The Political Economy of Agricultural Development in Nigeria Jude Uwaoma Nwachukwu Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy under the executive committee of the graduate school of arts and sciences Columbia University 2017 © 2016 Jude Uwaoma Nwachukwu All rights reserved ABSTRACT The Political Economy of Agricultural Development in Nigeria Jude Uwaoma Nwachukwu This dissertation is a case study, which examines the state of agricultural development in Nigeria. The study is intended to be a mirror for a wider undertanding of the state of agriculture Sub-Saharan African (SSA). Pitching its tent in a typical rural Nigerian agrarian community, and applying the political economy ideological framework, the study examines factors that impact and shape agricultural production in the country. It employs the plethora of social research techniques at the disposal of applied anthropologists including structured and unstructured interviews, questionnaires, participant observation, probing for history, and the use of photography and video recording among others. The study worked with a wide focus group including farmers, traders and government officials and analyzes field data through descriptive data analysis; the use of tables and charts; and comparing of results with related studies. The study found that many factors form a landscape and conspiracy of far-reaching significant negative impact on Nigerian farmers and hence on the agriculture sector of the whole country. The factors negatively impacting agricultural development in Nigeria include land tenure systems rooted in the social organization of farming communities; continually increasing populations against limited and constantly decreasing farmland size; lack of capital especially for the adoption of improved agricultural production technology; incessant conflicts; mass rural-urban migration; low level of education; repressive and exploitative State apparatus; systemic corruption of government officials; excessive dependence of oil economy to the exclusion of agricultural economy; application of institutional and economic development policies that are unfavorable to the agriculture sector; and poor or total lack of infrastructure among others. Correspondingly, the constellation of unfavorable social condition these factors create produces very far-reaching consequences for farmers and the country at large: farmers produce at levels of productivity below their potential; food insecurity; constantly rising poverty especially among rural farmers; roof-high rate of unemployment; backwardness in other sectors of the economy; malnourishment-induced poor health and reduced length of life; conflicts among and between communities as a result of poverty and hunger; sharp fall of farmers’ contribution to the GDP; inability of rural agricultural development to translate into community development; entrenched poverty cycle; and general backwardness in the socioeconomics of Nigerian farmers. In response to these telling findings, and in order to mitigate if not overcome the factors and sociopolitical, economic and institutional factors and conditions that militate against agricultural development in Nigeria, the study lays out some recommnedations revolving around the installation and maintenance of policies that are pro-poor and pro-agriculture in order especially to boost agricultural productivity and ultimately to help lift farmers out of the assaults of poverty, food insecurity, hunger, and other problems that go with these. The recommendations fronted by the study cover the areas of the problems discovered especially that there needs to be installed institutions to effect changes in land tenure system; improvement in conflict management and resolutioon; giving back the democracy of agricultural production to farmers by restoring the sector and its former place in the overall economy; disengaging agriculture from its entrenchment in the “project” disposition associated with the development ideology; and above all, allowing agriculture to be a “process” in the hands of the people. In engaging in this on-going dislogue, this study has set to its merit the standard of how an applied anthropologist can contribute to wider study and understanding of social issues in Nigeria and in SSA at large. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND FIGURES .............................................................................................. ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................................... xiii PREFACE ......................................................................................................................................... xvi OVERALL INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1 SECTION ONE: AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA ............................................................... 12 CHAPTER 1: CONTEXTUALIZING THE STUDY...................................................................................... 12 1.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................12 1.2 THE STATE OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA AND SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA (SSA)......13 1.3 POST-COLONIAL SITUATION OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN SSA ......................................16 1.4 POVERTY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: INDICATORS AND EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ..............................18 1.5 SSA’S POOR ECONOMIC GROWTH AGAINST AGRICULTURE: THE CASE OF NIGERIA......................21 1.6 CONCLUSION: CHAPTER SUMMATIONS .....................................................................................24 CHAPTER 2: DOING THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA ..................26 2.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................26 2.2 STUDY QUESTIONS .....................................................................................................................27 2.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY GUIDING THE CASE STUDY...............................................................27 2.4 POLITICAL ECONOMY: OUR STUDY IDEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................33 2.5 CONCLUSION: CHAPTER SUMMATIONS ......................................................................................37 SECTION TWO: UNDERSTANDING UKUM IN LIGHT OF AGRICULTURE .................................................39 CHAPTER 3: UKUM AND TIVLAND AS A PEOPLE: A SHORT HISTORY ....................................................39 3.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................39 3.2 CHALLENGES TO HISTORICIZING UKUM AND TIVLAND ................................................................39 i 3.3 A HISTORY OF TIVLAND (?) .........................................................................................................40 3.4 TIV MIGRATION..........................................................................................................................41 3.5 TIV MIGRATION AND DISINTEGRATION IN RELATION TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION ..............44 3.6 UKUM-TIVLAND ENCOUNTER WITH BRITISH COLONIALIZATION..................................................47 3.7 ON THE HISTORY OF UKUM SPECIFICALLY...................................................................................50 3.8 CONCLUSION: CHAPTER SUMMATIONS ......................................................................................52 CHAPTER 4: LOCATION, GEOGRAPHY, DEMOGRAPHICS AND GENERAL FEATURES OF UKUMLAND ......54 4.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................54 4.2 LOCATION OF BENUE STATE AND OF UKUM LGA IN NIGERIA ......................................................54 4.3 GEOGRAPHIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF BENUE STATE .................................................56 4.4 BASIC DEMOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF UKUMLAND SPECIFICALLY ..................................................58 4.5 SOME SPECIFIC GEOGRAPHIC AND GENERAL FEATURES OF UKUM LGA ......................................59 4.6. EXTENSIVE FARMING: THE MAIN OCCUPATION OF UKUMLAND.................................................61 4.7. ADDITIONAL OCCUPATIONAL ACTIVITIES OF UKUM POPULATION ..............................................62 4.8 CULTURE AND LANGUAGE OF UKUM .........................................................................................64 4.9 UKUMLAND AND ITS IMMEDIATE NON-TIV NEIGHBORS .............................................................66 4.10. CONCLUSION: CHAPTER SUMMATIONS ...................................................................................67 CHAPTER 5: UKUM SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION CONNECTION...................69 5.1 CHAPTER OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................69 5.2 UKUM SOCIAL ORGANIZATION ...................................................................................................70 5.3 UKUM POLITICAL STRUCTURE ....................................................................................................71 5.4 THE FAMILY AND COMPOUND SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN UKUM ..................................................74 5.5 UKUM KINDRECRACY: