COVID-19 AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION: A STATISTICAL REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria depends on agriculture in sustaining the economy. Over 70% of Nigerians are employed directly or indirectly in the agricultural sector which provides raw materials, employment, food and income and serves as a foreign exchange earner. The discovery of crude oil in the late 1950s dwindled government attention on agriculture. This has left the Nigerian economy with shortage of food production to feed the growing population. The agricultural business environment in Nigeria is frustrated by series of inhibiting factors; poor income, inadequate access to loan and credit facilities and insufficient legislations and government policies. The incidence of pandemic presented new dimension of challenges. The outbreak of the virus placed restrictions such as isolation, quarantine and total lockdown that invariably affected agricultural output. Research is being conducted in the academic world focusing on the pandemic. This research lends contribution in this regard to ascertain the effects of the pandemic on agricultural production. This research adopted a desktop approach in reviewing the documents of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Centre for Disease Control, online statistical repositories and literature used as secondary sources of data. The review made conclusion and recommendations based on empirical review