The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) at the unveiling of the National Agricultural Sample Census(NASC) 2022 in Abuja has disclosed that Nigeria has about 40.2 million agricultural households and that out of the 91 per cent of agricultural households that cultivated crops, 35 per cent practised only crop cultivation while 48 per cent reported raising any type of livestock.
The National Bureau of Statistics in partnership with the World Bank, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations conducted the unveiling census.
Bishop Ohioma, NBS’ Assistant Director, Agricultural and Business Enterprises Statistics Department while giving an overview of the report, said the survey has two components which include the listing component and the sample survey component, listing component was what was being unveiled while the sample survey component would be unveiled in a few months.
It showed that 16 percent of the households raised 58 million cattle, while 41.2 percent raised about 124 million goats.
“While 42.5 percent raised poultry, most commonly chickens, while five per cent practised fisheries.”
The report showed that the lowest percentage of agricultural households in Crop Cultivation was recorded in Lagos State at 48.0 per cent, while Ebonyi recorded the highest at 99.5 per cent.
It showed the highest percentage of agricultural households engaged in Livestock Production was reported in Jigawa at 84.2 per cent, followed by Bauchi at 79.7 per cent.
The report said for Poultry, the highest percentage of agricultural households was recorded in Benue at 65.2 per cent, followed by Ebonyi State at 63.3 per cent.
Ohioma said 767 Local Government Areas (LGAS) in the country were canvassed, however, seven LGAs were not covered as at the time of the Census due to insecurity and the uncovered LGAs were Four LGAs in Imo state and three LGAs in Borno state.
Ohioma said 40 EAs were covered in each LGA and the number of EAs covered varied by state, both urban and rural EAs were covered.
“In all, 30,546 EAs were covered nationwide out of the proposed 30,960. ”
He said one of the recommendations from the report included that the Government should allocate more resources to support the conduct of the quarterly and annual National Agricultural Sample Survey (NASS).
“Technical and financial Partners to continuously provide support to build the capacity of staff of the NBS in agricultural statistics production. All hands must be on deck to ensure the sustainability of the NASC in Nigeria.” Ohioma said
