COMPARISON OF AGRICULTURE WITH OIL ENHANCEMENT: SURVIVING STRATEGY FOR ECONOMIC MELTDOWN IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper compares the place of Agriculture and Oil in repositioning Nigerian economy towards a path of steady economic growth with a view to establishing which strategy (agriculture or oil enhancement) that  is appropriate to checkmate the associated pains of ongoing global economic, financial and food crisis in the country. The secondary data used in this study are those relating to the contributions of Agriculture and Oil to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Principal variables) while Manufacturing and Service Sectors serve as control variables. These were obtained from Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Reports and Accounts and were analysed using Ordinary Least Square after conducting Augmented Dickey Fuller Unit Roots (ADF), Granger Causality Test as well as Johanson Co-integration Test while Actual Fitted and Residual plot was generated to test the presence of auto or serial correlation in the data. The study reveals that although Oil contributes more to export earnings in Nigeria, it has little contribution to GDP due to its associated vices of communal classes, uneven development, its limited life and crowd out of other sectors of the economy. This is in comparison with Agriculture that has more impact on GDP, generates more employment opportunities, reduces world food crisis and has no identifiable vices. It is recommended that Nigerian economic base should be diversified from oil dependence to agricultural advancement with a view to generating employment opportunities, raising the standard of living and improving economic growth.