Global Value Chain Integration, Agricultural Upgrading, and Rural Development in Nigeria: A Comprehensive Framework

This study develops a comprehensive analytical framework for understanding the rural development consequences of Nigerian agricultural sector integration into global value chains, addressing fundamental questions about who benefits from GVC participation, under what conditions upgrading occurs, and how GVC integration shapes broader rural transformation outcomes. Global value chain integration in Nigerian agriculture, spanning export commodities including cocoa, sesame, cashew, shea, and increasingly processed food products, has attracted significant policy attention as a rural development strategy, but the distributional and developmental consequences remain contested and insufficiently understood. This study proposes an original GVC-Rural Development Nexus Framework that integrates GVC governance theory, inclusive growth economics, and rural transformation theory. Empirical evidence is generated from a comparative multi-chain analysis of cocoa, sesame, and cashew GVCs, combining enterprise surveys of 200 value chain actors per chain, household surveys of 300 farming households per chain, and qualitative lead firm and buyer interviews in four export destination markets. Upgrading trajectories and rural income distribution effects are mapped using primary data and supplemented by UN COMTRADE bilateral trade analysis. Findings reveal that GVC-led rural development is highly governance-dependent: chains with buyer-driven upgrading support show significantly better rural income distribution outcomes than market-governed chains where upgrading pressure is transmitted without support. Women's participation in GVC upgrading is consistently constrained by asset and certification access barriers. The study contributes an original GVC-Rural Development framework for Nigeria and recommends inclusive GVC governance standards for Nigerian agricultural export promotion.

Keywords: global value chains, agricultural upgrading, rural development, Nigeria, inclusive growth.