Starting in 2010 – 2011, the Government of Nigeria, after years of benign neglect, began to reform
the agriculture sector. To refocus the sector, the Government implemented a new strategy, the
Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). In 2011-2016, the focus was on rebuilding a sector whose
relevance had shrunk dramatically. That was reflected in the lack of lending to farmers by the financial
system and the dramatic levels of food imports from across the world. That intervention, the ATA,
served its core purpose of helping refocus Nigeria’s attention on agriculture.