AGRICULTURAL CREDIT GUARANTEE SCHEME AND FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

It is known that more than 80 per cent of Nigeria population engaged in one type of agriculture or the other in the 1960s and agricultural sector has contributed about 65 per cent of nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but the contribution of agriculture most especially food crops have been on the decline since oil was discovered in commercial quantity in the 1970s. To revive the sector, the Federal Government of Nigeria established the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (ACGS) in 1977. Using a time subscript and a difference in –indifference estimator that describes the changes in food crops as a function of changes in Agriculture Credits Guarantee Scheme, the result obtained shows that only the initial level of ACGS on food security has helped improved food security more than the changes experience in recent time. It is therefore, recommended that government should put in place an effective legislation that would establish a reliable gound rules for consistent and equitable application of Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme and stable macroeconomic policies that would sustained it.