AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria has enormous potential for agricultural activities because of its vast available cultivable land and water resources. It has a total land area of 98.3million hectares out of which, about 71.2 million hectares are cultivable. 34.2 million hectares representing 48 percent of the cultivable land is being cultivated. This huge potential in form of land has made it possible for the country's economy to depend on agriculture in the 1960s as agricultural produce were the major export commodities. The major export crops were groundnut, cocoa, cotton, rubber and palm products. However, the oil boom in the 70s diverted governments attention away from agriculture and agricultural activities and productivity started dwindling. This situation led to the importation of many agricultural products into the country. In order to reverse the trend, various governments formulated different policies to revitalize the agricultural sector, which are vividly highlighted in this paper. These actions have recorded some achievements and it is hoped that agriculture will soon become one of the principal sector of the economy that will contribute immensely towards the development of the nation, as the present government is putting necessary structures in place to revive it.