Impact of Energy Consumption on Agricultural Sector Productions in Nigeria: 1986-2025
Abstract
Agriculture remained central to food supply, employment generation, and rural income in Nigeria; however, its productive capacity had been constrained by unreliable and costly energy sources required for irrigation, processing, storage, preservation, and transportation in spite of various economic reforms. Nigeria's agricultural potential remains largely underutilized, with only about 40% of the country's 84 million hectares of arable land currently under cultivation, suggesting substantial room for expansion. This paper thus examined the impact of energy consumption on agricultural sector production in Nigeria from 1986 to 2025. The paper adopted an ex-post facto research design and relied on Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares estimation technique. The findings revealed that natural gas consumption had a positive and statistically significant impact on agricultural sector production, indicating that gas-based electricity had supported agricultural activities through power supply for irrigation, processing and storage. Petroleum consumption had a negative and statistically significant effect, suggesting that dependence on Premium Motor Spirit had imposed cost pressures on farm operations, transportation and agro-processing. Solar energy consumption also had a positive and statistically significant impact, showing that renewable energy expansion had strengthened rural productive energy access. The paper recommended that the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Federal Ministry of Power, Rural Electrification Agency and Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission should expand gas-to-power and solar mini-grid projects for agro-processing clusters and farming communities. It also recommended that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Bank of Agriculture and Development Bank of Nigeria should support farmers with credit facilities for solar pumps, cold rooms, dryers and energy-efficient machinery to reduce dependence on costly petrol-powered systems.