Abstract

 Effect of globalization and commercialization on cassava production and export in Nigeria was studied in this project. Materials for this work were gathered using secondary ()ata. The data were collected from documents by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Federal Ollice Statistics (FOS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), international Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), International Institute ol Tropical Agriculture (11TA), World Trade Organization (WTO), Rational Buicau oi Statistics (NBS), National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI), Text books, Ncwspapcis and the Internet. Data on level of cassava production and export in Nigeria were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. Results of the analysis revealed that thcie was a tremendous increase in cassava production especially since the Presidential Cassava Export Initiative for realization of 5 billion Naira annually in 2002. The study also show that cassava export from Nigeria was developing but at its teething stage. Some positive factor influencing cassava production in Nigeria unveiled from this study were good environment, availability of high yielding cassava varieties and the recent Presidential selection of cassava as an export crop. Some of the negative factors are high production cost, cassava mosaic diseases (CMD), few producer and use of primitive tools. It was recommended that exploitation should be made of all the dormant huge market potentials of cassava value added product, research discoveries on cassava, potentials of its optimal production region, sustenance of the present Presidential initiative program on cassava, development of the crop in question and the integration of the rural peasant farmers in the process of cassava production and export.