CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Nigeria has substantial economic potential in its‟ agricultural sector. However, despite the importance of agriculture in terms of employment creation, its potential for contributing to economic growth is far from being fully exploited (USAID, 2005). The agricultural sector has been the mainstay of Nigeria‟s economy employing 70% of the active labour force and contributes significantly to the country‟s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and foreign earnings. In 1960, 1970, and 1980, it contributed 55.2%, 40.7% and 18% to GDP respectively, while its contribution to GDP in 1996, 1997, and 1999 stood at 39.0%, 39.4% and 40.4% respectively (NPC and UNDP, 1999). In 2010 agricultural contribution to GDP stood at 30.0%, while currently as at first quarter of 2012, it is contributing 34.4% to the GDP (NBS, 2012). However, there have been recorded decline in agricultural contribution to the national economic growth for over three decades now since emergence of the oil sector. This decline could be associated with the gross neglect of the agricultural sector and over dependence on the oil sector (Ugwu and Kanu, 2012).
The agricultural sector had been constrained with factors such as poor rural infrastructure, poor fertilizer distributions and high cost of farm inputs that could have enhance its production capacity and contribution to the national economy. The oil-boom era had lead to importation of food items in massive scale at the expense of locally produced ones because the rural farmers do not have the technological resources to compete in international market. This discourages the farmers from producing much because they no longer realized the needed profit from their effort (Ogunwole, 2004). The goal of increasing food production and reducing food import has elicited many programmes and policies at the various levels of government (Kudi et al., 2008). In order to revamp the agricultural sector, the Federal Government of Nigeria had embarked on and implemented several agricultural policies and programmes some of which are defunct or abandoned, and some restructured, while others are still in place. Presidential initiatives on cassava production and a number of new programme interventionsare currently implemented to increase area of cassava production, processing and marketing across the country.
Cassava is one of the most widely cultivated crops in the country. It is generally cultivated on small-holdings in association with crops such as maize, groundnut, cowpea, plantation (such as coffee, coconut and oil palm), vegetables and cocoyam depending on the agro-ecological zone and relies on residual soil nutrients when intercropped with maize which has been fertilized or as following crop in rotation with legumes (IITA, 2004; Chukwuji, 2008). Cassava is grown mainly on impoverished soils with no soil amendments such as fertilizers. Continuous cropping of cassava particularly the high yielding varieties without adequate maintenance of soil fertility could lead to soil and environmental degradation (IITA, 2004). Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the World. Its production is currently put at about thirty-four (34) million metric tonnes a year (FAO, 2002).