Abstract:
This study examines the role of different types of finance in the development of the Nigerian agricultural sector and two-period (1986-2000 and 2001-2017) analyses are carried out to ascertain this effect. The study adopts the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) analytical technique. Findings show that there exists a positive and significant relationship between Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF) and agricultural output; and industrial output and agricultural output in the pre-2000 analysis. However, only industrial output positively impacted the agricultural sector in the post-2000 analysis while two major sources of finance (ACGSF and Rural Commercial Bank Credit) negatively impacted the agricultural sector during this period. The study recommends an urgent need for effective and well-implemented disbursement of the ACGSF and rural commercial bank credit to the agricultural sector. It is also necessary to strengthen the linkage between the industrial and agricultural sectors so as to sustainably increase the productivity of the agricultural sector.