Despite the Federal Government’s huge interventions in the agricultural in the last few years, the sector has recorded the lowest growth rate under the present administration.
The Central Bank of Nigeria had during its last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting said it has disbursed over N3 trillion to farmers to ensure food sufficiency in the country.
But Data compiled by Statisense, a data consulting firm shows that the sector recorded an average growth of 10.48 percent between 2016 and 2020.
However, under former President Goodluck Jonathan, the sector recorded an average growth of 18.79 per cent between 2011 and 2015 while between 2006 and 2010, a period that covers the tail end of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and late Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua administrations, the sector recorded an average growth of 27.6 percent.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had earlier on Monday said the sector contributed N41 trillion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) last year.
This, according to the agency, was 23.7 percent of the total nominal GDP of N173.53 trillion reported in 2021.
However, for real GDP, the sector contributed N18.7 trillion or 25.8 percent of the total N72.39 trillion recorded last year.
The agricultural activities measured by the NBS include crop production, livestock, forestry and fishing.
The breakdown of each activity’s contributions to the nominal GDP revealed the following: crop production (N36.34trillion), livestock (N2.24trillion), forestry (N296.9billion); and fishing (N2.23trillion).
For real GDP, crop production contributed N16.9trillion and livestock N1.24trillion.
Forestry and fishing contributed N193.2billion and N384.4billion respectively to the real GDP during the period.