Classwork Series and Exercises – {Social Studies – JSS2}: Sectors of the Nigerian Economy

Social Studies JSS 3 Week 6

Topic: Sectors of the Nigerian Economy

Sectors of an economy is the various areas of production or services. The various sectors of the Nigerian Economy are:

1. Primary Sector: The primary sector of the Nigerian economy is Agriculture. It involves all forms of Agricultural practices , It is the extraction of raw materials from the soil.
2. Secondary Sector: This includes activities such as manufacturing , processing , construction and generation of electricity from various sources
3. Tertiary Sector: This includes trading, banking, insurance and other activities in which people provide services.

Importance of Agriculture to Nigerian Economy

1. Provision of food: Agriculture helps in the provision of foods. Foods are edible substance which man eats to sustain a living.
2. Provision of shelter: Shelter helps us from adverse weather conditions like rain, sunshine, cold, wind. Wood from trees is used for making building materials and for making chairs, tables and other housing or building materials.
3. Provision of employment opportunities
4. Source of income
5. Provision of raw materials for industries
6. Provision of clothing

Problems of Agricultural Development

some of the problems of Agricultural development are:

• Poverty: Many farms lack the finance to purchase more land, agriculture inputs, hire labour and machinery
• Transportation: Farming communities have no access to adequate transportation and communication network to facilitate the marketing of other agricultural product
• Land tenure: Our system of land tenure does not allow the owner to plan a reasonable programme of farming or make use of equipment tractors, because land is excessively fragmented.
• Inadequate storage and processing facilities: Most often result in agricultural products getting spoilt during period of abundance.
• Rural urban migration: Lack of basics amenities like water, electricity, health care delivery, schools, and good roads has resulted in youths and able-bodied men and women migrating from villages to towns and cities.
• Inadequate Agricultural education and extension: Most of our farmers are illiterate; therefore, new techniques and methods of agricultural practices are not easy for them to understand and adopt
• Pests and diseases: When pests and diseases attack crops and animals,yields are affected drastically.
• Poor attitudes towards Agriculture: There is the negative tendency to regard agriculture as a job of for drop outs and never- do- wells .

Solutions to the problems of Agricultural development

• Government should supply heavily subsidized agricultural inputs, provide, interest free and accessible loan facilities for farmers to be able to procure farm implements
• Government should construct all season motorable roads and provide improved communication links with rural communities.
• Basic social amenities should be provided in villages and rural communities to discourage rural-urban drift
• Loans and subsidies should be made available to enables the farmers acquire agricultural inputs which will help increase production.
• The co-operative efforts of farmers will increase the chances of adequate storage and processing facilities.

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