Impact of Government Agricultural Policies on Exports of Cocoa and Rubber in Nigeria

The authors investigated the impact of government agricultural policies on exports of cocoa and rubber in Nigeria using cointegration and Error Correction Model approach. The analysis was carried out on time series data collected from 1970 to 2008. The result shows that Policies like Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF), Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and Post-Structural Adjustment Programme (PSAP) have a significant positive impact on exports of cocoa and rubber. A possible reason been that the export promotion incentives provided in the SAP and PSAP periods probably encouraged the production of these crops. Among these incentives are liberalization of agricultural exports, liberalization and devaluation of the Naira exchange rate. Similarly, the ACGSF provided incentives in the form of credit which probably encouraged the production of these crops.