Agricultural sector and its activity is primal in the economy of Nigeria which formed the means of livelihood of the people and is a strong factor in the rise of states and empires just as it is everywhere else in the world.

According to Evans Pritchards, “The first evolution that transformed human economy gave man control over his own food supply.

Man began to plant, cultivate and improve by selection of edible grasses, roots, and trees. This economic advancement has been described as “Neolithic revolution”.

Also in modern times, in pre-colonial Nigeria, a major determining factor for the choice of settlement was the availability of favourable climate, free of epidemics, fertile land suitable for cultivation and grazing, congenial littoral environment for fishing and security such as absence of war and other natural and supernatural disasters.

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In pre-colonial Nigeria, farmers depended on implements such as digging sticks, hoes, cutlasses and sickles. At this time, there was nothing like transformation in Agriculture. The common crops produced based on territorial specialization included yam, okra, maize, cocoyam, cassava, plantains, bananas, kolanuts and oil palm.

The independent growth and antiquity of Agriculture in Africa and Nigeria in particular, has been strongly proven by some African economic historians.

Among them was Murdock, an ethnographer who argued that agriculture began in the upper Niger area among the Mende-speaking people in about 5000 BC basing his research on yam cultivation in this region.

AGRICULTURE SECTOR IN THE COLONIAL EPOCH

Agricultural sector is fundamental to the growth and development of any nation. In most developing economies, agriculture constitutes major economic activities of the people, either as producer, seller or marketers. Agriculture therefore serves as the main foreign exchange earnings and major source of revenue for the government.

COLONIAL INTERVENTION IN AGRICULTURE

With the intervention of the colonial government, the transformation in  agricultural sector in Western Nigeria occurred in response to changing political, social and economic conditions.

A common interpretation of the change was that state intervention became the strongest factor in inducing agricultural development. Although the colonial state did not adopt a radical transformation of the prevailing conditions of production.

It therefore began to employ a series of political and economic instruments to induce Agricultural producers to expand their output. Those strategies employed by the colonial state included forced cultivation, imposition of taxation and expanded operations by European merchant firms.

Also, marketing boards came with their controlled commodity marketing orientation which became the major tool for harmonizing agrarian economic patterns. This happens to be another form of transformation in Agriculture.

The colonial government to improve upon the efficiency of the farmer’s production and its capacity to meet market demands adopted various interventionist programs that would enhance increased production.

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