Agricultural GDP rose to 46.67% in 3 years, Akinwumi Adesina

The contribution of the agricultural sector to the total Gross Domestic Product, (GDP) of Nigeria has witnessed an upward trend up to 46.6 trillion in 3 years. This was disclosed by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina on the occasion of the investiture of the award of ‘Newswatch Man of the Year’ on him by Newswatch Magazine in Abuja. While acknowledging the honour bestowed on him, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina disclosed that this figure surpassed that of eight years of 2000 to 2008 altogether, (42 trillion).
This achievement, he stated, is a manifestation of the successes attained by the Agricultural Transformation Agenda, (ATA) of President Goodluck Jonathan in the last 3 years; where 3.5 million jobs have also been created in all the target value chains. In addition, he disclosed that has been great improvement in the rural economies especially among the youths, thereby stemming the tide of rural urban migration. Adesina further revealed that there has been significant decrease in food import bill from N3.3 in 2011 trillion to N634 billion in 2014. The impact of ATA he said, could be felt in the macro-economic stability of the country because even in spite of the naira depreciation and decline in world oil price, there is stability in domestic food prices e.g. during the same period, maize production has increased by 14 million MT.