ROLE OF AGRICULTURE AND POVERTY REDUCTION ON NIGERIA’S ECONOMIC GROWTH

This study examines the Role of Agricultural development and Poverty Reduction On Economic Growth in Nigeria Annual time series data on relevant variables such as Agricultural output which is the dependent variable, while the independent variables are Government Recurrent Expenditure, Unemployment Rate, Index of poverty Rate, Importation of Food, Gross Domestic Product in relation to Economic Growth, were collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin, National Bureau of Statistic, World Bank Development Indicator and Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Its main objective was to examine the extent to which agricultural output and economic growth impacted on poverty reduction in Nigeria economy over the periods of thirty-eight studied. ARDL and Co-integration analysis were employed on the data while the findings reveal that agricultural output and economic growth has a positive and significant impact on short run at (0.22%), as well as positively co-integrated on long run (0.57%). These findings therefore suggest that, there is need to encourage agricultural output so as to boost economic growth and development and reduce poverty in Nigeria.