Large-scale Farms and the Rice Economy in Lau North-East Nigeria, 2005-2015

Abstract

Entrepreneurship in agriculture or agribusiness is one activity that has survived different eras namely pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods in Africa and Nigeria in particular. But despite years of experiment on this path, development in the agricultural sector has remained stagnant or at an insignificant level of growth. Interestingly it has received little attention from scholars in the field of history partly because it was viewed as a domain for the economists and business managers. This paper therefore, examined the agribusiness or activities of large farms in the rice economy of Lau Local Government Area of Taraba State. Broadly two sources were relied upon: primary and secondary, and the multi-disciplinary method were also employed for complementary purposes. The paper was organized around themes, and the historical analytical tool was used in the analysis. The study revealed that the people are largely agrarian based, and the rice economy has huge potentials to feed the state and even the northeast region, but the peasant are largely exploited by the market forces thereby short changed. This is further compounded by government insignificant interest in the sector. Hence, the study posits that government support is critical in providing access to subsidize credit, investing in infrastructure, transport and farm input services like advisory services to reverse decades of neglect, and set the path to sustainable development.