Sustainable Agricultural Development in Nigeria: A Way Out of Hunger and Poverty

Abstract

This paper examines the agricultural transformation via-a-vis hunger and poverty eradication as a
means of sustaining economic growth and development in Nigeria. About 80 percent of Nigerians
live in rural areas and agricultural sector remains the main provider of livelihood for most rural
dwellers and a major contributor to Nigeria growth rate besides oil and gas sector. Before the
discovery of crude oil in commercial quantity in the country in 1968, agriculture dominated the
economy and accounted for almost all its foreign reserves. The discovery of oil caused a paradigm
shift from agriculture to petroleum, relegating the multi-functional nature of agriculture to the
background. Despite the huge revenue and foreign reserves derived from the oil sector, hunger and
poverty rates remain on the increase in Nigeria. Recent estimates put the number of undernourished
Nigerians at over 53 million-representing about 30 percent of the country’s total population while
the poverty statistics shows that about 72 percent of Nigerians (118.2million people) are poor. The
importance of agricultural transformation on the nation’s socio-economic development cannot be
over-emphasized. Hunger and poverty rates will continue to rise as long as the abundance human
and material resources located in Nigeria rural settings are not optimally harnessed. This paper
therefore, emphasizes significant improvements and effective harnessing of agricultural sector for
meaningful and adequate food production and other socio-economic developments through
agricultural reforms. Specifically, the study limits itself to the important role of agricultural
transformation in engendering sustainable development and significant levels of hunger and poverty
reduction in South Western Nigeria.

Keywords: Hunger, Agricultural transformation, Food production, Poverty reduction, Sustenance