Agricultural Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Northern Adamawa, Nigeria

This study assessed Agricultural Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Northern Adamawa, Nigeria. The bedrock of the study was the overdependence on oil revenue by the government, making the state government to pay little attention to agricultural entrepreneurships. The inadequate attention given to agricultural entrepreneurship has a negative effect on agro-based industries and this adversely affects economic development. Data were collected from 400 respondents across Madagali, Michika, Mubi North, Mubi South and Maiha Local Government Areas using both closed and open-ended questionnaires. The analysis involved the use of descriptive statistics and multiple regression. Likert scale technique was used as the measurement instrument for the study, while Cronbach alpha test was used to measure the reliability of the instrument, which showed a result of 76.5% reliability. The result of the study shows that agricultural entrepreneurship is at a low ebb due to the fact that most of the citizens of Northern Adamawa are into subsistence agriculture instead of agricultural entrepreneurship. However, a 1% increase in farm level production (FLP) leads to an increase in economic development by 0.645, while a 1% increase in agricultural service provision (ASP) leads to an increase in economic development by 0.643. The findings of the study therefore show that agricultural entrepreneurships, such as farm level production, and agricultural service provision have a positive effect on economic development in Northern Adamawa at 5% level of significance. The study therefore recommends that while encouraging people of Northern Adamawa to engage in Agriculture as a business, for economic development, the government needs to encourage more farmers by the provision of loans, arable lands and subsidized agricultural services, such as transportation, storage facilities and agricultural education. This is to enable the subsistence farmers to partake in commercial agriculture.