.
Using the cotton value chain as an example, he said West Africa produces about 1.1 million tonnes of raw cotton lint annually but exports about 90 per cent of it, while importing billions of dollars worth of fabrics.
He contrasted this with Bangladesh, which, despite having a similar number of garment industries, has significantly greater ginning, spinning and textile processing capacity.
According to him, closing the gap between agricultural production and processing could generate billions of dollars in additional value and create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the region.
He said similar opportunities existed in rice, wheat, soybean, poultry and other agricultural value chains.
“The paucity of ginning, spinning and weaving capacity, which is a failure of our agro-industrialization policy, is costly,” he said, adding that West Africa could earn significantly more from the cotton-to-garment value chain if more processing occurred within the region.
Fregene said one of the major constraints to agricultural transformation was not necessarily a lack of available capital, but the shortage of bankable projects and mechanisms capable of reducing investment risks.
He said Africa had an estimated $4 trillion in pension funds, insurance companies, banks and equity funds seeking investment opportunities, but that more structured agricultural projects were needed to attract the capital.
He called for longer-term and lower-cost financing, de-risking instruments, technical assistance and stronger coordination between governments, investors and agricultural businesses.
He also stressed the importance of regional integration, saying larger regional markets could help African agricultural value chains become more competitive.
Fregene cited the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as a step towards creating larger markets and strengthening regional agricultural value chains.
The AfDB official said the Bank was also shifting its approach to agricultural development through the proposed Africa Food System Transformation Platform (AFSTP).
He said the platform would bring together governments, private-sector actors, technical and development partners, and civil society organisations to address financing, infrastructure, logistics, market access, regulatory and production gaps across agricultural value chains.
According to him, the platform would follow a six-stage process: diagnose, prepare, de-risk, mobilise, deliver and replicate.
He said the approach was designed to move beyond simply financing agricultural projects towards making agricultural transformation more attractive and investable for private capital.
Fregene said the Bank was also working with partners, including the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), to advance the initiative.
Fregene urged Nigerian plant breeders to strengthen collaboration with processors, millers, brewers, exporters, seed companies and other market actors so that breeding programmes could respond more directly to market demand.
He proposed the creation of an electronic catalogue containing information on crop varieties, their areas of adaptation and potential uses.
He said the AfDB, through its Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme and other initiatives, was prepared to support demand-led breeding and seed systems for priority crops including cassava, rice, maize, soybean, sorghum, cowpea, tomato and horticultural crops.
He also described seed delivery as a business ecosystem requiring stronger financing across early-generation seed production, private seed companies, agro-dealer networks, digital advisory services and last-mile distribution.
“A variety that does not reach a farmer’s field is at best a journal article and, at worst, wasted resources, not a solution,” Fregene said.
He called on Nigerian banks and investors to recognise seed companies as critical infrastructure for food security and provide them with affordable financing and risk coverage.
Fregene urged members of the NPBA to organise their innovations into commercially viable and investable propositions, embrace private seed companies as delivery partners, and deliberately mentor young scientists.
He said the AfDB would continue to support the sector by helping to de-risk agricultural investments, finance critical systems and promote policies that connect improved seeds to industries and markets.
He said Nigeria had the scientific capacity, market size and entrepreneurial energy required to demonstrate agricultural transformation at scale.
“Ultimately, Africa’s agricultural transformation will be determined not by how many technologies we develop, but by how many farmers use them productively, how many businesses build upon them, how much investment they unlock, and how much food and economic opportunity they create,” Fregene said.
