Nigeria’s agric sector grows 2.17 % in 2020 — NBS

Nigeria’s agriculture sector grew 2.17 per cent in 2020, from 2.36 per cent in 2019 and 2.12 per cent in 2018, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a new report Thursday.

The report also revealed that the sector grew 3.42 per cent in real terms in the fourth quarter of 2020, when measured against the same quarter in 2019. The sector contributed 26.21 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product for the entire year.

The bureau said, “the sector grew by 14.03 year-on-year in nominal terms in Q4 2020, showing a rise of 0.23 per cent points from the same quarter of 2019.”

The report showed the economy exited recession in the fourth quarter of 2020, recording its first growth in three quarters as coronavirus-linked lockdown was lifted across the country.

The report said GDP grew 0.11 per cent in the three months between October and December from a year earlier.

The economy slipped into recession in the third quarter of 2020 with a decline of 3.6 per cent, having contracted 6.1 per cent in the second quarter, leading to Nigeria’s second recession in five years.

For the full year 2020, the economy contracted 1.92 per cent, better than the International Monetary Fund projection.

“Subsectors “

The four sub-sectors that made up the country’s agricultural sector are Crop Production, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing, the report said.

The NBS said crop production remained the major driver of the sector, as it accounted for 89.67 per cent of the overall nominal growth of the sector in Q4 2020 and 91.44 per cent share in 2020.

“Crop production sector grew by 2.24 per cent in full-year 2020 from 2.51 per cent in 2019 and 2.26 per cent in 2018,” the report showed.

The fishery sector contracted by 3.60 per cent in the fourth quarter compared to a similar contraction of 2.07 per cent recorded in the previous quarter. It is the only agriculture sector that contracted.