The Effects of Insecurity on Agricultural Productivity in Nigeria: The Case Study of Gombe State

The development of the agricultural sector is Nigeria's surest and most efficient means of achieving growth and sustainable development. However, the wave of insecurity rocking the country has threatened the development of the agricultural sector. Hence, this study examined the effects of insecurity on agricultural productivity in Nigeria (Balanga LGA, Gombe State). This study adopted the Ordinary Least Squares method of multiple regression analysis of time series data using Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (AGDP) as dependent variable while poverty (POV), unemployment (UNMP) and crime rate (CR) and federal government recurrent expenditures on internal security (FREXIS) were used as independent variables. The OLS result indicated an R2 value of 0.43 implying that 43% of the proportion of variation in AGDP was explained by the independent variables. Also, the result revealed that CR and UNMP were negatively related to Agricultural productivity (AGDP) whose coefficients stood at (-0.58) and (-0.38) respectively. Therefore, the study recommended that Nigeria's Executives and Policy Makers should make conscious efforts to revive and transform the agricultural sector from its largely subsistence state into a modern mechanized sector and as well a holistic rejuvenation and revamping of the security sector to ensure a relatively peaceful atmosphere that foster agricultural productivity and socioeconomic development.