Situations altered drastically with the oil boom of the 1970s, as the discovery of huge oil and gas reserves in the strategically considerable sub-Saharan country turned its fortunes overnight. The windfall transformed Nigeria's farming landscape into a gigantic oil field crisscrossed by more than 7,000 km of pipelines linking 6,000 oil wells, two refineries, countless flow stations and export terminals. The enormous financial rubber raw materials investments in the sector paid off, with informal price quotes recommending Abuja raked in more than $600 billion in petrodollars in the last years alone.

Sadly, the fascination with non-renewables over all other sectors of the economy eventually turned Nigeria's advantage into a bane. Newly found wealth spawned political instability and enormous corruption in government circles, and the country was rent asunder by years of violent civil war and succeeding military coups. Agriculture was one of the first casualties of the oil routine, and by the 1990s, cultivation accounted for simply 5% of GDP. Farming modernisation and support continued to remain short on the list of national priorities as huge stretches of rural Nigeria gradually plunged into hardship and food shortage. Deforestation, soil erosion and industrial pollution further sped up the down-spiral of agriculture to the point where it ended up as a subsistence activity.

The fall of Nigerian farming coincided with the collapse of its macroeconomic and human advancement signs. With earnings distribution focused on a few city pockets, most of rural Nigeria was left reeling under massive hardship, unemployment and food lacks. An expanding urban-rural divide stimulated social unrest and mass migration into towns and cities. Arranged city criminal offense became as genuine a security threat as militancy in the Niger Delta region. Nigeria plummeted to the bottom in world economic rankings and Africa's most populated nation acquired the unhappy difference of having over half (54%) of its 148 million individuals residing in abject poverty. The World Bank created the term "Nigerian Paradox" particularly to describe the special condition of severe underdevelopment and poverty in a nation brimming with resources and potential. The country was ranked 80th in a 2007 UNDP poverty survey covering 108 nations.

The shift to democratic civilian guideline at the end of the last century paved the way for an enthusiastic programme of financial reform and restructuring. Abuja's seriousness for inclusive development was much in evidence in the adoption of an ambitious blueprint developed to reverse trends and boost a stagnating economy. The Vision 2020 document embraced under previous president O Obsanjo sets out broad parameters for sustainable development with the specific objective of instating Nigeria as an international financial superpower in a time-bound manner. The 2020 goals remain in addition to Nigeria's dedication to the UN Millennial Statement of 2000 that proposes universal standard human rights by 2015.

The realisation of these allied and intertwined goals depends totally on Abuja's ability to produce inclusive growth by means of an entrepreneurial revolution, while at the same time remedying massive infrastructural shortages and administrative abnormalities. Economies normally begin expanding with an initial agricultural transformation: The case of Nigeria nevertheless calls for farming to be part of a larger business transformation that effectively leverages the country's extensive resources and human capital.

The intricacy of concerns involved here is reflected in the truth that the National Poverty Obliteration Programme of 2001 determines agriculture and rural development as its main area of interest. The truth that all development has to begin from the bottom-up can not be overemphasised in the context of Nigeria, where a farming boom can ensure not just food supply and exports but likewise supply industrial raw materials and a market for products.

Agricultural growth is vital to economic success across Western Africa, considering the area's crippling poverty line. A 2003 conference organised by NEPAD (New Collaboration for Africa's Advancement) in South Africa highly prompted the promotion of cassava growing as a hardship elimination tool throughout the continent. The recommendation is based upon a strategy that concentrates on markets, economic sector involvement and research to drive a pan-African cassava effort. What was as soon as a rural staple and famine-reserve food has actually ended up being a lucrative money crop!

The NEPAD effort has strong relevance for Nigeria, the world's biggest cassava manufacturer. With its big rural population and comprehensive farmlands, the nation boasts unrivalled chances of transforming the modest cassava to an industrial basic material for both domestic and worldwide markets. There is a growing and well-justified belief that the crop can change rural economies, spur fast financial and commercial growth and assist disadvantaged communities. While production grew steadily in between 1980 and 2002 from 10,000 MT to over 35,000 MT, there is scope for substantial more increase by bringing more land under cassava growing. Nigeria needs to take the lead not just in establishing better production, harvesting and processing innovations, however likewise in finding brand-new uses and markets for what is certainly a wonder crop. Nigeria stands to make huge strides towards inclusive and sustainable development just through the smart and cautious promotion of cassava farming.

The following are some of the most immediate requirements for a successful revolution in Nigerian agriculture:

o Active promo and facility of agro-based markets that produce employment, sustain regional food requirements and motivate exports.

o Efficient steps to modernise and diversify the farming economy as a means of strengthening entrepreneurial development in supplementary sectors.

o Institution of a tariff system that promotes regional fruit and vegetables versus cheaper imports, together with the elimination of institutional barriers versus agricultural profitability.

o Aids on highly sophisticated farm equipment and practices that help enhance performance without any unfavorable eco-friendly negative effects.

o An umbrella hardship relief programme designed particularly to promote agrarian reforms while at the same time enhancing the quality of life in rural communities.

o Enhanced access to agricultural enterprise loans through a network of regulated lending institutions sympathetic to farming truths.

o Adult education programmes created to help Nigerian farmers upgrade to locally relevant but contemporary techniques of cultivation, marketing and circulation.

o Motivation of both public and economic sector farming research study focused on correcting technological restraints dealt with by regional farming neighborhoods.

If Nigeria's farming potential is massive, it is partially because more than 90% of its 91 million hectares of total land area is arable. While soil fertility is normally estimated on the lower side, the UN Food and Farming Organisation (FAO) forecasts medium to high yields throughout the nation with optimal utilisation of resources. Combined with Nigeria's substantial rural population typically involved in farming, this projection translates to enormous prospects in regards to agricultural efficiency and, by extension, economic revival. For a nation emerging out of a distressed past and struggling to achieve social, political and financial stability, the ideals of farming and entrepreneurial transformation hold essential. Because they are also inextricably connected in the Nigerian context, the country's future position on the world financial stage depends actually on the bounty of its harvest.