Agricultural Commercialisation and the Political Economy of Cocoa and Rice Value Chains in Nigeria
Nigeria has sought to diversify its economy away from dependence on oil as a major source of government revenue through agricultural commercialisation
Abstract
Nigeria has sought to diversify its economy away from dependence on oil as a major source of government revenue through agricultural commercialisation. Agriculture has been a priority sector because it has very high growth potential and the greatest potential for employment and export revenue. The cocoa and rice value chains are central to the government’s engagement with agriculture to achieve these objectives. This paper sets out to investigate the underlying political economy dynamics of the commercialisation of the cocoa and rice value chains in Nigeria in terms of smallholder farm households’ shift from semi-subsistence agriculture to production primarily for market, and predominantly commercial medium- and large-scale farm enterprises complementing or replacing smallholder farm households.
This work is part of the APRA (Agricultural Policy Research Policy in Africa) Programme
Citation
Poulton, Colin. (2017) ‘What is Agricultural Commercialisation, Why is it Important, and how do we Measure it?’ APRA Working Paper 6, Future Agricultures Consortium