The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, has affirmed that the agriculture sector contributed 23 percent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first half of 2022.
Abubakar stated this in his keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 45th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development (NCARD) in Jos.
The minister said the quoted figure was from the recent National Bureau of Statistics report.
According to him, the report indicated that the sector topped the chart in a survey of seven sectors that contributed to Nigeria’s economy in the second quarter of 2022.
He emphasized that agriculture outperformed six other sectors comprising trade, telecommunications, manufacturing, oil and gas, real estate as well as finance and insurance.
“The chart revealed that agriculture alone contributed 23.3 percent to GDP (Half Year 2022), which supports the positive trend of the previous years’ performance of 25.88 percent (2021); 26.21 percent (2020); 25.16 percent (2019); 25.13 percent (2018); 25.08 percent (2017); 24.45 percent (2016) and 23.11 percent (2015).
“The data also reflects the impact of the implementation of programmes and projects in the agricultural sector despite the security challenges in the country.
“To further improve on performance, we are strengthening the linkage between research, agriculture, and industry by intensifying our commodity value chain development process,” he said.
The minister noted that the process was guided by the new framework of the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP), 2022-2027, launched in August.
According to him, NATIP seeks to modernize the agriculture sector in line with changing global food systems and supply chains.
“Actually, NATIP is the ministry’s response to the present administration agenda of diversifying the nation’s economy from petroleum oil-based to agriculture and solid minerals.
“The document serves as successor policy of the Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP), 2016-2020,” he added.
