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The Impact Of Agricultural Output On The Nigerian Economy
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For example, production of cocoa, currently Nigeria's biggest non-oil
export earner, has remained around 160,000 tonnes per year since 1995,
compared with an annual average of 400,000 tonnes at its peak before the
oil boom. The government has made some effort to encourage private
investment in agriculture and agro-industries by providing incentives,
including tax breaks, finance credit and extension services, but without
much success
1.2 Background of the study
This area of study
is quite broad and as such various studies have been carried out in the
area in general and other sub-sectors, highlighting the relevance of the
sector towards economic growth. With the understanding been identified,
many researchers, scholars have developed models on improving and
developing the agricultural sector especially in developing countries.
However the study will attempt to review available literatures within
its reach.
1.2.1 Socio-economic and development challenges in Nigeria’s agriculture
Nigeria
is one of the largest countries in Africa, with a total geographical
area of 923 768 square kilometres and an estimated population of about
126 million (2006 estimate). It lies wholly within the tropics along the
Gulf of Guinea on the western coast of Africa. Nigeria has a highly
diversified agro ecological condition, which makes possible the
production of a wide range of agricultural products. Hence, agriculture
constitutes one of the most important sectors of the economy. The sector
is particularly important in terms of its employment generation and its
contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) and export revenue
earnings. Despite Nigeria’s rich agricultural resource endowment,
however, the agricultural sector has been growing at a very low rate.
Less than 50% of the country’s cultivable agricultural land is under
cultivation. Even then, smallholder and traditional farmers who use
rudimentary production techniques, with resultant low yields, cultivate
most of this land. The smallholder farmers are constrained by many
problems including those of poor access to modern inputs and credit,
poor infrastructure, inadequate access to markets, land and
environmental degradation, and inadequate research and extension
services.
Since the collapse of the oil boom of the 1970s, there has
been a dramatic increase in the incidence and severity of poverty in
Nigeria, arising in part from the dwindling performance of the
agricultural sector where a greater majority of the poor are employed.
Furthermore, poverty in Nigeria has been assuming wider dimensions
including household income poverty, food poverty/insecurity, poor access
to public services and infrastructure, unsanitary environment,
illiteracy and ignorance, insecurity of life and property, and poor
governance. In response to the dwindling performance of agriculture in
the country, governments have, over the decades, initiated numerous
policies and programs aimed at restoring the agricultural sector to its
pride of place in the economy. But, as will be evident from analyses in
the study, no significant success has been achieved due to the several
persistent constraints inhibiting the performance of the sector. From
the perspective of sustainable agricultural growth and development in
Nigeria, the most fundamental constraint is the peasant nature of the
production system, with its low productivity, poor response to
technology adoption strategies, and poor returns on investment. It is
recognized that agricultural commercialization and investment are the
key strategies for promoting accelerated modernization, sustainable
growth and development and, hence, poverty reduction in the sector.
However, to attract investment into agriculture, it is imperative that
those constraints inhibiting the performance of the sector are first
identified with a view to unlocking them and creating a conducive
investment climate in the sector.
The development challenges of
Nigeria’s agriculture are, therefore, those of properly identifying and
classifying the growth and development constraints of the sector,
unlocking them, and then evolving appropriate strategies for promoting
accelerated commercialization and investment in the sector such that, in
the final analysis, agriculture will become one of the most important
growth points in the economy.
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