Circumstances altered significantly with the oil boom of the 1970s, as the discovery of large oil and gas reserves in the strategically considerable sub-Saharan nation turned its fortunes overnight. The windfall changed Nigeria's agricultural landscape into a gigantic oil field crisscrossed by more than 7,000 km of pipelines connecting 6,000 oil wells, 2 refineries, many flow stations and export terminals. The gigantic investments in the sector settled, with unofficial price quotes recommending Abuja raked in more than $600 billion in petrodollars in the last decade alone.

Sadly, the fascination with non-renewables over all other sectors of the economy eventually turned Nigeria's boon into a bane. Newfound wealth spawned political instability and massive corruption in federal government circles, and the country was lease asunder by years of violent civil war and successive military coups. Agriculture was among the first casualties of the oil routine, and by the 1990s, cultivation represented simply 5% of GDP. Farming modernisation and support continued to stay short indoor lighting on the list of nationwide priorities as vast stretches of rural Nigeria gradually plunged into hardship and food deficiency. Deforestation, soil disintegration and industrial contamination further hastened the down-spiral of agriculture to the point where it ended up as a subsistence activity.

The fall of Nigerian agriculture coincided with the collapse of its macroeconomic and human development indicators. With income circulation focused on a few urban pockets, most of rural Nigeria was left reeling under massive hardship, joblessness and food shortages. An expanding urban-rural divide sparked social unrest and mass migration into towns and cities. Arranged urban criminal activity ended up being as real a security hazard as militancy in the Niger Delta area. Nigeria plunged to the bottom in world economic rankings and Africa's most populated country obtained the dissatisfied distinction of having more than half (54%) of its 148 million people living in abject poverty. The World Bank coined the term "Nigerian Paradox" particularly to describe the unique condition of extreme underdevelopment and poverty in a nation brimming with resources and capacity. The country was ranked 80th in a 2007 UNDP hardship survey covering 108 nations.

The shift to democratic civilian rule at the end of the last century led the way for an enthusiastic program of financial reform and restructuring. Abuja's urgency for inclusive growth was much in evidence in the adoption of an ambitious plan created to reverse patterns and boost a stagnating economy. The Vision 2020 document adopted under previous president O Obsanjo lays out broad specifications for sustainable advancement with the particular goal of instating Nigeria as a worldwide financial superpower in a time-bound way. The 2020 goals remain in addition to Nigeria's commitment to the UN Millennial Statement of 2000 that proposes universal basic human rights by 2015.

The realisation of these allied and intertwined goals depends entirely on Abuja's capability to cause inclusive growth by means of an entrepreneurial transformation, while simultaneously remedying enormous infrastructural shortages and administrative abnormalities. Economies typically start expanding with a preliminary agricultural revolution: The case of Nigeria however requires agriculture to be part of a larger enterprise revolution that effectively leverages the country's substantial resources and human capital.

The complexity of concerns involved here is reflected in the fact that the National Poverty Obliteration Program of 2001 determines farming and rural development as its primary location of interest. The reality that all advancement needs to start from the bottom-up can not be overemphasised in the context of Nigeria, where a farming boom can guarantee not just food supply and exports but also offer industrial raw materials and a market for products.

Agricultural growth is crucial to economic prosperity throughout Western Africa, thinking about the region's debilitating poverty line. A 2003 conference organised by NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Advancement) in South Africa highly prompted the promo of cassava cultivation as a hardship elimination tool throughout the continent. The suggestion is based upon a technique that focuses on markets, private sector involvement and research to drive a pan-African cassava effort. What was once a rural staple and famine-reserve food has actually become a profitable cash crop!

The NEPAD effort has strong relevance for Nigeria, the world's largest cassava manufacturer. With its big rural population and comprehensive farmlands, the nation boasts unique opportunities of changing the humble cassava to a commercial basic material for both domestic and global markets. There is a growing and well-justified belief that the crop can transform rural economies, stimulate fast financial and commercial development and help disadvantaged communities. While production grew steadily between 1980 and 2002 from 10,000 MT to over 35,000 MT, there is scope for significant more boost by bringing more land under cassava growing. Nigeria must take the lead not only in establishing better production, collecting and processing innovations, however likewise in finding new usages and markets for what is undoubtedly a wonder crop. Nigeria stands to make giant strides towards inclusive and sustainable advancement just through the intelligent and cautious promo of cassava farming.

The following are a few of the most urgent requirements for an effective transformation in Nigerian agriculture:

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

o Reliable steps to modernise and diversify the agricultural economy as a way of buttressing entrepreneurial development in ancillary sectors.

o Organization of a tariff system that promotes regional produce versus cheaper imports, together with the elimination of institutional barriers versus agricultural success.

o Subsidies on technically innovative farm equipment and practices that assist enhance performance without any unfavorable environmental adverse effects.

o An umbrella poverty alleviation programme designed particularly to promote agrarian reforms while at the same time improving the lifestyle in rural communities.

o Enhanced access to farming business loans through a network of regulated loan provider sympathetic to farming realities.

o Adult education programs developed to assist Nigerian farmers update to locally appropriate however contemporary approaches of cultivation, marketing and circulation.

o Support of both public and private sector agricultural research study aimed at fixing technological constraints dealt with by regional farming communities.

If Nigeria's farming potential is massive, it is partly due to the fact that more than 90% of its 91 million hectares of total land area is arable. While soil fertility is usually approximated on the lower side, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) predicts medium to high yields across the country with optimal utilisation of resources. Integrated with Nigeria's significant rural population typically involved in farming, this projection equates to enormous potential customers in regards to farming efficiency and, by extension, financial revival. For a nation emerging out of a troubled past and having a hard time to attain social, political and financial stability, the perfects of farming and entrepreneurial revolution hold critically important. Due to the fact that they are also inextricably linked in the Nigerian context, the nation's future position on the world financial stage depends literally on the bounty of its harvest.