CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Nigeria is the largest country in West Africa and shares its boundaries with Cameroon on the East, Niger and Chad on the North, Benin on the west and the Gulf of Guinea on the south. Its topography consists of the northern Savannah, the middle belt tropical rain forests and the southern mangrove swamps. Anyanwu (1979) observed that the significance of the agricultural sector to human existence generally cannot be over emphasized in an emerging economy such as Nigeria. This is in consonance with the fact that Nigeria as a country is highly endowed with abundant natural resources including land and labor with a large percentage of the populace living in rural areas that depend on agriculture to a large extent to make a living. Okwuosa (1970) argues that this enormous resource base, if well managed, could support a vibrant agricultural sector capable of ensuring the supply of raw materials for the industrial sector as well as providing gainful employment for its teeming population.
This underscores the contribution of agriculture to the overall development of the economy especially in emerging economies which is apparent in the provision of gainful employment, provision of increased food supplies, provision of capital, capital formation, increasing foreign exchange and increase in the welfare of the citizens through wealth creation among others. Tomori (1979) posited that, the Nigerian agricultural sector has been seemingly, if not totally, neglected with the discovery of oil. This is evident in the sharp decline in the contribution of agricultural sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) from 64% in 1960 to 35% in 1988 and presently, the agricultural sector in Nigeria contributes less than 30% to GDP, with crop production accounting for an estimated 85% of this total, livestock 10% with forestry and fisheries contributing the remaining 5%. Compared with other African and Asian countries, especially Indonesia, which is comparable to Nigeria in many respects, economic development has been disappointing because Nigeria has become one of the poorest countries in the world. Having earned about $300 billion from oil exports between the mid-1970s and 2000, its per capita income was disappointingly 20 percent lower than that of 1975.