Legislation of Agricultural Development Plan; A panacea to agricultural stagnation and policies somersault in Nigeria

Agriculture is the largest employer of labour in Nigeria employing about 30 percent of the population on full time basis and about 50 percent on part time basis. Before the discovery of oil, Nigeria used to be a major player in the global agricultural market as the country was the world’s largest producer and exporter of groundnuts and palm oil in the 1960s.

Nigeria has comparative advantage in agriculture, with 35 percent arable land, abundant fertile soils, a population of about 200 million people, ample and reliable rainfall, uncountable agrarian communities,   moderate sunshine etc.  Despite these comparative advantages, the huge potentials of the sector is yet to be tapped and as such,  agriculture remains largely underdeveloped making small holder farming form large percentage of the sector.

Loss of Agro-biodiversity – A serious threat to Food and Nutrition Security in Africa.

Agro-biodiversity or agricultural biodiversity is a subset of biodiversity that encompasses all of the genetic resources (plant genetic resources, animal genetic resources, microbes and pollinators genetic resources) related to food and agriculture. Agro-biodiversity includes all the varieties of crops, livestock breeds, fish species, soil microbes and pollinators (bees, insects, etc.) including all of their wild relatives that support agricultural ecosystems and productivity.

Africa, which is home to more than 50 000 known plant species, 1 000 mammal species and 1 500 bird species, is increasingly experiencing major losses of its large and diverse heritage of flora and fauna to genetic erosion.