Prior to oil boom in Nigeria, the country had been surviving
through the export of commodities like hides and skins, groundnuts
from the north, palm oil and cassava from the east, cocoa and
kolanuts from the west. The advent of crude oil had the effect of deemphasizing
these commodities until recently when the imperatives
of international trade dictated a move away from monoeconomy,
total dependence on a non-renewable export
commodity, crude oil [1]. The production and diversification of
available agricultural commodities mentioned above, in particular
for export purposes became an absolute necessity [2].