How large is Nigeria’s wasting agricultural land?

Nigeria has a total land area of 92 million hectares or 923,768 square km. Out of this, 77.7 per cent or 72 million hectares is agricultural land.

Unfortunately, due to the neglect agriculture has suffered over the years as a result of massive importation of food, only 34 million hectares of Nigeria’s 72 million hectares of agricultural land is cultivated, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation.

The remaining 38 million hectares of agricultural land wasting away is the same size as the total landmass of Zimbabwe (38 million hectares). It is larger than the landmass of Japan (36 million hectares), Germany (34 million hectares) and Malaysia (32 million hectares).

With a landmass of 10 million hectares, Benin Republic through which a massive amount of rice is smuggled into Nigeria on a daily basis, can fit into Nigeria’s wasting agricultural land more than three times.

http://punchng.com/local-rice-farmers-bemoan-fate-as-38-million-hectares-of-land-waste-away/