ADSU International Journal of Applied Economics, Finance and Management

Impact Of World Trade Organization’s Liberal Trade Policies On Rice Farming In Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

Liberal trade policies on agriculture are those policies that aimed at introducing agricultural products into international trade with the minimum, of state interference, these are trade policies of world trade organization Agreement on Agriculture (WTO AoA) that were negotiated during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and entered into force with the establishment of WTO on January, 1st 1995. Ever since the inception of these policies domestic rice farmers are facing severs difficulties as a result of the inflows of foreign rice to engage in market competition with locally produced rice. It is in view of this problem that this study examines the impact of liberal agricultural trade policies among rice farmers in Nigeria, Adamawa State as a case study, in order to achieve this objective, the study relied on both primary (Survey research) and Secondary (published and unpublished work). This study revealed that liberal agricultural trade policies of WTO has opened up Nigerian agricultural market for the inflow of imported farm products rice in particular cheapened through subsidy to engage in a market competition with Nigerian produced rice without subsidy, which resulted into fall of income of farmers in Nigeria there by plundering them deeper into poverty. The study concluded that liberal agricultural trade policies of WTO has been undermining the rice production in Nigeria since their inception in 1995. The study recommended among others, that Nigerian policy makers should demand for the revision of these liberal agricultural trade policies in a way that will favour both rice farmers in Nigeria and developed countries of the world, without which development of the rice sector in Nigeria will be an illusion.