HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES IN NIGERIA

In examining the effect of human capital on agricultural productivity in Nigeria, this study employed micro data sourced from the Living Standard Measurement Studies, General Households’ survey on Agriculture (LSMS-GHSA) wave 3 (2015/2016) consisting of 2917 respondents. Using descriptive and econometrics method of analysis, the result of the descriptive statistics showed that though significant hours are spent more on agricultural activities as a result of crude implement used in the process of cultivating and harvesting, a large percentage of the income still comes from the agricultural sector. The result from the logit regression showed that education and health as proxy for human capital positively and significantly influence agricultural productivity by 0.32% and 0.30% respectively. This study therefore recommends that policy meant to enhance human capital development should be put in place to promote productivity in the agricultural sector which will translate to economic development and helps to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.