ABSTRACT
The role of agriculture in accelerating economic growth and development process of any nation cannot be overemphasized. However, in Nigeria, the sector has suffered severe neglect, due in part, from the windfall from the discovery of oil in the 1970s and other structural rigidities. The study investigated the constraints to agricultural development in Nigeria using Amassoma in Bayelsa State as a case study. Empirical findings reveal that government and market policies, gender based factors and food export (lag one) are the most significant positive determinants of agricultural output in Nigeria. However, food imports, diversion of funds meant for agricultural purposes and low technology diffusion in agriculture are among the factors identified as constraints to agricultural development in Nigeria. The study recommends among others, maintenance of stable and favourable exchange rate regime, and the pursuance of programmes that will bolster partnerships between research institutions and other stake holders in agriculture as a route to facilitating agricultural development and hence, economic development in Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Nigeria is one of the largest countries in Africa, with a total geographical area of 923,768 square kilometres and an estimated population of about 167 million (NBS, 2014). It lies wholly within the tropics along the Gulf of Guinea on the Western Coast of Africa. Nigeria has a highly diversified agro ecological condition which makes possible the production of a wide range of agricultural products. Over the past two decades, agricultural yields have remained the same or worse still declined. Nigeria’s agriculture to a large extent still possesses the characteristics of a peasant economy that was prominent in the pre-independence period (Adewumi & Omotesho, 2002).
More than 70 per cent of the farming population in Nigeria consists of smallholder farmers, each of whom owns or cultivates less than 5 hectares of farmland (NARP, 1994). Less than 50% of the country’s cultivable agricultural land is under cultivation. Even then, smallholder and traditional farmers who use rudimentary production techniques, with resultant low yields, cultivate most of this land. The smallholder farmers are constrained by many problems including those of poor access to modern inputs and credit, poor infrastructure, inadequate access to markets, land and environmental degradation, inadequate research and extension services, etc. Although there has been a recent rise in agricultural productivity, such improvement is derived more from expanded planting areas for staple crops than from yield increases.
Howbeit, agriculture constitutes one of the most important sectors of the economy. The sector is primarily important, given its employment generation potential and its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) and export revenue earnings (Ogen, 2002; Essien, 2005). A vibrant agricultural sector is capable of ensuring the supply of raw materials for the industrial sector as well as providing gainful employment for the teeming population (Ukeje, 2007).
The emergence of the petroleum sector in the early 1970’s resulted in significant structural changes in the Nigeria economy which negatively affected the agricultural sector. In response to the oil boom, public expenditures grew, fostering many other economic activities, including infrastructural development, creation of new institutions and expansion of existing ones, and importation of all kinds of consumer goods (Essien, 2005; Ukeje, 2007). Earnings from petroleum resources favoured these developments, but tradable agricultural commodities did not experience similar growth. The share of the oil sector in the total value of exports, which was under 60 per cent in 1970, rose to over 90 per cent after 1973.
The non-oil exports declined from about 30 per cent in 1970 to less than 10 per cent by 1980 (Ojo, 1992). Agricultural productivity estimates for Nigeria showed a decline in productivity growth from the 1960s to the 1980s. Nigeria has witnessed strong economic growth in the past few years, averaging 8.8 per cent real annual GDP growth from 2000 to 2007. However, the agricultural sector has lagged behind GDP growth at 3.7 per cent in 2007. In spite of the various agricultural programmes and policies initiated by different administrations for the development of Agriculture in Nigeria, there has not been any phenomenal growth in agricultural output since the 1970s. Agriculture’s contribution to the non-oil gross domestic product (GDP) was stable at about 40 per cent in recent years (FDA/FMARI, 2005).
The index of agricultural output declined from 75.5 in 1970 to 35.2 in 1979. Although the index increased steadily from 35.2 in 1979 to 40.10 in 2005, the growth rate shows complete absence of sustainability. For instance, the growth rate was negative throughout the 1970s; declined from 6.34 to 3.04 between 1982 and 1986, and then fluctuated to 8.33 in 2003 and -3.24 in 2005. The rate was worsened in 2010 (4.2) due to the high price of oil. The question agitating the minds of scholars is why agricultural output is low amidst the huge expenditure via the different programmes implemented in Nigeria.
Consequently, there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence and severity of poverty in Nigeria, arising in part from the dwindling performance of the agricultural sector where a preponderant majority of the poor are employed. Furthermore, poverty in Nigeria has been assuming wider dimensions including household, income poverty, food poverty/insecurity, poor access to public services and infrastructure, unsanitary environment, illiteracy and ignorance, insecurity of life and property, and poor governance.
Arising from this backdrop, this paper is poised to investigate the nexus between food export and import on agricultural sector performance. Also, the study is apt to assess the relationship between agricultural credit financing and the sector’s productivity, while attempting to unravel the major determinants of agricultural output in Nigeria. The rest part of the study consists of literature review, methodology and empirical model, empirical results, findings, conclusions and policy recommendations.
The idea sustainable farming started last century and has become more popular in our present days. This popularity is due to the governments and companies trying to reduce the damage done to our ecosystem in the name of farming and also to produce a better and healthier food. Sustainable farming has been going on for many years done in a numbers of ways and have been described with different names. So now what is sustainable farming or agriculture? In order to understand what sustainable farming is, lets us first try to understand what sustainability means. The word sustains means to maintain and to keep in existence for a long period.
(Hawken, 1994) also defines sustainability as an economic state that does not reduce the capacity of the environment because of the demand put on it by people. Also he stated an economic golden rule: “Leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you need, try not to harm life or the environment, make amends if you do” (Hawken, 1994). Now we know what sustainability means, what is sustainable farming? Sustainable farming is the farming system that is closest to natural process, minimizes waste, does less damage to the environment and yet it’s still profitable. When a farm system is sustainable, the product of the farm will be nutritious, and not contaminated by substance that maybe unsafe for humans to consume.
Sustainable farming systems are set in order to maximize advantage of the existing soil nutrients, soil organism and energy flow and water cycles, (Eap.mcgill.ca, 1989). These systems are made to be friendly to our environment and ecosystem. An eco-friendly environment is achieved by avoiding the use of dangerous pesticides i.e. organophosphates, synthetic compound fertilizers and additive to farm animal feeds (Than, 2017). It is also important avoid these substance because of the potential damage they can do to the environment, the effect they have on human and animal health. For example, organophosphates is a common pesticide used and it was blamed for killing 25 children in India and precaution are been taken by the US environmental protection agency to limit the availability to the public (Than, 2017).
Organisation use large amounts of water, energy, chemicals, supplies, and disposable items, thereby generating lots of waste such as polluted water and solid waste. According to Caribbean Environmental Investment Study (2001), Environmental management is a systematic approach to finding practical ways for saving water, energy, and materials, and reducing negative environmental impacts. A proactive environmental management program is a win-win-win proposition because it can help a property save money, get recognized for environmental leadership, and preserve and protect our environment. Sustainable farming includes being sustainable in agricultural production, sustainable in rural economy and society and being sustainable in environmental and ecological agricultural system. Nigeria has tried to be sustainable when it comes to agriculture and have been successful in some aspect and have also faced some problems or obstacles. These problems include cultivated land loss, environmental degradation, wastewater disposal and unsustainable use of pesticides.
In Nigeria, there are four major sectors that contribute to the country’s economy, which are petroleum/oil, services, manufacturing and agriculture. The agricultural sector is then divided into crop production, forestry, livestock and fishing. The petroleum sector is the largest sources of public revenue and of the foreign exchange earnings for the country. The agricultural sector always has been the highest contributor to Nigeria GDP, followed by the petroleum industry, service and manufacturing. In 2013 the Agriculture sector contributed about 22% of Nigeria GDP while Crude Oil 14% telecommunication 9% and manufacturing 7% (US Department of State, 2014).
Services, telecommunications, finance and construction contributes about 52% of the GDP, and at 2016 the agriculture sector contributed 24.18% of the GDP more than oil and manufacturing combined (CBN, 2016). This shows that agriculture is important and essential to the reviving and development of the Nigeria economy that is not doing well at present, and as well as in improving the living standard of the people. The federal government of Nigeria believes that revenue generation will help in growing of the economy and get Nigeria out of the current recession, if areas such as Agriculture and manufacturing are concentrated on.
In the 1940s to 1950s, over 75% of the Nigeria yearly merchandise export commodities were from the agriculture sector (Ekpo and Egwaikhide 1994; Oyejide 1998; Okoruwa et al 2003). During those times (in the 40s to 60s) the government was able to carry out important projects with the money earn from the export of the agricultural product. The Nigeria economy was dominated by the agricultural sector and foreign trade of agricultural product have greatly improved the economy.
Agricultural products being exported include rubber, palm oil, cocoa, coffee, groundnut and palm kernel. The exportation of these items played an important role in the development of the economy by providing capital needed for different projects. The reliance on the agriculture sector was the case during and just after the declaration of the Nigeria independence. However, the introduction of petroleum into the export trade in Nigeria changed everything, the structure and composition of the export trade. The oil sector which was just a moderate contributor to the economy becomes very important in the 1970s. According to (CBN 2011) the Nigeria is over dependant on the oil sector, it provides 95% of the foreign exchange earnings and 65% of the national budget revenues.
The Nigeria government have tried different programmes and initiated different policies aiming at bring back the pride of the agricultural sector to the economy. The Nigeria agricultural sector used to be one of the pillars of the country’s economy, achieved in a sustainable means, has lost its place. The different ways, policies and programmes put in place to promote investment and diversification in the agricultural sector have not been able to produce desired results. (CBN 2003) report that the share of the agricultural sector relating to foreign exchange earnings have decline from 11% on average per person in the 1970s to 2% an average person in the 1990s.
All effort to bring back the agricultural sector to it place continue to yield very little result, as the agricultural export remain under 5% since the introduction of structural adjustment programme, while the oil sector dominates the export trade (Oni, 2007). From a sustainable agricultural point of view in the Nigeria, one of the main constraints is the agricultural system, which has slow response to technology adoption when it comes to agriculture, low productivity, low return of investment and rural poverty.
As (Schaller, 1993) stated when it comes to sustainability, food security has to be guarantee, the living standard has to improve, and there have to be economic development and prosperity in the rural area. Agricultural commercialization and investment are some key strategies for promoting, modernizing and attaining a sustainable growth and development. One challenge for Nigeria is identifying the constraints that limit the growth and development in the agricultural sector, and removing them and replacing them with something better will attract investors and therefore improve the sector as well as the economy.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In the crook of Africa’s west coast, Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa and the seventh-most populous in the world, with a 2019 population of 201 million (UNdata, 2019). Of the country’s 911,000 square kilometres of land area, 78% is dedicated to agriculture (including 33% permanent pasture), and 36% of the labour force is engaged in agriculture (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO], 2019). Nigeria’s export economy is mainly based on petroleum (95%), while cocoa and rubber have the next largest shares (Central Intelligence Agency [CIA], 2019). Despite its export dominance, petroleum accounted for under 9% of national GDP in 2018, compared to agriculture’s 21% (National Bureau of Statistics [NBS], 2019).
However, domestic agriculture is currently unable to support the growing population’s food needs; three to five billion dollars of food is imported per year, largely comprising staples such as wheat and rice (Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development [FMARD], 2016). Effective agricultural extension is a key component of agricultural development and thus critical to Nigerian prosperity. Yet, it faces many challenges. Initiatives to expand agricultural extension in Nigeria must bridge diverse needs and perspectives due to the many demographic distinctions across the country (Sehu, 2018). Home to over 250 ethnic groups speaking more than 500 languages, Nigeria retained English as its official language after gaining independence from Great Britain in 1960 (CIA, 2019).
The Nigerian population is split nearly in half in several ways: around 50% live in urban areas (FAO, 2019); 51.6% are Muslim and 46.9% Christian (CIA, 2019); and 59.6% are literate – 69.2% among males and 49.7% among females (CIA, 2019). Islam is the majority religion in the arid northern plains bordering the Sahel, with sharia (Islamic law) officially integrated in twelve states (Kendhammer, 2013; CIA, 2019). Inhabitants of the southern lowlands near the coast, by contrast, predominantly adhere to Christianity (Kendhammer, 2013; CIA, 2019). In between, hills and plateaus form a religiously mixed middle region (Kendhammer, 2013; CIA, 2019).
Besides facing unique challenges, agricultural development in Nigeria has minimal governmental financing compared to other African countries (Olomola et al., 2015). Despite the substantial portion of Nigeria’s land, labor force, and GDP associated with this sector, agriculture was allotted 5.5% of the national budget on average from 2008 to 2012 (Olomola et al., 2015). This fell to 2% in 2018 (Onyibe, 2019), although the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program recommends a 10% allocation (NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency et al., 2012).
Furthermore, as a nation of lower-middle income, Nigeria regularly experiences low budget execution, where actual spending falls short of planned spending (Morgues et al., 2008; Olomola et al., 2015). Low availability of monetary resources increases the urgency that they be used to the highest efficiency. In this article, the authors draw upon historical and current examples of agricultural extension in Nigeria to argue that its full potential to facilitate the country’s agricultural and national development has yet to be realized.
There are identifiable constraints to this yet to be realized agricultural development, which this study then explores, making Amassoma, Bayelsa a case study.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of the study;
i. To identify the constraints on agricultural development in Amassoma, Bayelsa;
ii. To recognise how the way these constraints have effected agricultural development; and,
iii. To gather the nature of policy and gender on the constraints.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION
i. What are the constraints to effective agricultural development in Amassoma?
ii. In what way has the constraint affect the effectiveness of agricultural development?
iii. What effect do policy and gender have?
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The foundation of an effective and cohesive extension system lies in a dynamic response to the following question: what is the purpose of agricultural extension? Developmental progress is often measured by material indicators, e.g., productivity (Phillip et al., 2009), fertilizer use (Banful et al., 2010; Olomola et al., 2015), equipment acquisition (“Fadama III,” 2010), or adoption of recommended crop varieties (Phillip et al., 2009). However, these need not be considered the chief end of an agricultural extension system. For example, Liberty Hyde Bailey, a pioneer in founding agricultural extension programs in the U.S., most strongly emphasized its role in knowledge dissemination and human education, writing in 1898, “Its purpose is to improve the farmer, not the farm” (as cited in Peters, 2006, p. 192). He and his peers sought to promote practical learning throughout the farming population, rather than advanced classroom instruction for a scholarly few (Peters, 2006).
From this standpoint, agricultural extension programs must not induce a dependency of farmers on expert instruction. Rather, they must increase farmers’ independent capacity to analyze and adapt to ever-changing environmental, market, and technological conditions. This article will refer to this emphasis on farmer education as a farmer-centric approach to agricultural extension. In Nigeria, governmental bodies and international agencies often tend towards the contrasting farm-centric perspective.
Their publications largely treat extension services as one means among many toward the end of economic development, defined by improvements in household income, imports and exports, agricultural productivity, and other quantitative farm indicators (FMARD, 2016). The transmission of intellectual and cultural capital is rarely recognized even as an intermediate success. Economic outcomes certainly hold meaning where agricultural extension aims to contribute to financial and food security. At the same time, however, these outcomes are also affected by civil strife, natural disasters, and other factors that agricultural extension can prepare for and respond to but not control (Davis, 2008; FMARD, 2016).
1.6 LIMITATIONS O F THE STUDY
On the course of this research, the following problems were encountered, like short time frame. Financing problem, scarcity of information or data, etc. this is due to mainly, the wide scope of this study which emphasizes on a state like Bayelsa. Now, the implication is that the short time frame mapped out for this research work posed a problem of assessing these programs as whole, but that doesn’t threat the authentication and quality of this work.
Again, enough finance for the accomplishment of this work became a problem in the sense that gathering information was costly, the researcher needed enough money to gather them.
1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Sustainability and productivity of the agricultural sector worldwide largely depends on effective extension methods that focus strongly on the dissemination and facilitation of the adoption of recommended technologies and practices by farmers (Ssemakula and Mutimba, 2011). The main challenge facing agricultural extension in the 21st century is how to develop low-cost sustainable extension methods for service provision that go beyond extending messages to playing a key role in promoting farmers as the principal agents of change in their communities (Lukuyu et al., 2012). These methods need to enhance farmers’ learning, innovation and improve their capacities to organize themselves for more efficient production and to demand extension services (Davis et al., 2009).
The task is especially complex, given the need for extension methods to address the challenges of transforming farmers from using traditional farming practices to new scientific and recommended farming practices (Lukuyu et al., 2012). Thus this study will be useful to agricultural planners and practitioners to adopt best extension methods to use in transferring improved common bean technologies to farmers. Furthermore, knowing the most effective methods will assist in designing effective agricultural extension programmes for increasing adoption of improved common bean technologies to the farmers. This study will also contribute to the national initiatives for improving extension services in line with the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty that stipulates increasing communication and collaboration in the delivery of extension services to the farmers.
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Agriculture: the science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products.
Agricultural Development: is defined as the process that creates the conditions for the fulfilment of agricultural potential. Those conditions include the accumulation of knowledge and availability of technology as well as the allocation of inputs and output.
Agricultural Extension: is another name for agricultural advisory services. In practical terms, extension means giving farmers – for us, smallholders in developing countries – knowledge of agronomic techniques and skills to improve their productivity, food security and livelihoods.
Constraints: a limitation or restriction.