Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) and Their Effects on African Agriculture: The Nigerian Experience

The economies of most African countries are in disarray. There are huge foreign debts, inflation, high rates of unemployment, low export earnings and declining farm output. The challenges which these problems pose have forced a number of African countries to adopt programmes of economic recovery usually referred to as Structural Adjustment Programmes. Thus, in Nigeria, a number of policy changes have taken place with respect to Agriculture. These include the devaluation of the currency, a cut-back in the inflow of agricultural commodities, reduction in Government involvement in direct agricultural production, the abolishment of Agricultural Marketing Boards, the deregulation of interest rates, and increased focus on providing support services to farmers. These policy changes have resulted in increased prices of imported farm inputs, higher cost of farm production and better product prices for exportable agricultural commodities. Farm management advice which has hitherto concentrated on the use of yield increasing technologies now gets challenged on types of crop and livestock enterprises that will provide the highest returns. The lessons for African nations include the need to develop cheaper indigenous intermediate level farm technologies; and to introduce more high valued exportable crops into the farming systems to boost foreign exchange earnings.