AGRICULTURAL FINANCING AND OUTPUT IN NIGERIA

A DISAGGREGATED ANALYSIS

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of agricultural financing on agricultural sector output in Nigeria from 1981 to 2021. The Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was used to analyze time series data from the statistical bulletin. The results unveiled that cattle rearing, grains, and roots and tubers hadsignificantlyand positively affected agricultural output. In contrast, cocoa, poultry and oil palm did not significantly affect agricultural output. Since agricultural credit guaranteed funding of cattle rearing, grains, and roots and tubers had significantly and positively affected agricultural output, the study recommends that government should increase its budgetary allocations on the sub-sectors in Nigeria. In so doing, the progress made in the agricultural sub-sectors productivity would be sustained with growth improvement in food security, supply of industrial inputs, income and reduced povertyachieved in the
economy.However, since the agricultural credit guaranteed funding of cocoa, poultry and oil palm had a positive but insignificant impact on agricultural output, the study recommends that government should re-strategize and re-format its policies on these sub-sectors by effectively monitoring funds approved and disbursed to the agricultural sub-sectors. With this development, cocoa, poultry and oil palm performance will improve, contributing significantly to the sub-sector's agricultural productivity in the economy.