Food security is a major challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria, the most populous country in the region, the rate of food production lags behind the rate of population growth, resulting in high incidences of hunger, with more than half the population living below the poverty line. In response to this, the Nigerian government has introduced a number of agricultural initiatives designed to increase food production and move the country closer to self-sufficiency. The objective of this paper is to determine the extent to which these initiatives have resulted in sustainable improvements in productivity. This is done through the development of a simple analytical framework that deconstructs increases in production into yield increases and area expansion. Rice and cassava are used as case studies. The paper demonstrates that three key government initiatives have had little impact on yields, with increases in production driven largely by area increases, most likely at the expense of forested areas and the ecosystem services they provide. The findings suggest that Nigeria has not achieved sustainable intensification of its agriculture for the two case study crops of cassava and rice. Moreover, some of the government initiatives assessed here have coincided with periods of falling yield.
| Published in | International Journal of Agricultural Economics (Volume 3, Issue 5) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijae.20180305.14 |
| Page(s) | 118-128 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Agricultural Intensification, Food Security, Nigeria
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APA Style
Ndianabasi Samuel Udondian, Elizabeth Jane Zimilia Robinson. (2018). Exploring Agricultural Intensification: A Case Study of Nigerian Government Rice and Cassava Initiatives. International Journal of Agricultural Economics, 3(5), 118-128. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20180305.14
ACS Style
Ndianabasi Samuel Udondian; Elizabeth Jane Zimilia Robinson. Exploring Agricultural Intensification: A Case Study of Nigerian Government Rice and Cassava Initiatives. Int. J. Agric. Econ. 2018, 3(5), 118-128. doi: 10.11648/j.ijae.20180305.14
AMA Style
Ndianabasi Samuel Udondian, Elizabeth Jane Zimilia Robinson. Exploring Agricultural Intensification: A Case Study of Nigerian Government Rice and Cassava Initiatives. Int J Agric Econ. 2018;3(5):118-128. doi: 10.11648/j.ijae.20180305.14
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijae.20180305.14,
author = {Ndianabasi Samuel Udondian and Elizabeth Jane Zimilia Robinson},
title = {Exploring Agricultural Intensification: A Case Study of Nigerian Government Rice and Cassava Initiatives},
journal = {International Journal of Agricultural Economics},
volume = {3},
number = {5},
pages = {118-128},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijae.20180305.14},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20180305.14},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijae.20180305.14},
abstract = {Food security is a major challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria, the most populous country in the region, the rate of food production lags behind the rate of population growth, resulting in high incidences of hunger, with more than half the population living below the poverty line. In response to this, the Nigerian government has introduced a number of agricultural initiatives designed to increase food production and move the country closer to self-sufficiency. The objective of this paper is to determine the extent to which these initiatives have resulted in sustainable improvements in productivity. This is done through the development of a simple analytical framework that deconstructs increases in production into yield increases and area expansion. Rice and cassava are used as case studies. The paper demonstrates that three key government initiatives have had little impact on yields, with increases in production driven largely by area increases, most likely at the expense of forested areas and the ecosystem services they provide. The findings suggest that Nigeria has not achieved sustainable intensification of its agriculture for the two case study crops of cassava and rice. Moreover, some of the government initiatives assessed here have coincided with periods of falling yield.},
year = {2018}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Exploring Agricultural Intensification: A Case Study of Nigerian Government Rice and Cassava Initiatives AU - Ndianabasi Samuel Udondian AU - Elizabeth Jane Zimilia Robinson Y1 - 2018/10/31 PY - 2018 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20180305.14 DO - 10.11648/j.ijae.20180305.14 T2 - International Journal of Agricultural Economics JF - International Journal of Agricultural Economics JO - International Journal of Agricultural Economics SP - 118 EP - 128 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-3843 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20180305.14 AB - Food security is a major challenge in sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria, the most populous country in the region, the rate of food production lags behind the rate of population growth, resulting in high incidences of hunger, with more than half the population living below the poverty line. In response to this, the Nigerian government has introduced a number of agricultural initiatives designed to increase food production and move the country closer to self-sufficiency. The objective of this paper is to determine the extent to which these initiatives have resulted in sustainable improvements in productivity. This is done through the development of a simple analytical framework that deconstructs increases in production into yield increases and area expansion. Rice and cassava are used as case studies. The paper demonstrates that three key government initiatives have had little impact on yields, with increases in production driven largely by area increases, most likely at the expense of forested areas and the ecosystem services they provide. The findings suggest that Nigeria has not achieved sustainable intensification of its agriculture for the two case study crops of cassava and rice. Moreover, some of the government initiatives assessed here have coincided with periods of falling yield. VL - 3 IS - 5 ER -
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