IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668. Volume 23, Issue 9. Ser. II (September 2021), PP 34-42 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/487X-2309023442 www.iosrjournals.org 34 | Page Agricultural Sector Growth and Poverty Reduction In Nigeria DEMEHIN, J. A 1 USHIE, P. O 2 Department of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Administration and Management Sciences, Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba-Akoko Abstract The need for concentration on the agricultural sector of every developing economy cannot be overemphasized. The sector is the provider of the solution to the United Nation’s zero hunger and zero absolute poverty goals. Thus, the study investigated the effect of agricultural growth to the reduction of poverty in Nigeria using a temporal scope between 1986 and 2020. Agricultural growth was proxied by percentage change in the contribution of agricultural sector to gross domestic product while other independent variables were deposit money banks’ sectoral distribution of credits to the agricultural sector, and federal government budgetary allocations to the agricultural sector. Prime lending rate was the controlled variable and incidence of poverty served as the dependent variable. Data were collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin and were analyzed using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL). The result of the study showed that agricultural productivity, deposit money banks sectoral credits, and federal government budgetary allocations had negative and significant effect on incidence of poverty with coefficients -0.353264, -17.59108, and - 7.308690 respectively. However, it was also discovered that prime lending rate had positive relationship with incidence of poverty. Coefficient of determination was 0.8386 while the independent variables had joint and statistically significant effect on incidence of poverty. On the issue of causality, there was a unidirectional causal relationship between agricultural productivity and incidence of poverty with the direction of causality running from agricultural productivity to incidence of poverty. It was concluded that agricultural growth was a significant factor in overcoming the menace of poverty in Nigeria. Therefore, recommendations were made that sophisticated technology and equipments should be acquired by the government and well meaning Nigerians so as to spur uproar in the agricultural sector. Keywords: Poverty, incidence of poverty, agricultural growth, deposit money banks --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 26-08-2021 Date of Acceptance: 11-09-2021 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction To what extent is agricultural growth important to reducing poverty in a world which is experiencing a decline in the share of farming to total output? In Nigeria, the agricultural sector used to be the mainstay of employment and revenue to the government before the discovery of oil in large quantities. However, the sector has been given little or no attention seeing the revenue from the crude oil. This has reduced the contributions of the agricultural sector to national output and has made poverty a pronounced word in almost all part of the economy. Poverty as described by the United Nations Human Development (1998) has hunger, lack of good health care, lack of well-being, lack of quality education, gross inequality, lack of access to clean water and sanitation, lack of decent jobs, and unemployment as its characteristics. Different strategies have been adopted by different countries and their governments to alleviate poverty which has been found to be a menace that hinders development. The United Nations as part of the strategy to alleviate poverty introduced some sustainable development goals for the world and eradication of absolute poverty is the first on the list. In Nigeria, IMF (2005) opined that more than two-third of Nigerians was poor, despite the country’s vast potential wealth. In 1980, 27 per cent of Nigerians lived in poverty and by 1990, 70 percent of Nigerians had income which is less than $1 a day and the figure has been on the rise since then. The question then is ‘why are so many Nigerians poor?’ IMF (2005) provided that amongst other rea sons for increase in the poverty level in Nigeria is weak and inappropriate public sector, poor economic management, and hostile environment for private sector growth. The government then introduced the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) to create a level and financial environment that will enable most of the country’s natural resources be available and flair for business, reform the Nigerian laws , the way government works, and empowering the Nigerian people so that poverty can be eradicated from the economy.