Trend and Determinants of Structural Transformation in Nigeria's Agriculture Sector

Abstract

Recently, transformation from farm to non-farm activities has been associated with numerous developing and under-developed economies of the world. This article therefore explores the trend and determinants of structural transformation in Nigeria’s agriculture sector. The study employed secondary data, descriptive and inferential statistics to reach its conclusion. While the trend data reveals a declining and increasing share of the agriculture and service sectors in employment respectively, suggesting a glimpse of transformation, the vector error correction model showed that there were no significant determinants of structural transformation in the agriculture sector among the independent variables in the model; thus raising questions as to whether the transformation trend observed was due to chance. While suggesting further work to ascertain the true nature of transformation and to identify its actual determinants, we recommend increased technological change, specialization, enhanced efficiency and improvement of human capital and institutions within Nigeria’s agriculture sector to sustain and fully unearth the transformation process.