National Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP) and Grassroots Development in Nigeria, 2015–2025: Perceptions and Policy Implications
Author
Okechukwu Amadi, Obari Osaro and Odinichi Opiti
Abstract
Between 2015 and 2025, Nigeria implemented a range of agricultural policies and strategies intended to improve productivity, strengthen food security, create employment, promote agro-industrial development, enhance rural livelihoods and diversify the economy. Prominent among these interventions were the Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP) 2016–2020, commonly known as the Green Alternative, amongst other programmes and policy strategies. This article examines the nature of the Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP) 2016–2020, assesses its perceived contribution to grassroots development and identifies strategies and policy implications for improving agricultural development in Nigeria. The study is anchored on Endogenous Development Theory, which emphasizes the mobilization of local resources, knowledge, institutions and productive capacities by local actors. A quantitative descriptive survey design was adopted. The study covered selected communities across Nigeria's six geopolitical zones and used a multistage sampling technique. The target population was about 1,000 respondents, while a total of 827 respondents constituted the achieved sample. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations, with a criterion mean of 3.00. The empirical finding for the Agricultural Promotion Policy dimension produced a grand mean of 2.97, which was marginally below the criterion mean of 3.00. The finding indicates that respondents generally did not perceive the agricultural policies as having generated sufficiently strong grassroots-development outcomes, although the result was close to the acceptance threshold and therefore indicates a mixed or moderate perception rather than complete rejection of policy relevance. The article argues that the major challenge is not the absence of agricultural policy but the gap between policy formulation, implementation, local accessibility and the conversion of agricultural interventions into sustainable grassroots economic outcomes. Various recommendations were made such decentralized agricultural governance, provision of adequate rural agricultural infrastructure, etc.
Keywords
Agriculture, Grassroots development, Agricultural Policy, Endogenous Development, Policy Implications
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