Statistical Evaluation of Sustainability of Selected Crop Production in Nigeria

Sustainable agricultural production is a paramount goal of many developing countries in order to ensure that foods required for the growing population are available in the right quantity and quality. This paper evaluated the extent of sustainability of the Nigerian crop production sector using secondary data from the FAO statistical database. Inferences of sustainability was made with contingency table developed by Monteith (1990) after computing geometric growth rates of land use and crop outputs. Results show that production of majority of the crops was not recently sustainable. Between 1961 and 1980, cereals (4.07%), maize (8.17%), sorghum (5.16%), millet (3.76%), yam (1.08%), kolanut (0.92%), oil palm (0.93%), vegetables and melon (0.82%) and plantain (2.53%) were sustainably cultivated while only cocoa (0.14%) and kolanut (1.82) percent show sustainability between 1981 and 2000. The findings suggest that ensuring sustainability of crop production in Nigeria requires adequate investments in highly productive farm technologies to make up for degradation of soil resources. [Abayomi Samuel Oyekale. Statistical Evaluation of Sustainability of Selected Crop Production in Nigeria. Life Sci J 2012;9(4):2769-2775] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com.. 408