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The Impact Of Agriculture On Economic Growth In Nigeria
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The
term Agriculture is derived from the Latin words, “ager,†meaning field,
and “Culturaâ€, meaning cultivation. This suggests that the earliest
form of production agriculture was crop production (Are, Igbokwe, Asadu,
Bawa, 2010; Erebor, 2003). It may be noted that Agriculture is more
than crop production. It also includes animal production, processing of
primary products (or value addition) and marketing of produce and
products. Erebor (2003) defines agriculture as the art and science of
cultivating the soil, processing crops and livestock products for man,
and the process of selling excess crop and livestock.
Meanwhile,
(Kricher,1997) defines agriculture in a more advanced way by saying
that, agriculture or farming is the simplification of nature’s food
webs and the rechanneling of energy for human planting and animal
consumption. To simplify, agriculture involves redirecting nature’s
natural flow of the food web. The natural flow of the food web is the
sun provides light to plants convert sunlight into sugars which provide
food for the plants (this process is called photosynthesis). Plants
provide food for herbivores (plant-eating animals) and the herbivores
provides food for carnivores (meat-eating animals). This simple
illustration of food web provides the basis for analyzing the impact of
agriculture on economic growth.
In literature, economic history
provides us with ample evidence that agricultural revolution is a
fundamental pre-condition for economic growth, especially in developing
countries. Development economists have focused on how agriculture can
best contribute to overall economic growth and modernization. Todaro and
Smith (2003) look at Lewis theory of development, and reported that the
underdeveloped economy consisted of two sectors. These sectors are the
traditional agricultural sector characterized by zero marginal labour
productivity and the modern industrial sector. In Rostow’s linear stages
of economic growth, agricultural revolutions is a pre-condition for
take-off and take-off stages
The importance of a vibrant and robust
agriculture is reminiscent on its role in providing employment
opportunities for the teeming population, eradicates poverty and
contributing to the growth of the economy. The linkage between
agriculture and economic growth is well documented in literature (Ogen,
2007; Okongwu, 1986; Atte and Muhammed- Lawal, 2006 to maintain few).
According to Izuchukwu (2011), agriculture has been the backbone of the
economy in Nigeria providing employment and source of livelihood for the
increasing population,it accounts for over half of the GDP of the
Nigerian economy as at independence in 1960.
However, the role it
plays in the regional and economic development of the country has
diminished over the years due to the dominant role of the crude oil
sector in the economy. With the increasing food demand in Nigeria, the
country has available natural resources and potential for increasing the
volume of crop production towards meeting the food and nutritional
requirement of the rapidly increasing population and guarantee food
security in the country. Therefore, the source of national wealth is
essentially agriculture.
Unquestionably, the neglect of agriculture
in Nigeria owing to the discovery of oil has retarded the growth of the
economy for the past decades. The effect of this neglect could be felt
in the poor quality of life of people as average Nigerian was quoted as
living in US$ 1 per day; if translated to Naira, this amount to N165
day at present. It may not be wrong to say that such a remark is a
political cover. The faces we see daily on our streets and those we may
not be able to see because of their inability to muster enough strength
to walk up to the street as a result of several days of hunger and
starvation, or even food associated ill-health and avoidable deaths of
tens of people everyday, a better, more sincere and realistic assessment
of the situation would be put an average income at US $0-0.5 per day.
Studies in literature reveal that seven out of every 10 Nigerians live
in abject poverty; hardly able to feed, cloth or house themselves. It is
an indisputable fact that Nigeria and her sub-Saharan African neighbors
have been dubiously christened by the world political and economic
powers as citadels of hunger, poverty, ignorance, diseases, misery,
debts, filths and crises. This unquestionable imagery will for long
remain indelible in the world's archives unless a reasonable step is
taken by people and Government of this doomed sector of the global
village. It is against this backdrop that the study seeks to assess the
impact of agriculture on economic growth.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This study examined and analysed the impact of agriculture on economic growth in Nigeria. It adopted the secondary data sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria covering the period 1985 to 2010. The study employed the modern Time Series of the Ordinary Least Square to test for the relationship between agriculture and economic growth in Nigeria. The results derived infer that there exists a significant relationship between agriculture spending and economic growth. The null hypothesis stated for this ... Continue reading---
