Agricultural development in Nigeria: the constraints and potentials

Abstract

Despite numerous attempts by urban and regional planners to develop societies and make their environments conducive for living, livelihood in some parts of the world remains miserable due to chaos and social unrest. The continuous socio-economic and political unrest that enveloped most under developed world has been attributed to poverty. A number of attempts have been made around the world to overcome poverty but mostly have been in vain. This is most likely due to non-utilization of effective means of poverty eradication. History has revealed that agricultural development has been the best approach for improving living standard of the citizenry. Creation of agricultural villages enables the realization of objectives of rural planning by stimulating economic growth, jobs creation and improving living standard. This research was carried out by reviewing literatures on agricultural development in Nigeria, simple GIS analysis and a simplified survey approach. Problems and challenges of agricultural development in the country was reviewed and analysed. A simple agricultural land use planning model is proposed with case study of a rural planning area selected based on its characteristic so as to determine the practicability of the model. This study area is Igabi Local Government Area in Kaduna State. Detailed descriptions of the area are discussed. All factors that affect assessment of the area are analysed. The first stage was to determine Potential Agricultural Area (PAA). The second stage involves assessment of the past and the existing agricultural practice, the availability of the infrastructure, market trend, the socioeconomic characteristics of the inhabitants and the preferences of the people. The physical and socioeconomic characteristics of Igabi revealed that the area is very suitable for agricultural development. This is similar to most part of the country due to their similar characteristics. This means that if the effective agricultural practices is adopted, the country will be self-sufficient in food production which will insure food security