No One Feels Safe Investing In Agriculture Why Is It So? Is the Assertion True for All Enterprises How Can This Be Unwilling To Invest Be Rectified In View Of the Declining Role of Agriculture in Nigeria Economy

INTRODUCTION

No One Feels Safe Investing In Agriculture Why Is It So? Is the Assertion True for All Enterprises How Can This Be Unwilling To Invest Be Rectified In View Of the Declining Role of Agriculture in Nigeria Economy. Generally, agricultural products have been recognized to have domestic food and industrial value and great export potential because they can provide food for the entire population and income to farmers as well as many economic agents involved in marketing of agricultural products. They serve as major source of raw materials for industry as well as major source of non-oil foreign exchange earnings for the nation. Significant growth potentials in agricultural products can be exploited.

The potentials include generating growth in export earnings through increased cultivation of crops, generating increased income for labour and entrepreneur who are engaged in small scale industries as well as large scale agro-based industries that make use of agricultural products as raw materials. In addition, the manufacture of food items like vegetable oil and fats, majority of which are currently imported can be obtained from industrial processing of agricultural commodities.

From the perspective of sustainable agricultural growth and development in Nigeria, one of the fundamental constraints is the peasant nature of the production system, with its low productivity, poor response to technology adoption strategies and poor returns on investment. It is recognized that agricultural commercialization and investment are the key strategies for promoting accelerated modernization, sustainable growth and development and, hence, poverty reduction in the sector.

However, to attract investment into agriculture, it is imperative that those constraints inhibiting the performance of the sector are first identified with a view to unlocking them and creating a conducive investment climate in the sector. The development challenges of Nigeria’s agriculture are, therefore, those of properly identifying and classifying the growth and development constraints of the sector, unlocking them and then evolving appropriate strategies for promoting accelerated commercialization and investment in the sector such that, in the final analysis, agriculture will become one of the most important growth points in the economy.