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Nigeria's economy is among the best in Africa, but its agricultural technology is lagging behind?

author:Chongxue served as a farmer Konishi

#一国一品走近非洲 #

There is such a country in Africa, not only the number of Chinese in Africa is the largest, but also the population and GDP of this country are the first in Africa, and this country is Nigeria. Nigeria is the only country in Africa to exceed 200 million people, but it is not the largest in Africa, in other words, its area is not even in the top ten in the entire African country.

Although the area is not in the top ten, it is still difficult to stop Nigeria's economic strength from ranking first in Africa for a long time. Many people may ask, a country's economic strength is strong, should have more financial resources to invest in agricultural development, agricultural technology should also be very developed, but this set does not seem to work in Africa, Although Nigeria's economy is developed, but the level of agricultural technology is still limited, the reason, we look at nigeria's main economic sources to know.

Nigeria's economy is among the best in Africa, but its agricultural technology is lagging behind?

Nigeria's specific location in Africa

Nigeria is a country located in the southeast of West Africa, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, as a country with a coastline, maritime trade has become a possibility to promote economic development, of course, the coastline alone can only occupy a "geographical advantage", only a basis for the development of maritime trade.

Perhaps because of God's favor, while having a coastline, Nigeria has rich mineral resources, which determines the main economic source of Nigeria, mainly relying on the large export of non-renewable resources.

Nigeria is rich in natural resources and is the largest oil producer and exporter in Africa. Proven oil reserves of 37.2 billion barrels, ranking second in Africa and tenth in the world; Proven natural gas reserves of 5.3 trillion cubic meters, ranking first in Africa and eighth in the world; Proven coal reserves of about 2.75 billion tons; in addition to these, Nigeria also has a wealth of bauxite, tantalite, gold, iron ore, limestone, tin and other resources, 34 of the proven 76 minerals have commercial mining value, which also makes export resources become the main economic source of Nigeria.

Although it has such unique natural resources, the development of Nigeria's industrial base is not good, and the existing industries are low-end industries, which has led to the development of Nigeria being hindered, and it can only rely on the export of low-end natural resources to develop itself.

Nigeria's economy is among the best in Africa, but its agricultural technology is lagging behind?

Nigeria has the second largest oil reserves in Africa

There is a strange phenomenon on the Nigerian side, before the rise of the oil industry, Nigeria is actually a traditional agricultural country, like the cotton, peanuts and other agricultural products planted at that time, the production of some agricultural products is at the leading level in the world, but with the beginning of the industrial revolution, the rise of resource extraction industries such as oil has injected new impetus into the Nigerian economy, but it is not a good thing for agriculture, which indirectly led to the neglect of local agriculture, and the production of agricultural products has gradually decreased.

Although it has such unique natural resources, but Nigeria's industrial base development is not good, the existing industries are low-end industries, like Nigeria's oil, a large number of oil revenues are divided by a small number of elites, resulting in a huge disparity between rich and poor, most people are still in a state of extreme poverty, not only that, although Nigeria as Africa's largest oil producer, but its oilfield facilities are relatively backward, more importantly, many oil pipelines are distributed in the Niger Delta region with rivers and trees. This has given natural cover to many local oil smuggling gangs, which have become a cancer plaguing the further development of Nigeria's energy industry. As a result, Nigeria's development has been hampered, and it can only develop itself by exporting low-end natural resources.

Nigeria's economy is among the best in Africa, but its agricultural technology is lagging behind?

Oil smuggling in Nigeria is rampant

Population growth and environmental destruction have left Nigeria's future in jeopardy.

Due to the large-scale exploitation of fossil raw materials, many local surfaces have been greatly damaged, and land loss has been serious, which has directly led to a decrease in agricultural production. The current dilemma facing Nigeria is not only a reduction in food production, but also a massive increase in population. Many people will be surprised that a country like Nigeria, which is less than one-tenth the size of the continent, has more than 200 million people and has a population density that exceeds that of the mainland. With more people, but less food, what kind of way can we feed more than 200 million people in the country?

First, hunting wild animals for food has become the best choice for locals.

In order to solve the problem of hunger, Nigerians began to hunt wild animals in large quantities for food, and slowly many wild animals that were once popular in Nigeria have become endangered, and compared with our ancestors hunting rabbits, pheasants, antelopes and other wild animals, Nigerians can be said to eat everything. For example, worms, local residents like to catch worms in palm trees and then boil and then fry to make worm skewers; Wild monitor lizards carrying a variety of viruses, wild pythons with many parasites, African wildcats and African rats, water overlord crocodiles, tree bear monkeys with big eyes and African snails that can grow the size of a human palm have become regular customers in the local wildlife market.

Nigeria's economy is among the best in Africa, but its agricultural technology is lagging behind?

Local wildlife market in Africa

Second, the large amount of land reclaimed for planting has become a "life-saving straw" for many Nigerian civilians.

Nigeria's land area is 923,800 square kilometers, and the arable land area is 68 million hectares, some of which are still in the state of desertion or woodland, which makes it possible to increase the area of food cultivation. However, due to the extreme backwardness of agricultural technology, Nigerian farmers can only blindly expand the cultivated land area by traditional methods such as arson, which indirectly shrinks the living space of wild animals, which is even worse for the survival of wild animals.

Third, aid from the international community has been a reassuring pill for the stability of Nigeria's population.

Although Nigeria's overall economy ranks first in Africa, its per capita economic level remains low due to its large population, and it still receives assistance from the international community in many areas. For example, Nigeria's rice, corn and other crops production level is low, rice yield is only about 100 kilograms per mu, corn yield is more than 90 kilograms per mu, cassava is the main local food crop, in the 1960s and 1970s, Nigeria exported many agricultural products, but now need to import a large amount of rice and wheat.

Nigeria's economy is among the best in Africa, but its agricultural technology is lagging behind?

Cassava is one of the main local food crops in Nigeria

In recent years, the mainland has provided assistance to a number of African countries in various situations, including Nigeria. As the old saying goes, "It is better to teach people to fish than to teach people to fish", and for agriculture, the mainland has continuously increased its agricultural technical assistance to Nigeria in recent years.

In terms of talent training, for example, every year we invite Nigerian government agricultural personnel and technicians to participate in agricultural officials training courses and practical agricultural technology training held by the mainland, which has trained a group of agricultural technicians who are familiar with agricultural management and proficient in agricultural technology for Nigeria, who have made great contributions to the development of local agriculture after returning to China.

Nigeria's economy is among the best in Africa, but its agricultural technology is lagging behind?

Mainland rice technology has helped Africa increase grain production

In terms of crop cultivation, we are also increasing our talent and technology investment, such as the "Helping West African countries to establish rice planting systems" project promotion meeting was held recently at a farm in the northwest suburbs of Abuja, Nigeria's capital, where mainland rice experts explained rice varieties, projected yields and planting techniques to dozens of local agricultural officials, experts and farmers. This year, four continental hybrid rice demonstration sites have also been set up, two of which have been harvested, and the yield has increased by 30% to 55% compared with the yield of the main local variety, helping the local crop yield to continue to increase.

Although at present, Nigeria, like some resource-rich countries, is still mainly taking the "old way" of exporting resources, I believe that with the successful development of some international outstanding countries and the assistance of some responsible countries in all walks of life, Nigeria will develop better and better in the near future.

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