ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nature, origins, and impact of various agricultural policies in Nigeria and try to situate them within a broader political and economic context. It discusses the macroeconomic context of policy and summarise recent changes in policy before turning to the detail of specific policy interventions. The picture of crisis is associated with the following features: stagnant or declining output, fear of large increases in food price inflation, the virtual disappearance of agricultural exports, and a large rise in food imports. Agricultural policy has not generally been at the centre of the political agenda in Nigeria, nor have rural producers, small or large, mobilised themselves as lobbyists or as part of wider political movements. Political competition for access to the state may dominate and divide those who claim to represent the community at higher levels and those who have economic power to exploit in a wider setting.
