Nigeria's Agricultural Economy in Brief

Excerpts from the report: While there is considerable subsistence farming (growing crops or livestock for one's own use), many thousands of Nigerian farmers produce yams, cassava, kola nuts, corn, sorghum, millet, and other crops which they sell to their neighbors or to markets in Nigeria. These markets are usually close by but are sometimes hundreds of miles from the farms which produce the crops. Many other farmers grow crops for overseas export. Cocoa, peanuts, palm kernels, palm oil, cotton, and rubber are the chief commercial crops. Nigeria is now the world's second largest producer of cocoa, ahead of Brazil, formerly in second place. Nigeria is the world's largest exporter (although not the leading producer) of peanuts. The country is also the world's largest exporter of palm kernels and first or second largest exporter of palm oil. Nigeria has become Africa's largest rubber producer, passing the former African leader, Liberia. Most of the country's numerous livestock is in Northern Nigeria, particularly north of the Niger and Benue Rivers. Livestock raising in the southern areas of the country is beset by the tsetse-fly problem.