Describe the problems facing agriculture in Nigeria.

Explanation

Problems facing agriculture in Nigeria are:

(i)Unsuitable climatic conditions: Climatic conditions vary from areas of excessive rainfall to areas of excessive drought. These two types of climatic conditions are detrimental to crop and animal growth.

(ii) Poor technical knowledge: The farmers lack requisite technical knowledge and modern skills to raise the standard of farming and agricultural production in their countries.

(iii) Use of crude implements: West African farmers still use crude implements such as cutlass, hoes etc for farming. They have no opportunity for mechanized farming.

(iv) Rural- urban drift: The imbalance in urban-rural economy has led to rural -urban drift. Agriculture has thus been losing its vital labour force without replacing it with mechanization.

(v) Land tenure system:Land tenure system encourages small scale farming. Modern agriculture is difficult under the existing land tenure system which makes transfer of ownership of land extremely difficult.

(vi) Pest and diseases:They reduce the quality and quantity of agricultural products since farmers cannot afford to purchase insecticides.

(vii) Poor marketing facilities: The sale of products is limited to their immediate environment because of poor transportation and communication systems.

(viii) Inadequate finance:Consequent on the low income earnings of the farmers, savings and realization of capital for investment become almost impossible.