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Impact Of Agricultural Policy On Economic Development Under The Jonathan Administration
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1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:
The agricultural sector has suffered from
years of poor management, inconsistent and poorly implemented
government policies, government neglect of agriculture and lack of basic
infrastructure. Agriculture accounted for 30% of the GDP in 2010 (World
Factbook, January 9, 2012).
Nigeria is no longer a major exporter of
cocoa, groundnut, rubber and palm products. Coca production mostly from
obsolete varieties and over-aged trees are stagnant at around 150,000
tones annually. There is also a decline in groundnut, palm oil and other
major export crops (United States Department of State, 2005). The
decline in agricultural production was largely due to the rise of oil
shipments (Abdullahi, 2003). Because of this development, the President
Jonathan’s administration initiated a policy framework to overhaul the
agriculture sector. But little has the popular Transformation Agenda
done to promote economic development orchestrated by sound agricultural
policy for the country.
Before the discovery of oil, agriculture was
given the needed attention and impetus. But all of that is now illusion,
as oil extraction has become the economic mainstay of the economy with
it multifaceted macro-economic twin evil of unemployment and inflation.
The
FMA (2001) propounded these as some fundamental weaknesses that impede
the effectiveness of agricultural policies and program implementation in
Nigeria:
A hostile environment where macro – economic policies and
the agricultural policy are in disharmony thus resulting in escalating
costs of production and reduced purchasing power of farmers.
Inconsistency and instability in macro – economic policies which
discourage medium and long term investments in agriculture. The report
also showed that the Nigerian agriculture lacks storage facilities and
these have led to so much wastage and high cost of storage. This hinders
the availability of source perishable agricultural produce through the
year, therefore hindering agricultural development.
Another negative
factor is dependence on weather which affects the increase in
agricultural produce. Nigeria Agriculturists or farmers still depend on
rainfall only to produce instead of the use of irrigation that supplies
water all through the year.
Moreover, the agricultural sector is
poorly financed in Nigeria. Farmers do not get credit easily from
financial institutions, like commercial banks. The agriculturists find
it difficult to finance projects which are capital intensive. Scholars
have specified the need to diversify the economy, as a way of promoting
economic development (Ojekunle, 2011). But it is not clear how this
could be done. Hence, the study is necessary to come with how
agriculture serves as an instrument for economic development.
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