THE ROLE OF THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR AS AN ACCELERATOR TO NIGERIA ECONOMY

Abstract
By the time Nigeria became politically independent in October 1960,agriculture was the dominant sector of the economy, contributing about 70% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) employing about the same percentage of working population and accounting for about 90% of foreign exchange earnings and the federal government revenue (CBN, 2005). The early period of post-independence up until the mid-1970’s saw a rapid growth of industrial capacity and output as the contribution of the manufacturing sector to GDP rose from 4.8% to 8.2%. This pattern changed when oil suddenly became of strategic importance to the world economy though its supply price nexus. Crude oil was first discovered in commercial quantity in Nigeria in 1956, while actual production started in 1958. It became the dominant resources in the mid 1970’s. The massive increase in oil revenue as an aftermath of the Middle East war of 1973 created and unprecedented, unexpected and unplanned wealth of Nigeria.