Impact of Buharinomics on rice, maize and sorghum production in Nigeria

Abstract

Buharinomics as used in this paper referred to the main thrust of the Buhari’s administration that affects agricultural production viz the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme alongside the closure of Nigeria’s land borders. The broad objective of this study was to assess the impact of Buharinomics on rice, maize and sorghum production in Nigeria. Time series data on aggregate maize production, maize hectarage, Sorghum production, sorghum hectarage, rice production, rice hectarage and rice imports in Nigeria for the period 1999-2019 were collected from FAOSTAT and used. Descriptive statistics, growth trend analysis and the Student‘s t test technique for comparison of means of independent samples were used to analyse the study data. Buharinomics have positively increased (i) the volume of rice (t value 7.954**, mean difference 2525453.60 with an average increase of 196.82%) and maize (t value 5.199**, mean difference 4141312.00 with an average increase of 161.22%) domestically produced (ii) total area put under rice (t value 8.554**, mean difference 2548053.98 with an average increase of 205.30%) and maize (t value 5.602**, mean difference 2722199.14 with an average increase of 165.80%) cultivation in Nigeria. It also significantly reduced the volume of rice importation (t value 3.119**, mean difference 779624.55 with an average decrease of 2136.87%). The study concluded that though Buharinomics have significantly increased maize production, maize hectarage, rice production, rice hectarage as well as reduced rice imports in Nigeria it has not improved average yield or productivity of the three crops of interest in this study. Ways to improved farmers’ agronomic practices capable of leading to higher crop yield were recommended including literate farmers’ access to extension publications and improved seeds and technologies.