MODERATING EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGRICULTURAL FINANCING AND FOOD PRODUCTION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the moderating effect of agricultural technological innovation on the relationship between agricultural financing and food production in Nigeria from 1990 to 2022. Agricultural Financing was measured using Agricultural Credits, Agricultural Savings and Agricultural Insurance. Food Production was measured using Agricultural Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria and the moderating variable of Agricultural Technology Innovation was measured using Global Innovation Index (GII). The unit root test resulted mixed stationarity of I(0),I(1), the study opted for the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model for its analysis. The bounds test for co-integration revealed that the variables are co-integrated in the long run and lag selection criteria settled for an optimal lag length of two. The long run results showed that AGC, AGS, AGC*ATI, AGS*ATI and AGI*ATI have long run significant effect on food production. While, AGC, AGS, AGI, AGC*ATI, AGS*ATI and AGI*ATI have significant positive effect the short run effect on food production in Nigeria all at 5% level of significance. The result indicted that agricultural financing has positive significance effect on food production in Nigeria and then moderating variable of ATI boosted the relationship between the agricultural financing and food production in Nigeria at both short and long run basis. It was recommended that the government of Nigeria should increase the allocation of agricultural financing in the budget and direct the agricultural financing institutions to allow for easy access to agricultural financing services towards achieving sustainable increase in food production in Nigeria.