Scenarios changed significantly with the oil boom of the 1970s, as the discovery of large oil and gas reserves in the strategically substantial sub-Saharan nation turned its fortunes overnight. The windfall transformed Nigeria's agricultural landscape into a gigantic oil field crisscrossed by more than 7,000 km of pipelines linking 6,000 oil wells, two refineries, countless flow stations and export terminals. The colossal financial investments in the sector settled, with unofficial quotes recommending Abuja raked in more than $600 billion in petrodollars in the last years alone.

Regrettably, the fixation with non-renewables over all other sectors of the economy eventually turned Nigeria's advantage into a bane. Newfound wealth generated political instability and massive corruption in government circles, and the nation was rent asunder by decades of violent civil war and successive military coups. Agriculture was among the very first casualties of the oil routine, 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 slowly plunged into hardship and food shortage. Deforestation, soil disintegration and commercial pollution even more hastened the down-spiral of agriculture to the point where it wound up as a subsistence activity.

The fall of Nigerian agriculture coincided with the collapse of its macroeconomic and human advancement indicators. With earnings distribution concentrated on a couple of city pockets, the majority of rural Nigeria was left reeling under enormous hardship, unemployment and food scarcities. A widening urban-rural divide stimulated social discontent and mass migration into towns and cities. Arranged urban crime became as genuine a security risk as militancy in the Niger Delta area. Nigeria plummeted to the bottom in world financial rankings and Africa's most populous nation obtained the unhappy distinction of having more than half (54%) of its 148 million people residing in abject hardship. The World Bank created the term "Nigerian Paradox" specifically to describe the unique condition of severe underdevelopment and poverty in a nation teeming with resources and potential. The nation was ranked 80th in a 2007 UNDP poverty survey covering 108 countries.

The transition to democratic civilian rule at the end of the last century paved the way for an enthusiastic programme of economic reform and restructuring. Abuja's seriousness for inclusive growth was much in proof in the adoption of an enthusiastic blueprint designed to reverse patterns and jumpstart a stagnating economy. The Vision 2020 document embraced under former president O Obsanjo sets out broad parameters for sustainable development with the particular objective of instating Nigeria as a global 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 fundamental human rights by 2015.

The realisation of these allied and linked goals depends completely on Abuja's capability to cause inclusive growth by ways of an entrepreneurial transformation, while all at once remedying huge infrastructural lacks and administrative abnormalities. Economies typically begin broadening with a preliminary agricultural transformation: The case of Nigeria however calls for agriculture to be part of a bigger enterprise revolution that effectively leverages the country's substantial resources and human capital.

The complexity of problems included here is reflected in the truth that the National Hardship Obliteration Programme of 2001 determines farming and rural development as its primary area of interest. The fact that all advancement has 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 however also offer commercial raw materials and a market for items.

Agricultural growth is crucial to financial success throughout Western Africa, thinking about the area's crippling poverty line. A 2003 conference arranged by NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) in South Africa strongly prompted the promo of cassava growing as a hardship elimination tool throughout the continent. The recommendation is based upon a method that concentrates on markets, private sector involvement and research to drive a pan-African cassava initiative. What was when a rural staple and famine-reserve food has become a profitable money crop!

The NEPAD effort has strong importance for Nigeria, the world's biggest cassava producer. With its large rural population and substantial farmlands, the nation boasts unrivalled opportunities of changing the simple cassava to an industrial raw material for both domestic and worldwide markets. There is a growing and well-justified belief that the crop can change rural economies, spur rapid economic and commercial growth and help disadvantaged communities. While production grew steadily in between 1980 and 2002 from 10,000 MT to over 35,000 MT, there is scope for significant more increase by bringing more land under cassava cultivation. Nigeria should take the lead not only in developing better buyers of automobiles & motorcycles products production, collecting and processing technologies, but also in finding brand-new uses and markets for what is unquestionably a marvel crop. Nigeria stands to make huge strides towards inclusive and sustainable advancement merely through the smart and sensible promo of cassava farming.

The following are some of the most urgent requirements for an effective revolution in Nigerian agriculture:

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

o Efficient steps to modernise and diversify the farming economy as a way of strengthening entrepreneurial development in secondary sectors.

o Institution of a tariff system that promotes local produce versus cheaper imports, together with the elimination of institutional barriers versus farming profitability.

o Subsidies on technically advanced farm equipment and practices that assist enhance productivity with no adverse ecological side effects.

o An umbrella hardship relief programme created specifically to promote agrarian reforms while at the same time improving the quality of life in rural communities.

o Boosted access to agricultural business loans through a network of regulated lending institutions supportive to farming realities.

o Grownup education programmes created to help Nigerian farmers upgrade to locally pertinent however modern methods of growing, marketing and distribution.

o Motivation of both public and private sector agricultural research study targeted at fixing technological restrictions faced by local farming neighborhoods.

If Nigeria's agricultural 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 generally approximated on the lower side, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) forecasts medium to high yields across the country with optimum utilisation of resources. Combined with Nigeria's significant rural population generally associated with farming, this forecast translates to enormous 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 attain social, political and economic stability, the perfects of farming and entrepreneurial revolution hold vitally important. Because they are likewise inextricably connected in the Nigerian context, the country's future position on the world financial phase depends literally on the bounty of its harvest.