The Agricultural Sector and Economic Development: The Nigerian Experience

Agriculture constitutes the predominant activity in most of the six geo-political zones in Nigeria, the percentage of persons engaged in the agricultural sector ranges between 24.4 and 85.1 per cent across zones in Nigeria. With respect to states, the activity ranges between 2.4 and 91.7 per cent, majority of states having over 50 percent. Food is one of the basic necessities of life hence the need to encourage agriculture. It is in this vein that, this study examines the role of the Agricultural sector in Economic Development. The empirical data used in this study was from 1970 to 2008, the Johansen Co-integration technique of regression was used to analyze the data. The results show that, there is no significant impact of the agricultural sector on economic development in Nigeria. The study recommends that research and technology would drive agricultural development and increase agricultural productivity and that the Govenm1ent should establish agricultural fund to finance and facilitate medium/large scale agricultural production, to enhance employment, production for local consumption and for export. Therefore, the study concludes that any policy thrust that addresses poverty would inevitably focus on agriculture, by increasing rural opportunities that could generate agricultural induced development. Hence, the development of agriculture is a sine qua non for the alleviation of poverty and achievement of sustainable development