Which of the following is NOT a contribution of agriculture to industrial development?

1. Analyze the question The question asks which option is NOT a contribution of agriculture to industrial development. Four options are real contributions, and one is not.

2. Explain the concept Agriculture supports industry in these main ways:

• Food supply: it feeds industrial workers, so they can work and live in towns.
• Raw materials: cotton for textiles, cocoa for chocolate and beverages, palm produce for soap and margarine, rubber for tyres.
• Labour: surplus rural labour moves to factories in the cities.
• Capital or funds: farmers' savings, taxes and export earnings (such as cocoa and groundnut revenue in Nigeria's past) help finance industries.
• Market: farmers buy manufactured goods such as fertilizers, tools and clothing.
• Foreign exchange: agricultural exports earn money to import industrial inputs.

3. Work through the options

• A. Food for the industrial sector: a genuine contribution.
• B. Funds for industrial development: a genuine contribution, through savings, taxes and export earnings.
• C. Raw materials: a genuine contribution, and probably the most important one.
• D. Labour: a genuine contribution, through rural-urban migration.
• E. Supply of machinery to the industrial sector: this is not a contribution. Machinery is produced by the industrial or manufacturing sector, not by agriculture. In fact, agriculture is a buyer of machinery (tractors, ploughs), so the flow goes the other way.

4. Answer

5. Tip Remember the agriculture-to-industry flow as F-R-L-C-M: Food, Raw materials, Labour, Capital, Market. If an option describes agriculture supplying machines or other manufactured goods, it is the odd one out. Agriculture supplies inputs to industry, while industry supplies machinery to agriculture.