Özet:

The present research empirically examined the growth performance of soyabean production in Nigeria using time series data which spanned from 1961 to 2017, sourced from FAO database. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, growth model, instability index, Hazell decomposition model, Nerlovian’s model and ARIMA model. Empirical evidence showed that the growth in the production trend of soyabean in Nigeria is majorly driven by an increase in the area and not yield which is not favorable for sustainable soyabean food security in the country. Furthermore, risk and uncertainty were observed to be the major source of instability in the production of soyabean in the country. Therein, the risk impacted negatively on the area allocation decision of the soyabean farmers in the studied area. The forecasted production trend showed that the country’s soyabean production will observe a paradigm shift from the area as the major driver of production to yield. Thus, technology will be the major driver of soyabean production in Nigeria. The trend if sustained will be a breakthrough for the country’s soyabean food security and will curtail the incessant farmers/herders clashes and tenurial conflicts owing to high pressure and competing demand for arable land for other purposes. Therefore, policies which will convert one-quarter of the arable land to other agricultural uses should be welcome as the future production trend of soyabean will be driven by technological advancement. In addition, the government should do more in subsidizing farm inputs in order to enhance farmers’ term of trade, thereby wading-off the risks that negatively impacted on the acreage allocation decision of the producers.  

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