The Netherlands vs Nigeria: 1 Million Hectares vs 34 Million Hectares

The Netherlands vs Nigeria

1 Million Hectares vs 34 Million Hectares

Nigeria has 34 million hectares of arable land, yet imports food, 

while the Netherlands thrives on just 1 million hectares. 

This analysis explores how systems, management, and discipline, 

not size, determine agricultural success.

The Numbers

The Netherlands: Arable land ≈ 1 million hectares
Nigeria: Arable land ≈ 34 million hectares

The Netherlands is the second largest exporter of agricultural products in the world.

Nigeria imports food.

I have nothing more to say about this.

Except perhaps to note the following.

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A Small Country That Engineered Its Survival

The Netherlands is smaller than many Nigerian states.

It has cold winters.
Limited land.
Much of it reclaimed from the sea.

Yet it exports vegetables, flowers, dairy, meat, seeds, and high-tech greenhouse systems to the world.

Why?

Because agriculture there is not treated as a “nice to do.”
It is treated as existential. A must do.

And so the Dutch engage in:

• Precision farming

• Water management

• Logistics optimisation

• Agro-processing

• Research-driven production

• Port efficiency to evacuate agricultural produce globally

They farm by design.

Oh, by the way:

The population of the Netherlands is approximately 17.9 to 18 million people, 2025 estimate.

That is roughly the population of Lagos.

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A Large Country Living on Potential

Nigeria, by contrast, has thirty-four times more arable land.

It has a tropical climate.
High rainfall in the south.
Major river systems.
Year-round growing potential.

Yet:

• Low mechanisation

• Minimal irrigation

• Poor storage

• Massive post-harvest losses

• Weak processing capacity

• Infrastructure bottlenecks

• Bad roads

• Virtually non-existent rail system

• No coherent policy focused on making agriculture a system

• Security disruptions

• Police checkpoints

• Twelve-hour road transport windows

We have everything needed to replace the Netherlands as the number two exporter of agricultural goods in the world.

Except the system.

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Let Us Build the System

Let us build that system. Yes, it will be hard. But as the saying goes, when you wake up, that is your morning.

If there ever was a speech that literally moved mountains, it was John F. Kennedy’s moon-landing speech. African leaders would do well to motivate their people with any portion of that address.

Hear Kennedy:

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon…”

This line can be appropriated by Nigeria and used to drive forward an ambitious program to overhaul its agricultural output:

First, I believe that this nation, Nigeria, should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of surpassing the Netherlands as the world’s 3rd largest exporter of food.

Kennedy’s speech, perhaps one of the most brilliant ever delivered by an American president, highlights something few have articulated so well: mastery of the art of journeying together is just as important, perhaps even more so, than arriving. Because as JFK posits, “that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills…”

And those skills are what we need to build systems.

To make agriculture a system.
Security a system.
Transportation a system.
Justice a system.
Tax a system.

That is the work.

For when we have a system, waste will be felt more acutely.

The president will not have a 200-car convoy.
The senate will not pay itself unsustainable salaries.

Governors will not allocate to themselves humongous “security votes.” Rather, they will gear themselves to efficiently allocate every penny received in their coffers.

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The Difference in Questions

The Dutch ask:

How do we incentivise our farmers to maximise yield per square metre?
How do we further support the export of agricultural products?

We ask:

When will the rain come?
Policy? What policy?

God made our ecosystem.

They built theirs.

We inherited an ecosystem from nature.

They engineered one.

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The Real Issue

This is a management story.
Output is not determined by size.

It is determined by structure, systems, incentives, and discipline.
Thirty-four million hectares without systems is just grass.

One million hectares with systems becomes a global food superpower.
Simple arithmetic.

Don Kenobi
#BigAgendaAfrica

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