Eight factors that militates against the development of commercial agriculture in Nigeria are:
1. Inadequate land
2. Poor storage and processing facilities
3. Lack of finance
4. Inadequate farm inputs
5. Poor transportation network
6. Lack of basic amenities
7. Inadequate agricultural education and extension services
8. Poor marketing system
Inadequate land: as a result of increase in population, the amount of land available to farmers reduces. The type of tenure system does not make land available for commercial farming. Deforestation has also contributed to lack of land for commercial agriculture.
Poor storage and processing facilities: improper storage reduces the quantity of agricultural produce. Storage facilities and processing equipments are expensive
Lack of finance: farmers have no easy access to credit facilities. Commercial banks will not give credit/loan to farmers because they have no collateral security. High interest rate also discourages farmers from securing loans from banks.
Inadequate farm inputs: most of the farm inputs are not produced in Nigeria but are imported at high costs. Farm inputs are not made available at the right time and most farmers do not know how to use these inputs even when available.
Poor transportation system: most farms are not accessible and these makes transport of produce to market difficult. Some roads may be spoilt during the rainy season. High cost of transportation is another problem.
Lack of basic amenities: basic amenities like electricity, pipe borne water, health care, etc are lacking hence people are migrating from rural to urban areas.
Inadequate agricultural education and extension services: most farmers are illiterate who can neither read nor write, they do not know modern systems of farming. Extension workers are very few and their work is made more difficult because of poor roads, language barriers, etc.
Poor marketing system: no organized marketing channels. Most farmers offer low farm gate prices for the produce. Lack of proper pricing for produce, the activities of middle men make marketing of produce a problem by buying at low price and selling at exorbitant prices to consumers.
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