The administration of FADAMA and agricultural sector performance in Nigeria

Abstract

Agriculture was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy before the discovery of oil in commercial quantity in the late 1960s to early 1970s. The sector provides employment opportunity for a larger portion of the nation’s population. So also is the provision of raw materials for most industries and provision of food for the nation. With the discovery of oil in the country, the sector has been witnessing decline in terms of performance. This has prompted the government in the early 1990s to establish fadama among many other measures aim at alleviating the problem facing agriculture. This study therefore examines the impact of fadama administration on the performance of agricultural sector in Nigeria. The study adopted qualitative analysis by comparing agricultural sector’s performance pre and post fadama establishment. The findings show mixed fortune in the performance of the sector. Whereas the total agricultural production has been on the increase, it has not been enough to meet the domestic consumption as the nation still import some agricultural products especially food items. Also the contribution of the sector to GDP is declining much as labour mobility from the sector to more lucrative sector is becoming rampant. The study therefore concludes that more funding be allocated to fadama in particular and the entire sector in general so as to address the problems detected by the findings.