Revamping agricultural sector and its implications on output and employment generation: Evidence from Nigeria
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Date
2022
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Publisher
Open Agriculture
Abstract
The Nigerian government has implemented a
comprehensive spectrum of policies and programmes
to diversify the economy and encourage broad-based
growth through investment in the agricultural sector.
However, the steady increase in the poverty and unemployment rate has raised controversial issues among
scholars. In light of this, the study investigates the impact
of selected macroeconomic variables on Nigeria’s agricultural performance using two models for output and employment. The Error Correction Model (ECM) approach was used
to establish the short and long-run behaviours. In the first
model, output in the agricultural sector was used as the
independent variable, while in the second model, employment in the agricultural sector was used as the independent
variable. The study’s findings showed that output positively
relates to credit to the agricultural sector and exchange rate.
However, it was depicted that output and employment in
the agricultural sector in both the short-run and the longrun are not statistically significant. The implication drawn
from the study is that credit granted to the agricultural
sector can foster aggregate output in the sector, which
will promote long-term employment. The study suggests
considerable investment in the agricultural sector and the need to strengthen institutions for proper management of
resources to ensure effective evaluation of funds disbursed
for improving the agricultural sector, among others.