The Macroeconomic Effect of Access to Credit and Population Growth on the Nigerian Agricultural Productivity: An Empirical Study of 2000 to 2021

Abstract

The study investigates the macroeconomic impact of population growth and access to credit on the agricultural productivity Nigeria from 2000 to 2021 by employing OLS multiple regression analysis. The study ascertained the stationarity of the time series properties of the variables where Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) was applied. The co-integration test result confirmed the presence of a long-run relationship among the variables, and the result of OLS multiple regression and stochastic production analysis showed a weak positive relationship between access to credit and agricultural productivity and also showed that population growth has a strong negative relationship with agricultural productivity in Nigeria. It was discovered that employment in agriculture decreases as population increases. The result also revealed that human capital and access growth to electricity have a strong positive impact on agricultural performance in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends not only an increase in the budgetary allocation to the agricultural sector but also the need to establish an efficient corrupt-free financial institutions to enhance easy access to credit by farmers and also improve the intellectual capacity of the populace through advanced technological trainings, as it will in turn lead to a higher achievement in the fight for food security and unemployment in Nigeria.