The agricultural landscape in Nigeria is intricately linked with macroeconomic policies that have evolved over the years. Nigeria’s heavy reliance on the export of primary commodities, particularly crude oil, has prompted a strategic shift toward diversifying the economy, with a heightened focus on the agriculture sector. This shift is driven by the recognition that sustained economic growth requires a robust and diversified agricultural base. The macroeconomic policies implemented in Nigeria have aimed to enhance agricultural productivity, foster export growth, and create a resilient foundation for economic development.
Over the past decades, Nigeria has grappled with the challenge of transforming its agriculture sector, which historically played a vital role in global food trade. The sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has fluctuated, and issues such as insufficient farm input supply, technological constraints, post-harvest processing, environmental threats, and land use limitations have posed formidable obstacles to agricultural growth. In response to these challenges, macroeconomic policies have been instrumental in shaping the trajectory of the agriculture sector.
However, one of the macroeconomic indices is food insecurity in which September 2018 to October 2019 household survey of expenditures showing about 40 per cent of the Nigerian population being identified as food insecure. This important aspect of the country’s economic policy pertaining to agriculture is an indicative factor of the macroeconomic policies that have been implemented over the years to combat the issue of food and agricultural production. Despite the fact that Mekonnen et al (2021) found that approximately 28 per cent of the population was food insecure, based on the expense of a meal that accommodates localised food tastes and satisfies food-based dietary standards, it is apparent that the food production sector is experiencing a great deal of difficulty.
Also, inflation is an important index of macroeconomic policies and implementation in Nigeria with the country’s food inflation having about 23 percent rose in September 2022 as gathered by FarmingFarmersFarms from the last household survey in 2019. Furthermore, gross domestic products (GDP) is one of the major measurement of macroeconomic indices with Nigeria contributing about 21% in 2023 (Doris, 2023), and crop production being the major driver of the sector in 2022 and 2023 as observed from the National Bureau of Statistics. This is evident as it accounts for 92.05% of overall nominal growth of the sector in the first quarter of 2022 (National Bureau of Statistics).
In the span of almost 24 months, the Nigerian agriculture sector is observed to be doing so well in the aspect of the GDP (as one of the major macroeconomic indices), but there is need for consistency and synergies with other macroeconomic indices in order to aid the prosperity of the agriculture sector in the country. Meanwhile, the crop production sector was seen to be the largest sector in agriculture that contributes to the country’s GDP, there is need to improve on other sectors too for uniformity in Agriculture as a major player in the country’s GDP.
