REPOSITIONING THE NATIONS’ AGRICULTURAL POTENTIALS TOWARDS DIVERSIFYING THE ECONOMY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT – THE ENGINEERING PERSPECTIVES AND NETHERLANDS EXAMPLES

Abstract

Agricultural production was the main financial revenues, that is, the front-line gross domestic product GDP, for the country before the advent of black gold (fossil fuel). Unfortunately, since the beginning of petroleum exploration and production in Nigeria, the country has lost it numerous agricultural potentials, due to the immediate monetary benefits from exporting crude oil to the Europe and America. Since 2017, the Netherlands has repositioned herself as the second-largest exporter of agriculture in the world with a net value of $111 billion US. These include $10 billion of flowers and $7.4 billion of vegetables. The Netherlands is the world’s second-largest agricultural exporter, after the United States. In 2021, the net value of the agricultural export was more than $118 billion US. Nigeria must take a leave from Netherlands by setting a robust and sustainable policies, the Netherlands model, to salvage her agricultural developments that will catapult the country to be in the fore-front of the world agricultural products for both domestic and foreign export gains, which in-turn increases the nations’ gross domestic product, GDP. The interest of this paper is to provide some valuable insights to the Nigerian government and policy makers on the guides to achieving these objectives within a short span. Keywords: Potentials, reposition, and sustainable development