AGRICULTURAL EXPORT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA

The study assessed agricultural trade and economic growth in Nigeria from 1985 to 2020. Annual data were collected from CBN statistical bulletins and the technique of auto regressive distributed lag model (ARDL) was used to determine the long run and short run relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The ARDL result showed that; an increase in agricultural exports will have insignificant positive impact on economic growth in Nigeria. Moreso, an increase in agricultural credit had positive and insignificant impact on economic growth. Again, it was observed that consumption expenditure had negative and insignificant effect on economic growth in the long run. In the short run, agricultural export and consumption expenditure promoted economic growth in Nigeria. Based on the study’s findings, it was recommended that, Nigeria government should reignite its strategy of trade opening and economic diversification, especially her exports by encouraging productivity in the agricultural sector. There is the need to seek alternative financing such as agricultural insurance schemes, farmers cooperatives and encouragement of private involvement in agro-funding with less stringent credit conditions