Macroeconomic Variables, the Oil, and the Agricultural Sectors in Nigeria

The present study examined the impact of the macroeconomic variables and the oil sector on the performance of the agricultural sector between 1981and 2017 in Nigeria. The study adopted a three-stage estimation approach. The initial step in this estimation was the conduct of descriptive statistics and stationarity tests of the variables. Some of the series were stationary at level and some others at the first difference which informed the deployment of the Auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique for model estimation. The third stage was the post-estimation of the model in order ascertain its robustness for predictability and policy formulation. These were the Cumulative Sum Control Chart (CUSUM) stability, Vector Error Correction (VEC) Residual Heteroscedasticity, Breusch-Godfrey Serial Correlation LM, Vector Error Correction Residual Normality, and Vector Error Correction (VEC) Residual Heteroscedasticity tests. The results indicated that contrary to the Dutch disease postulation the oil sector positively impacted the output of the agricultural sector. The influence of exchange rate was also positive. Interest and unemployment rates on the other hand, had negative effects. The rate of inflation and the national output had no impact. The study recommended that the Nigerian government should channel resources towards the agricultural sector to ensure increase in foreign earnings and sufficient domestic production.