MAXIMIZING ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF RURAL LANDS THROUGH SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE: THE VISION 20:2020 PERSPECTIVE

Falana, F. Florence

Department of Estate Management

Federal Polytechnic, Idah, Kogi State

E-mail: florencefalana@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

This paper highlights the need for development of appropriate, (harmonized) policy intervention strategies towards meeting food and raw materials requirements by maximizing rural land resources to reduce poverty.  This involves practical and profit oriented agricultural practices as well as the possibility to enhance regeneration of plantation agriculture and active involvement of youths by making farming an attractive venture.  The aim of this paper is to identify strategies to support and regulate agriculture in order to promote employment, productivity, income to the poor at the same time ensure a safe, healthy and socially acceptable rural environment. The paper explains how other sectors (formal and informal) have affected agriculture since oil discovery, the effect to which government policies and programs have facilitated or hampered agricultural sector with emphasis on contemporary challenges of agriculture from “Oil Boom period of 1970s” to the economic crises and adjustments of the 1980 and 1990 which weakened agricultural practices and blurred the prospect of agriculture. This article suggests as a conclusion that what is needed is not less government deregulation of economic activities but rather a more enlightened, more participatory and more equitable form of state intervention that will bring about good governance, poverty reduction and economic recovery in Nigeria.

Key word: Rural Land, Sustainable Agriculture, Poverty Reduction. Economic Recovery.