Circumstances changed radically with the oil boom of the 1970s, as the discovery of vast 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 linking 6,000 oil wells, 2 refineries, innumerable flow stations and export terminals. The gigantic investments in the sector paid off, with informal price quotes recommending Abuja raked in more than $600 billion in petrodollars in the last decade alone.

Unfortunately, the obsession with non-renewables over all other sectors of the economy eventually turned Nigeria's boon into a bane. Newfound wealth spawned political instability and enormous corruption in government circles, and the country was lease asunder by decades of violent civil war and successive bag military coups. Agriculture was one of the first casualties of the oil regime, and by the 1990s, cultivation accounted for simply 5% of GDP. Farming modernisation and assistance continued to stay short on the list of nationwide top priorities as vast stretches of rural Nigeria gradually plunged into hardship and food deficiency. Deforestation, soil erosion and industrial pollution further accelerated the down-spiral of agriculture to the point where it ended up as a subsistence activity.

The fall of Nigerian farming accompanied the collapse of its macroeconomic and human development indications. With earnings circulation focused on a couple of city pockets, most of rural Nigeria was left reeling under enormous poverty, joblessness and food shortages. A widening urban-rural divide sparked social unrest and mass migration into towns and cities. Organised metropolitan criminal offense became as genuine a security threat as militancy in the Niger Delta area. Nigeria plunged to the bottom in world financial rankings and Africa's most populated nation obtained the unhappy distinction of having over half (54%) of its 148 million people living in abject hardship. The World Bank created the term "Nigerian Paradox" particularly to explain 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 countries.

The shift to democratic civilian guideline at the end of the last century led the way for a passionate programme of financial reform and restructuring. Abuja's seriousness for inclusive growth was much in proof in the adoption of an enthusiastic blueprint created to reverse trends and jumpstart a stagnating economy. The Vision 2020 document embraced under previous president O Obsanjo lays out broad parameters for sustainable advancement with the particular objective of instating Nigeria as a global financial superpower in a time-bound manner. The 2020 objectives are in addition to Nigeria's dedication to the UN Millennial Declaration of 2000 that proposes universal fundamental human rights by 2015.

The realisation of these allied and intertwined objectives depends totally on Abuja's capability to produce inclusive development by means of an entrepreneurial revolution, while simultaneously fixing massive infrastructural lacks and administrative abnormalities. Economies usually begin expanding with a preliminary agricultural revolution: The case of Nigeria nevertheless requires agriculture to be part of a larger enterprise transformation that efficiently leverages the country's extensive resources and human capital.

The intricacy of problems involved here is reflected in the truth that the National Poverty Elimination Programme of 2001 recognizes agriculture and rural advancement as its main area of interest. The truth that all development needs 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 provide industrial raw materials and a market for products.

Agricultural growth is critical to economic success throughout Western Africa, thinking about the region's debilitating poverty levels. A 2003 conference arranged by NEPAD (New Collaboration for Africa's Development) in South Africa strongly prompted the promotion of cassava growing as a hardship removal tool across the continent. The suggestion is based upon a strategy that focuses on markets, economic sector involvement and research to drive a pan-African cassava initiative. What was once 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 producer. With its large rural population and comprehensive farmlands, the country boasts incomparable opportunities of changing the humble cassava to a commercial basic material for both domestic and international markets. There is a growing and well-justified belief that the crop can transform rural economies, spur quick economic and commercial development and help disadvantaged neighborhoods. While production grew steadily in between 1980 and 2002 from 10,000 MT to over 35,000 MT, there is scope for substantial additional increase by bringing more land under cassava cultivation. Nigeria should take the lead not only in developing much better production, gathering and processing innovations, however likewise in finding new uses and markets for what is certainly a marvel crop. Nigeria stands to make huge strides towards inclusive and sustainable development simply through the intelligent and cautious promo of cassava farming.

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

o Active promo and establishment of agro-based markets that create work, sustain regional food requirements and encourage exports.

o Reliable steps to modernise and diversify the farming economy as a method of strengthening entrepreneurial growth in ancillary sectors.

o Institution of a tariff system that promotes regional produce against less expensive imports, together with the elimination of institutional barriers against agricultural profitability.

o Aids on technically advanced farm devices and practices that assist improve efficiency with no unfavorable eco-friendly side effects.

o An umbrella hardship relief program designed particularly to promote agrarian reforms while simultaneously enhancing the lifestyle in rural communities.

o Boosted access to farming enterprise loans through a network of regulated loan provider considerate to farming realities.

o Grownup education programs developed to assist Nigerian farmers update to locally appropriate but modern methods of growing, marketing and distribution.

o Motivation of both public and private sector farming research targeted at correcting technological constraints faced by regional farming communities.

If Nigeria's agricultural potential is enormous, it is partially since more than 90% of its 91 million hectares of total land area is arable. While soil fertility is usually estimated on the lower side, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) forecasts medium to high yields across the nation with optimum utilisation of resources. Combined with Nigeria's significant rural population generally involved in agriculture, this projection equates to gigantic potential customers in regards to agricultural efficiency and, by extension, economic revival. For a nation emerging out of a troubled past and having a hard time to achieve social, political and economic stability, the perfects of agricultural and entrepreneurial revolution hold essential. Because they are likewise inextricably linked in the Nigerian context, the nation's future position on the world economic phase depends actually on the bounty of its harvest.