section_path: Economy/Agriculture
section_name: Agriculture
paragraph_text: Agriculture
  
  In 2021, about 23.4% of Nigeria's GDP is contributed by agriculture, forestry and fishing combined. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cassava. Further major crops include maize, rice, millet, yam beans, and guinea corn (sorghum). Cocoa is the principal agricultural export, and one of the country's most significant non-petroleum products. Nigeria is also one of the world's top twenty exporters of natural rubber, generating $20.9 million in 2019.
  
  Before the Nigerian Civil War and the oil boom, Nigeria was self-sufficient in food. Agriculture used to be the principal foreign exchange earner of Nigeria. Agriculture has failed to keep pace with Nigeria's rapid population growth, and Nigeria now relies upon food imports to sustain itself. It spends US$6.7 billion yearly for food imports, four times more than revenues from food export. The Nigerian government promoted the use of inorganic fertilizers in the 1970s.
  
  Nigeria's rice production increased by 10% from 2017/18 to 2021/22 to 5 million tonnes a year, but could hardly keep up with the increased demand. Rice imports therefore remained constant at 2 million tonnes per year. In August 2019, Nigeria closed its border with Benin and other neighbouring countries to stop rice smuggling into the country as part of efforts to boost local production.
  
  Until now, Nigeria exported unhusked rice but had to import husked rice, the country's staple food. - The rice mill in Imota, near Lagos, is intended to handle the corresponding processing at home, improve the balance of trade and the labour market, and save unnecessary costs for transport and middlemen. When fully operational at the end of 2022, the plant, the largest south of the Sahara, is expected to employ 250,000 people and produce 2.5 million 50-kg bags of rice annually.