Poverty Eradication Through Agricultural Practices for Better Economic Growth in Nigeria

Nigeria is a country that is located within the tropics and therefore experiences high temperatures throughout the year. The average maximum temperatures vary from 32oC along the coast to 41oC in the far north, while mean minimum figures range from 21oC in the coast to below 13oC in the north. The climate of the country varies from a very wet coastal area with annual rainfall greater than 3,500 mm to the Sahel region in the north western and north eastern parts, with annual rainfall less than 600 mm (Oyakhilomen and Zibah, 2014). Nigeria is a vast agricultural country “endowed with substantial natural resources” which include: 68 million hectares of arable land; fresh water resources covering about 12 million hectares, 960 kilometres of coastline and an ecological diversity which enables the country to produce a wide variety of crops and livestock, forestry and fisheries products (Arokoyo, 2012). The importance of increasing government spending for agriculture has been recognized by African leaders as a fundamental pre-requisite for achieving a 6% annual growth rate in agricultural GDP, a goal that has been adopted by NEPAD through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)