Analysis Of Sustainable Agricultural Resource Use In Nigeria: An Ecological Footprint Approach

ABSTRACT

The broad objective of this study was to analyse sustainable agricultural resource use in Nigeria using the Ecological Footprint Approach. The specific objectives included to; estimate the global emergy and emergy density, determine the ecological footprint per capita, analyse the per capita bio-capacity, and ascertain the level of agricultural resource use, sustainability status and resource substitution in Nigeria. The total land area, population and thematic data of the country were used for the study. The 2011 aggregate national data collected from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Global Footprint Network (GFN), National Population Commission (NPC), ODINAFRICA (Ocean Data and Information Network for Africa), World Bank, International Energy Agency, UN agencies or affiliated organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the UN Statistics Division (UN Commodity Trade Statistics Database) were used for specific objectives. Appropriate ecological footprint and emergy accounting tools were used to analyse the data collected. The results showed that the total emergy amount of the earth and the country were 1.58E+25 sej/a and 1.23E+23sej/a respectively. It also showed that the emergy density index of the earth was 3.10E+10 sej/m2 /year, while that of Nigeria was 1.33E+11 sej/m2 /year. It implies that a total energy of 3.10E+10 sej was used up per meter square of the total global hectares to provide for the ecosystem services or life support services of the earth, and with the interaction of the renewable resource flows, a total energy of 1.33E+11sej was expended in the transformation of agricultural resources per meter square of the land area of the country. The results showed that the demand for agricultural resources per capita were 5.22 arable land, 2.54 pasture land, 0.816 water area, 0.131 forest land, 2.6 fossil land and 0.0000481 built-up area, with a total ecological footprint of 11.3 hectares per capita. While the renewable resources available per capita for the year were 0.0104 hectares (Sun), 2.36 hectares (Rain/chemical potential),1.79 hectares (Rain/geo-potential), 0.0185 hectares (Wind) and 1.03 hectares (Earth cycle), with a total carrying capacity per capita of 5.2 hectares. The implication of the ecological footprint and bio-capacity results is that an average Nigerian consumes more agricultural resources than were available to sustain life for the year. The level of agricultural resource use and sustainability status showed a sustainability gap of -6.1 hectares per capita, and considering the carrying capacity of the country for the year (5.2ha/cap) as a reference point, it is an indication that agricultural resource use in Nigeria is not sustainable, entailing weak sustainability status and high level of resource substitution due to this ecological deficit (-6.1 hectares), and hence sustainable development cannot be achieved given this level of agricultural resource use in the country. The null hypothesis that the ecological footprint for agricultural resources is not significantly different from the composite index (carrying capacity) was rejected, indicating that the level of agricultural resource use in the country is different from its regenerative capacity. The study however recommended that ecological farming, organic farming, and other sustainable agricultural systems that reduce the footprint for arable land should be adopted in the country, and that Nigeria should strategize ways of reducing the importation and consumption of foreign food crops and encourage local food crop farmers – as this will reduce the ecological footprint of the country; and to ensure that agricultural resources are sustainable, every citizen of the country should adjust his/her lifestyle so as to reduce consumption by 6.1 hectares per person, preserve and conserve agricultural resources for the current use and the future generation – as this will pave ways to achieving sustainable development in the country.