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The Effects of COVID19 on the Nigerian Agricultural Sector

The Effects of COVID19 on the Nigerian Agricultural Sector by Victor Akintonde
Ever since the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in Wuhan, China late last year, the world's attention has shifted to this infectious disease ( although many world leaders didn't take full cognisance of it until this year when it move from the problem of a nation to the problem of the entire world).

Since then, this pandemic disease has brought the entire world to a stand still, Many economy of great nations has been badly affected with world leaders seems  clueless on how best to deal with this rampaging infectious disease.
effects of pandemic coronavirus on agriculture

Nigeria as one nation which has suffered from the effects of this infectious got no fair deal on her economy. The nation confirmed her first case of Corona virus on 28th, February, 2020, with the case being an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy to Lagos, Nigeria on the 25th of February 2020.

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Since then, the number of infected people has increased rapidly. This has forced the country to adopt necessary measures to curtail the spread of this disease with the notable lockdown order which restricts the movement of the citizens. This in turn, has affected the Agricultural sector of Nigeria in many regards.

Agriculture is one of the main practices many Nigerians engage in. Every farmers looks forward to the raining season to cultivate their land and plant food crops which are consumed by households in Nigeria and the rest of the produce even exported to other countries as a source of  revenue generation for the country. But ever since the lock down as taken effect, many farmers are unable to venture to their farm land to cultivate even though the raining season has began. This has been a source of great pain to Many farmers as they are unable to do what they love to do most.

Purchased seeds with the farmers are left to spoilt due to inability to plant in due time and since there is no adequate means of storage, the farmers are left to count their loss. Plants in nursery are unable to be transplanted to the main field at the right time and this has resulted into overgrown and unusable plant.
It is well known that agriculture is not complete until farm produce gets to the final consumer in form of finish products and this is achieve through a chain of many activities like storage, transportation, distribution, marketing etc. Due to the lockdown in the country, stored finish products with the farmers are unable to get to the consumers. Although measures are put in place to allow the movement of essential food products across the country but this has only resulted into a little success.


All is not dark and gloom, the Nigeria government led by President Muhammadu Buhari has realize the importance of agriculture in this present time and offer a lively hope to all Agriculturist in Nigeria and I must say a  hope to all Nigerians as well by the measure He intend to put in place concerning agriculture which he said in His recent speech to the nation.
He said  "We reviewed how our farmers can safely plant and harvest in this rainy season to ensure our food security is not compromised. Furthermore, we also discussed how to safely transport food items from rural production areas to industrial processing zones and ultimately, to the key consumption centers."

With this, farmers and Nigerians can hope for the better as HOPE is what we all need in this trying times.


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