Agricultural economy & structure

The rebasing published in July 2025 moved the national accounts to the 2019 base year and benchmarked them to the 2022 National Agricultural Sample Census and Survey, which led to revisions of 843% in forestry and 458% in livestock¹. Real agricultural growth was 2.66% in 2020, when GDP contracted by 6.96%, and ranged from 1.24% (2023) to 3.78% (2021) in 2021–2025²³. In 2025 the sector grew by 2.92% against GDP growth of 3.87%, with crop production growing by 3.75% and livestock by 0.08%³. Agricultural growth was 4.39% in the second quarter of 2026, when GDP grew by 4.43%⁴.

At current prices agriculture's share of GDP was 25.83% in 2019, 29.70% in 2021 (own calculation from the NBS levels)² and 23.53% in 2025, and at constant 2019 prices it was 27.55% in 2025¹³. In 2025 nominal agricultural value added grew by 5.18% and nominal GDP at basic prices by 18.25% (own calculations)³. In dollar terms value added fell from US$184.71 billion in 2022 to US$65.27 billion in 2024 and was US$66.82 billion in 2025, while the annual average rate went from 425.98 to 1,478.97 and 1,518.38 naira per dollar⁵⁶.

The 2023 Labour Force Survey, on a revised methodology that counts subsistence agriculture separately from employment, recorded 25,341,219 persons working in agriculture, forestry and fishing at their main job, 30.1% of employed persons, of whom 63.8% were men¹⁵. The ILO's modelled estimate puts agriculture at 33.5% of employment in 2025, down from 45.0% in 2010¹².

The Nigeria Living Standards Survey 2018/19 put the poverty headcount at 40.1%, 52.1% in rural and 18.0% in urban areas, excluding Borno State¹⁶. Poverty reached 58.76% among persons in male-headed households whose head worked only in agriculture, against 17.53% for wage work only¹⁶. The Multidimensional Poverty Index of 2022 found 63% of people multidimensionally poor, 72% in rural areas¹⁷. No official consumption poverty rate from the 2023 survey had been published by October 2026¹⁸.

The 2022 census counted 40,221,060 agricultural households, 25.76% of them in the North-West, and 90.9% of them cultivated crops, 48.1% kept livestock and 42.5% poultry¹⁹²⁵. NBS defines an agricultural holding as all land and livestock used wholly or partly for agricultural production and operated by one person alone or with others, without regard to size, and does not publish farm-size classes¹⁹. In the 2023/24 household panel the average plot measured 0.5 hectares and the average landholding 1.3 hectares, 1.7% of plots were irrigated and inorganic fertiliser was used on 30.6% of cultivated plots²⁶.

Agricultural land covered 77.1% of the land area in 2024 and arable land 40.8%²⁷. Under the Land Use Act all land in a State is vested in its Governor, and the mortgage of a statutory right of occupancy needs the Governor's consent²⁸. Inheritance was the way 64.9% of male-managed plots were acquired in 2023/24²⁶.