The role of agriculture in poverty reduction in Nigeria: an empirical perspective

Abstract In Nigeria, several advocacies have been raised in different fora over time that agriculture is capable of reducing poverty in the country. An attempt to empirically validate the above argument has generated a policy mix in the literature. Therefore, further empirical investigation about this subject matter becomes imperative. Consequently, the study utilized the DOLS and Granger Causality Approach to address the objective of this study. However, the principal findings that emerged in this study are as follows: in the long run, there is a significant positive relationship between the employment in agriculture and poverty level, inflation rate and poverty level have a negative relationship with each other. Meanwhile, agricultural output causes a significant reduction in the poverty level. Also, one-way feedback relationship runs from agricultural output to the poverty level in the country. Based on the findings that originated in this study, this paper makes the following recommendations for the policymakers, future researchers and all the stakeholders in the agricultural sector in Nigeria that agricultural output has the capacity to reduce poverty level in the country. This implies that when poverty reduction is the target of the policymakers in the country, manipulating agricultural output will induce the reduction in poverty level in the long run. Also the government should possess political goodwill to revamp agricultural sector