Nigeria Trade Investment

The agricultural potential of Nigeria is barely being tapped and this explains the inability of the country to meet the ever increasing demand for agricultural produce. Although the agricultural sector remains a dominant employer of labour, serious investment is needed across the board to enhance production and increase the contribution of the sector to GDP. Investment is required in the following priority activities:

(a) Crop production to achieve food security and to provide industrial raw materials. Potentials exist for the following crops:

Cereals: Maize, rice, sorghum, corn, millet, wheat.

Root crops: Cassava, yam, ginger, potato, coco yam.

Legumes: Soya beans, groundnuts, cowpeas.

Fruits: Mango, banana, oranges, guava, papaw, pineapple.

Vegetables: Cabbage, green pepper, carrots, lettuce, spice, onions, melons.

Tree crops: Oil palm, cocoa, rubber, coconut, kola nut, coffee, she nuts, beniseed, cotton, cashew nut, sugar cane.

Others:
Commercial growing of flowers and ornamentals and experimental orchards for more temperate fruits-apples, grape vines and pears have been successfully established in the high plateau regions.

(b) Food processing and preservation involving industries that will use agricultural produce as raw materials.

(c) Livestock and Fisheries production which possess great potentials for development. Grazing lands are abundant, facilities for animal feed production are plentiful, and the in-land rivers, lakes and coastal creeks are sufficient to augment ocean fishery resources.

(d) Agricultural inputs supplies and machinery, water resources development especially for flood control infrastructure and irrigation.

(e) Commodity trading and transportation.

(f) Development and fabrication of appropriate small-scale mechanized technologies for on-farm processing and secondary processing of agricultural produce.

(g) Exploitation of timber and wood processing activities. A wide range of wood resources abound.

AVERAGE ANNUAL (1990-1998) OUTPUT OF MAJOR AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES IN NIGERIA, CROP PRODUCTION (‘000 TONES)

A. Cereals Maize 5954 Millet 5134 Millet 3048 Wheat 205 Sorghum 7096	B. Grain legumes or Pulses Cowpea 1644 Soybean 248
C. Root Tubers Yams 21100 Cassava 214 Coco yam 1589 Irish potato 85 Sweet potato 812	D. In Industrial Crops Cotton 287 Groundnut 1716 Cocoa 288 Coffee 346 Sugar Cane 755 Palm kernel 742 She nut 265 Rubber 170 Ginger 49 Benniseed 58 Palm Oil 784 Coconut 141

These are widely used in food and beverage sub-sectors like flour mills, breweries, chemical, pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, wood products and industrial starch