Agriculture is a major sector of the Nigerian economy, accounting for up to 35% of total employment in 2020. According to the FAO, agriculture remains the foundation of the Nigerian economy, providing livelihoods for most Nigerians and generating millions of jobs. Along with crude oil, Nigeria relies on the agricultural products it exports to generate most of its national revenue. The agricultural sector in Nigeria comprises four sub-sectors: crop production, livestock, forestry, and fishing.
Nigeria has a total agricultural area of 70.8 million hectares, of which 34 million hectares are arable land, 6.5 million hectares are used for permanent crops, and 30.3 million hectares are meadows and pastures.
Maize, cassava, guinea corn, and yam are the major crops farmed in Nigeria, with 70% of the households engaged in crop farming. In the south, 7.3% of the households practice fishing, while 69.3% of the households own or raise livestock in northwest Nigeria.
In the third quarter of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector grew by 14.88% year-on-year. Crop Production remains the largest driver of the sector. During the third quarter of 2019, the Agriculture sector contributed 29.25% to the overall real GDP. Between January and March 2021, Agriculture contributed 22.35% of the total gross domestic product.
The sector is undergoing transformation through commercialization at the small, medium, and large enterprise levels. However, the Nigerian Agricultural sector has encountered several challenges, including an outdated land tenure system that limits access to land, a low level of irrigation development, limited adoption of research findings and technologies, a high cost of farm inputs, poor access to credit due to the mismanagement of specialized institutions established for the development of the agricultural sector, inefficient fertilizer procurement and distribution, insufficient storage facilities, and poor access to markets.
More recently, changes in average temperatures, rainfall, climate extremes, and the growing infestation of pests and related diseases precipitated by climate change pose a great challenge to the integrity of the country's agriculture system. This is coupled with a high dependence on rain-fed agriculture, which has made the sector highly vulnerable to adverse seasonal conditions.
These all contribute to low agricultural productivity and high post-harvest losses and waste in Nigeria. Illiteracy is also one of the several factors standing against the progress and development of Agriculture in Nigeria. Research has proven that most of the farmers in Nigeria have not acquired formal education.
Dynamics
At the time of Nigeria's independence (1960), food exports made up more than 70% of the country's Gross National Product (GNP). However, over the next 25 years, the situation reversed, with food items accounting for over 50% of imports. Despite having fertile land, food output in Nigeria declined, and per capita food production also decreased, leading to a more than sevenfold increase in grain imports.
In the 1970s, the Nigerian government promoted the use of inorganic fertilizers to address the issue. By 1990, out of Nigeria's total land area of about 91 million hectares, 82 million hectares were found to be suitable for farming, but only 42% of the cultivable area was farmed. The "bush fallow system," where land is left idle for a period to allow natural regeneration of soil fertility, was commonly used. Additionally, 18 million hectares were classified as permanent pasture but had the potential to support crops, and most of the 20 million hectares covered by forests and woodlands were believed to have agricultural potential.
Agricultural holdings are small and scattered, and farming is carried out with simple tools. Large-scale agriculture is not common. Agriculture contributed 32% to GDP in 2001.
Animal agriculture
Production
Nigeria produced in 2022: