Nigerian commercial farmers versus government commodity marketing boards: revisiting the cost of a partnership gone sour

Abstract

The abolition of the Nigerian government-instituted commodity marketing boards (CMBs) in 1986 is considered a positive step in view of the boards' method of market intervention, which is criticised as having brought disincentives to producers of agricultural exports. This study argues that, apart from the intervention activities of the CMBs, the lack of proper agricultural reforms in Nigeria would eventually have been equally unfavourable to the agricultural production. It therefore recommends that the authorities revisit three key policy issues, namely education, capital assistance and land reform, to revive production in the agricultural sector.

The author would like to thank Dr J Arrow, Professor A Amey and Ms R Makwela for their expert advice on the statistical problems in this article. The usual disclaimer applies.

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Notes on contributors

Richard Ilorah

Head of Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, University of Limpopo, South Africa.