Infrastructure for growth

Despite the data on poverty, inequality, and food insecurity, a considerable portion of the world still faces uncertainty about access to food. Institutions and organizations worldwide invest time and resources in mapping shortages, providing insight on arable lands, and gathering data on best practices. Commitments and plans to provide food and clean water have been a mission for global organizations and individual state governments for centuries. Despite the plans and good intentions, we still lack the food and access needed to improve societal conditions. Funds aimed at growing the agriculture sector are either poorly managed or, once disbursed, improperly utilized. This gap exists, regardless of the best intentions to improve conditions.

There is land to grow agricultural products but is the infrastructure reliable to produce agriculture efficiently and get it to the tables of those with the most need. After harvesting, can farmers and other stakeholders store food properly to serve local needs and supply the markets so that farming can be viable? Beyond storage, a society needs structures to accommodate natural and artificial disasters and other shocks to the agricultural environment. They must have a readiness plan that equips the local community with the resources to mitigate the impact of perceived or unpredictable crises on regional agrarian growth. Food security ensures that communities that grow agricultural products can thrive from the goods they produce.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Nigeria, with over 1.8 hectares of farmland, imports food to feed its population. And with 24% of its GDP from agriculture, only 3% of its loan book is dedicated to agriculture. Agreements exist between governmental institutions, non-governmental actors, and for-profit organizations to provide financing to improve agriculture. But how can these plans and funding be translated into noticeable growth for the communities to help alleviate hunger? We speak about enhancing the performance of farmers, making the linkage between investors and investees by leveraging technology, but how do we manage the introduction of technology. We investigate and write about the plans to improve access for farmers, not just about the goal but about what works.