Abstract
It has often been stated that the agricultural sector has the potential to provide the needed raw material for the manufacturing sector. It is pertinent to clearly identify this potential, interrogate why it still remains potential, and more importantly, suggest workable ways to sustainably and profitably exploit the potential as a going concern. This chapter is therefore designed to focus on enterprise expansion and opportunities for expansion in agriculture. The chapter is divided into the following sections: “Characteristics of Agriculture in Nigeria,” “Determinants of Youth Participation in Agriculture,” “Agricultural Enterprise Expansion and Agricultural Transformation,” “Enhancing Enterprise Expansion,” and “Opportunities in Agriculture.” The chapter concludes that for the potential of agriculture in an economy to be realized, the relevant stakeholders should know that business as usual is not an acceptable option; yield-increasing and enterprise-expansion-inducing strategies should be implemented in both the short and the long term. Recommendations are made to enable those engaged in agriculture to profit by it and increase in both output and in scale.
TopBackground
Agriculture continues to be the largest employer in Africa, but accounted for only 13 percent of GDP in 2010 (Fox et al. 2013). In 2016, agriculture’s contribution to the GDP in Nigeria was 24.43% (NBS, 2017). Brooks et al. (2013a) argue that accelerated transformative change in the agricultural sector will lead to an increase in productive capacity, reduction in real food prices, and rural income inequality. The transformative change is also expected to engender agricultural job creation. According to Adesugba and Mavrotas (2017), job creation should not just be targeted towards the wage job sector, but should also seek to increase job opportunities in agriculture in both the formal and informal sub-sectors.
The agricultural sector has the potentials to provide the raw materials needed for the manufacturing sector. It should be noted that the potential to create jobs in the agricultural sector is increased in countries that have productive farms with better infrastructure and communication networks. It is pertinent to clearly identify these potentials, interrogate why they still remain potentials and more importantly suggest workable ways to sustainably and profitably exploit the potentials as a growing concern. Let us take a look at the characteristics of agriculture in Nigeria as a point of departure on the discussion on enterprise expansion and opportunities in the sector.