Scenarios changed radically with the oil boom of the 1970s, as the discovery of huge oil and gas reserves in the tactically significant sub-Saharan country turned its fortunes overnight. The windfall changed Nigeria's agricultural landscape into a massive oil field crisscrossed by more than 7,000 km of pipelines linking 6,000 oil wells, 2 refineries, many circulation stations and export terminals. The gigantic investments in the sector paid off, with informal quotes suggesting Abuja raked in more than $600 billion in petrodollars in the last decade alone.
Regrettably, the fixation with non-renewables over all other sectors of the economy eventually turned Nigeria's benefit into a bane. Newfound wealth spawned political instability and massive corruption in federal government circles, and the nation was lease asunder by years of violent civil war and succeeding military coups. Agriculture was among the very first casualties of the oil routine, and by the 1990s, growing accounted for simply 5% of GDP. Farming modernisation and assistance continued to stay low on the list of nationwide concerns as huge stretches of rural Nigeria slowly plunged into poverty and food scarcity. Deforestation, soil disintegration and industrial pollution further sped up the down-spiral of agriculture to the point where it wound up as a subsistence activity.
The fall of Nigerian farming coincided with the collapse of its macroeconomic and human development signs. With earnings distribution focused on a couple of metropolitan pockets, the majority of rural Nigeria was left reeling under massive hardship, joblessness my sources and food lacks. A widening urban-rural divide stimulated social unrest and mass migration into towns and cities. Arranged urban criminal offense ended up being as genuine a security danger as militancy in the Niger Delta region. Nigeria plummeted to the bottom in world financial rankings and Africa's most populated country obtained the unhappy distinction of having over half (54%) of its 148 million people living in abject poverty. The World Bank coined the term "Nigerian Paradox" particularly to describe the distinct condition of severe underdevelopment and poverty in a nation teeming with resources and potential. The country was ranked 80th in a 2007 UNDP poverty study covering 108 nations.
The shift to democratic civilian guideline at the end of the last century paved the way for a passionate program of financial reform and restructuring. Abuja's seriousness for inclusive development was much in proof in the adoption of an enthusiastic blueprint created to reverse trends and jumpstart a stagnating economy. The Vision 2020 document adopted under former president O Obsanjo sets out broad specifications for sustainable advancement with the specific goal of instating Nigeria as a worldwide financial superpower in a time-bound manner. The 2020 goals are in addition to Nigeria's commitment to the UN Millennial Statement of 2000 that proposes universal fundamental human rights by 2015.
The realisation of these allied and intertwined goals depends entirely on Abuja's ability to produce inclusive growth by means of an entrepreneurial revolution, while simultaneously fixing huge infrastructural lacks and administrative abnormalities. Economies usually start broadening with an initial agricultural revolution: The case of Nigeria nevertheless requires farming to be part of a bigger enterprise revolution that effectively leverages the nation's extensive resources and human capital.
The complexity of issues involved here is reflected in the truth that the National Poverty Elimination Program of 2001 determines agriculture and rural advancement as its primary location of interest. The fact that all advancement needs to begin from the bottom-up can not be overemphasised in the context of Nigeria, where a farming boom can make sure not just food supply and exports but likewise offer industrial basic materials and a market for items.
Agricultural expansion is crucial to economic success across Western Africa, thinking about the area's debilitating poverty line. A 2003 conference organised by NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) in South Africa strongly prompted the promotion of cassava cultivation as a poverty eradication tool across the continent. The suggestion is based on a method that concentrates on markets, private sector involvement and research to drive a pan-African cassava effort. What was once a rural staple and famine-reserve food has become a profitable cash crop!
The NEPAD effort has strong significance for Nigeria, the world's largest cassava manufacturer. With its large rural population and substantial farmlands, the country boasts incomparable chances of transforming the humble cassava to a commercial basic material for both domestic and global markets. There is a growing and well-justified belief that the crop can transform rural economies, stimulate rapid financial and commercial growth and help disadvantaged communities. While production grew progressively between 1980 and 2002 from 10,000 MT to over 35,000 MT, there is scope for substantial further boost by bringing more land under cassava growing. Nigeria must take the lead not just in establishing better production, collecting and processing technologies, however also in finding new uses and markets for what is undoubtedly a marvel crop. Nigeria stands to make huge strides towards inclusive and sustainable advancement simply through the smart and sensible promo of cassava farming.
The following are some of the most urgent requirements for an effective transformation in Nigerian agriculture:
o Active promo and establishment of agro-based industries that generate employment, sustain local food requirements and encourage exports.
o Efficient steps to modernise and diversify the farming economy as a means of buttressing entrepreneurial growth in supplementary sectors.
o Institution of a tariff system that promotes regional produce versus less expensive imports, together with the elimination of institutional barriers versus agricultural profitability.
o Aids on technically advanced farm equipment and practices that help increase efficiency with no unfavorable eco-friendly adverse effects.
o An umbrella hardship relief program designed specifically to promote agrarian reforms while simultaneously improving the lifestyle in rural communities.
o Enhanced access to farming business loans through a network of regulated lending institutions understanding to farming truths.
o Adult education programmes developed to help Nigerian farmers upgrade to locally appropriate however modern approaches of growing, marketing and distribution.
o Support of both public and economic sector agricultural research study focused on fixing technological restraints faced by regional farming neighborhoods.
If Nigeria's farming potential is enormous, it is partly because more than 90% of its 91 million hectares of total land area is arable. While soil fertility is typically estimated on the lower side, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) forecasts medium to high yields throughout the country with ideal utilisation of resources. Combined with Nigeria's significant rural population typically involved in agriculture, this forecast equates to enormous prospects in terms of agricultural performance and, by extension, financial revival. For a country emerging out of a troubled past and struggling to attain social, political and financial stability, the ideals of agricultural and entrepreneurial transformation hold vitally important. Due to the fact that they are also inextricably linked in the Nigerian context, the nation's future position on the world financial phase depends actually on the bounty of its harvest.