Gloom over Nigerias agriculture

23 February 1999

Gloom over Nigeria’s agriculture

DESPITE decades of misrule, Nigerias “greatest good fortune” is that it largely has the ability to feed itself, reports the Financial Times in a special section on the country.

Unfortunately though, other than that opening observation, the paper has virtually nothing optimistic to say about the Nigerias agricultural sector.

The “tragedy” of Nigerias cocoa sector is that the “former bedrock” of the countrys economy has become little more than a “foreign exchange game and money laundering operation”.

The paper characterises the farming sector as “seriously under-exploited”, suffering from a crumbling infrastructure, poor extension services to farmers, inefficient distribution of fertilisers and a lack of basic equipment.

• Financial Times 23/02/99 page V (Financial Times Survey – Nigeria)