For a very long time, agriculture has been the backbone of the Nigerian economy. As a matter of fact, a lot of countries depend solely on agriculture for sustenance and as the main source of their revenue. The Importance of Agriculture in Nigeria can indeed never be over emphasized, especially since we are no strangers to how life was before and during the colonial era when we depended solely on the production of food crops and cash crops. Food crops did more than enough in sustaining the everyday domestic food requirements and cash crops generated bountiful revenue, which pulled the economy on an upwards motion.
The 1970’s saw the oil boom period and with the dominant poor maintenance culture, and nonchalant attitude, Nigeria left the agricultural sector in a pathetic state of retrogression, a regrettable decision that has since been biting hard at both the government and the masses. In the mid 1970’s, Nigeria spent a meagre N113 million, which was the return from oil export to import agricultural products; today, between N8 billion and N11 billion is spent annually to import foods into the country.
With the advent of the technological method of agricultural production, employment opportunities can’t but surface to reduce the unemployment rate in the country. Dangote’s tomato paste factory which recently opened in Kano, northwest Nigeria is sure to give a means of livelihood to at least 3,000 unemployed people. The construction of several other production facilities in different states of the country is sure to reduce unemployment rate and this can go a long way to stopping the rate of unemployment in the country.
