Revamping agricultural sector and its implications on output and employment generation: Evidence from Nigeria

Abstract The Nigerian government has implemented a comprehensive spectrum of policies and programmes to diversify the economy and encourage broad-based growth through investment in the agricultural sector. However, the steady increase in the poverty and unemployment rate has raised controversial issues among scholars. In light of this, the study investigates the impact of selected macroeconomic variables on Nigeria’s agricultural performance using two models for output and employment. The Error Correction Model (ECM) approach was used to establish the short and long-run behaviours. In the first model, output in the agricultural sector was used as the independent variable, while in the second model, employment in the agricultural sector was used as the independent variable. The study’s findings showed that output positively relates to credit to the agricultural sector and exchange rate. However, it was depicted that output and employment in the agricultural sector in both the short-run and the long-run are not statistically significant. The implication drawn from the study is that credit granted to the agricultural sector can foster aggregate output in the sector, which will promote long-term employment. The study suggests considerable investment in the agricultural sector and the need to strengthen institutions for proper management of resources to ensure effective evaluation of funds disbursed for improving the agricultural sector, among others.