LAUSR

This paper aims to re‐examine the linkages between oil and agricultural development. While Indonesia and Nigeria faced similar adjustment problems after the oil boom of 1974, their food production performance showed significant differences. I find that threats from rural forces matter. Rural threats forced the Indonesian government to pursue agricultural policy reforms and use oil revenue to support these reforms. In contrast, the absence of rural threats gave leeway for Nigerian elites to use oil money to reproduce their interests in infrastructural and industrial development at the expense of peasant producers. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.