REVIVING NIGERIAN RUBBER INDUSTRY

Abstract

The present research empirically looks at the possibility of devising a mechanism of reviving Nigerian rubber industry. The research used dated data that spanned from 1961 to 2017 and it covered production, area, yield and producer’s price (rubber). The data were drawn from the FAO database and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Empirical evidence showed that the incremental change in the country’s rubber production was majorly driven by area effect which necessitates area risk owing to pressure on the limited available land for other purposes to be the main factor that affected the average output of rubber in the country. Furthermore, the future of the sub-sector is not promising owing to the fact that the slight gentle rise in the forecasted production trend will be driven by a gentle incremental rise in annual area as the annual yield level year-in-year-out plummeted. The decrease in the forecasted annual yield levels will be as a result of non-productive income and not technology, because farmers are at the mercy of the Licensed Buyers (LBs) who exploit them given that they used collusive effect other than allow the market forces to determine the prevailing market price as they serve as the major link to the importing markets. Therefore, the study recommends that the farmers should constitute themselves into viable co-operative organizations in order to venture into export marketing so that they can take advantage of their bargaining power.