Agriculture in Nigeria

Agriculture is a major sector of the Nigerian economy,^[1] accounting for up to 35% of total employment in 2020.^[2] According to the FAO,^[3] agriculture remains the foundation of the Nigerian economy,^[1] providing livelihood for most Nigerians and generating millions of jobs.^[4][5][6] Along with crude oil, Nigeria relies on the agricultural products it exports to generate most of its national revenue.^[6] The agricultural sector in Nigeria comprises four sub-sectors: crop production, livestock, forestry, and fishing.

Nigeria has a total agricultural area of 70.8 million hectares,^[3] of which 34 million hectares are arable land,^[7] 6.5 million hectares are used for permanent crops, and 30.3 million hectares are meadows and pastures.^[8]

Maize, cassava, guinea corn, Groundnut and yam are the major crops farmed in Nigeria, with 70% of the households engaged in crop farming. In the south, 7.3% of the households practice fishing, while 69.3% of the households own or raise livestock in northwest Nigeria.^[9]

In the third quarter of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector grew by 14.88% year-on-year. Crop production remains the largest part of the sector. During the third quarter of 2019, the agriculture sector contributed 29.25% to the overall real GDP.^[10] Between January and March 2021, agriculture contributed 22.35% of the total gross domestic product.^{[3][11][12][13][14]}

The sector is undergoing transformation through commercialization at the small, medium, and large enterprise levels.^[15] However, there are several factors in the Nigerian agricultural sector that may prevent its growth, including a land tenure system that limits access to land, the country's level of irrigation development, limited adoption of research findings and technologies, costs of farm inputs, the amount of access to credit allowed by the management of specialized institutions established for the development of the agricultural sector, the manners of fertilizer procurement and distribution, storage facility effectiveness, and the amount of access to markets.

More recently, changes in average temperatures, rainfall, climate extremes, and the growing infestation of pests and related diseases precipitated by climate change pose a challenge to the integrity of the country's agriculture system.^[16] This is coupled with a dependence on rain-fed agriculture, which has made the sector vulnerable to seasonal conditions.^[17]

These all contribute to agricultural productivity and post-harvest losses and waste in Nigeria.^[3] Illiteracy is also one of the several factors preventing the progress and development of agriculture in Nigeria. Research has proven that most of the farmers in Nigeria have not acquired formal education.^[18]