The role of financial institutions in agricultural development (1990-2010) a case study of nigeria agricultural cooperative and rural development bank

Thesis Overview

<p> INTRODUCTION<br>BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY<br>Nigeria is endowed with natural resources, large fertile farmland,<br>wide range of crops, and river amongst others. Despite its<br>abundant nature resources it is faced worth a poor food situation.<br>The poor food situation is traceable to the decline in the<br>agricultural sector. The problem of feeding and provision of<br>natural resources is increasing by the day. However, several<br>efforts are being made to improve the standard.<br>Prior to the discovery of petroleum in Nigeria agriculture used to<br>be the highest foreign exchange resources earner and its<br>contribution to gross domestic product GDP has been estimated<br>to about 62.63% in 1960, 48.08% in 1970, and 20.63% in 1980.<br>Recently due to the growing awareness of the role of agriculture,<br>the various governments have intensified efforts aimed at<br>transforming from its present subsistence level to a market<br>oriented production. One of those efforts was the ban made on<br>12<br>importation of agricultural products like palm oil, maize and rice.<br>This was done to encourage improvements on our production<br>standard.<br>Due to the fall in the level of production from decade to decade,<br>the country could no longer feed the large population, provide<br>raw material for domestic industries, engage in export of<br>agricultural produce and employ the labor force of the country<br>despite the abundance of human and material resources.<br>In spite of growing urbanization, Nigeria is known to be<br>predominantly rural in nature and majority of the population is<br>dependent directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood.<br>Though, the Nigerian agriculture is characterized by low farm<br>income, low level capacity to satisfy the fond needs of the<br>country, due to the outdated and primitive techniques of<br>production, it is still the mainstay of the nation’s economy.<br>Measures and program setup to upgrade the Agricultural sector<br>involve the construction and reformation of the whole structure<br>of the agricultural sector by the creation of appropriate<br>13<br>institutions and public services. This would help strengthen the<br>economic position of the dependent farmers. Examples of such<br>measures are National Accelerated Food Production Project<br>(NAFPP), Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), Nigeria<br>Agricultural Cooperation and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB).<br>STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM.<br>According to Anyanwu Etal (1997:14) ‘’the agricultural sector has<br>been recognized for a long time as an important sector to<br>Nigerian economy and development is one of the crucial<br>requirements for the overall economic growth. He noted further<br>that the decline in agricultural activities might appear natural in<br>any development process; it is obvious that in Nigeria agricultural<br>activities would remain the most important single sector for some<br>time to come. He emphasized that in the past, development<br>planners have introduce programs such as national accelerated<br>food production project (NAFPP), green revolution programs<br>(GRP), in search for all appropriate technique in order to increase<br>14<br>farm output an d productivity and such program have at one time<br>been implemented.<br>In recognition of the aforementioned that attempt is made in this<br>study to provide answers or solution to the research problems<br>below. <br></p>