Economic Diversification and the Need to Revive the Agricultural Sector in Nigeria: Challenges for National Development

Crude oil exploration before now led to the neglect of the agricultural sector that used to be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, and contributed much to its export, national revenue and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This paper examined economic diversification and the need to revive the agricultural sector in Nigeria. It relied on secondary data, which revealed, among others, the historical trend of various agricultural policies and programs of successive administrations to increase agricultural productivity. This has often been geared toward diversifying the nation’s monocultural petroleum economy through the agricultural sector. However, the governments, over the years, have not been able to achieve the desired results due to several impeding issues, among which is poor governance as a result of weak institutions, resulting in food security challenges, the threat to life and property, especially to farmers, farmers-herders’ crises and poor marketing. Essentially, the paper found that among the various challenges, poor governance and weak institutions have been the predisposing factor that have negatively contributed to the other impeding issues, limiting economic diversification through agricultural productivity. The paper inter alia, recommended that there be strong institutions that will engender good governance; that will have positive ripple effects on effective and efficient implementation of government agricultural policies and programs, at the national, state and local government levels.