Dynamics of Oil Palm Production; Evidence from Nigeria Import/Export Inter-relationships
Abstract
The need to meet a growing global and domestic demand for palm oil, conserve foreign exchange, promote inclusive rural development, generate employment, and accelerate domestic infrastructural development necessitated investigating the dynamics of oil palm production, with evidence from Nigeria’s’ import/export inter-relationships. The study adopted secondary data, while Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics showed that after increasing Nigeria's oil palm fruit area harvested from 2.7million hectares in 1961 to 3.03million hectares in 2004, production increased from 0.67million tonnes to 0.91million tonnes. There is a positive and significant relationship (r=0.898; P<0.01) between the area of palm fruit harvested and palm oil production. A negative and significant relationship (r=-537; P<0.01) was observed between domestic palm oil production and import/export gap. The study concluded that a significant increase is needed in the area of palm fruit cultivated and harvested to reduce domestic import/export gap. The study recommends that the government should stimulate private investment in the sector, encourage the conglomerate of smallholder farmers and review the land tenure system.
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