Crops are grown for purpose of man’s use. All the foods we eat, the cloths we wear and the houses we stay are products of agriculture.
Listed below are some of the industries under agricultural sector in Nigeria, the raw materials used in those industries and their finished products as well
1. Rubber and plastic industry
This industry uses rubber latex as the basic raw material. Rubber is produced in South South and South East Nigeria.( Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Abia, Ogun and Delta.
The finished product gotten from rubber latex includes Tube, Tyre, Ropes, Balls, Rubbers, Platic Buckets, Plates, Spoons,Water Tanks, Footwears etc
2. Paper industry
The basic raw material used in this industry is pulpwood. Pulpwood is gotten from timber. Timber can be found widely in rain forest zone( south south, south east, south west and some part of north central where rain fall is high).
The finished product gotten from pulpwood includes Books, News prints, Envelops, Cartons, Tissue Roles, Drawing Pencil etc.
3. Starch industry
The basic raw material that serves this industry is cassava. The finished products includes Starch, Chalk and Gums.
4. Beverage
The raw materials that serve this industry includes Cocoa, Coffee, Tea, Fruits( Mangoes, Cashews, Papaw. The finished products includes Juice, Chocolates, Juice extracts
5. Construction
Wood(timber) is the basic raw material used in this industry, the finished products includes household furniture, roofing material, Plank, Plywood, Ceiling etc
6. Cosmetic industry
The raw materials used in this industry includes Palm oil, Eggs, Pawpaw, Carrot, Aloe-Vera, Banana etc. finished products includes creams, soaps, margarine, detergent, makeup etc.
7. Dye industry
The raw material that serves this industry is kola nut. The finished products gotten from kola nut is dye
8. Tobacco industry
Tobacco leaves is the basic raw material used in this industry, it can be found in large quantities in Sokoto, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun,. The finished product are snuffs, cigarette/shisha
9. Sugar industry
Sugarcane is the basic raw material that serves this industry, sugarcane is grown in Adamawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna, Jigawa, Katsina. The finished product gotten from Sugarcane includes sugar and syrup.
10. Gum
Gum tree is the raw material used in this industry, the crop is grown in northern states.The finished products. Food industry are chewing gum, beer clouding agent, food stabilizers, emulsifier
11. Ornamental and decoration
12. Some crops such as pride of Barbados, rose flower, Christmas tree etc are used to decorate our surroundings.
13. Medical/pharmaceutical industry
Some crops such as Neem, Moringa, Ginger, Garlic and Bitter kola etc have healing properties are they re used in pharmaceutical industry to produce drugs.
14 Food Industry
This industry is very wide as man and livestock consumed varieties of food in different forms. I would like to categorize the industry into the following sub sector;
· Feed mill/flour mill
In this industry, livestock feeds such as chicken feeds, fish feeds, etc are produced, human feeds such as flours, cakes etc are also produced. Example of raw materials used includes maize, wheat, millet, corn etc.
· Oil industry
The basic raw materials used in this sub sector include palm fruits, Soya beans, fish, cotton seed, groundnuts to produce palm oil, groundnut oil, soya oil etc
· Spices and seasonings
The raw materials used in this industry are Garlic. Ginger, locus beans, lemon etc. The finished product from this raw materials includes flavors, spices and seasonings such as curry, onga, magi etc