Food Security in Nigeria: An Overview

Abstract

No doubt, food is life; hence, food has become an instrument of national power. It is within that imperatival need for food that this paper takes a cursory look at the issue in all its ramifications. The paper with a comprehensive review of Nigeria's agricultural policy noted that much still needs to be done if the crisis in the sector will not escalate more so, in a supposedly democratic dispensation which expectedly should promote the value of welfarism. The paper infers that Nigeria needs to come up with food policy which for now it lacks. What public policy makers pursue is merely an agricultural policy that still suffers enormously from a wide gap between intent and actual practices.

Agriculture 4.0: An Implementation Framework for Food Security Attainment in Nigeria’s Post-Covid-19 Era

“…Several studies have investigated the challenge of food security in Nigeria. Adebayo et al [10] identified inadequate funding and government overdependence on oil as the leading causes of food insecurity. The authors warned that developed countries might use food as an instrument of exploitation in the future and recommended biotechnology adoption to solve food security challenges.…”

“…Food Consumption pattern in Nigeria Youth Farm Lab (YFL): This is an initiative of the Federal government of Nigeria (FMARD10 ) and Synergos11 to educate young Nigerians in the development of livestock and sustainable urban agriculture. YFL searches for Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 35 who are excited about agriculture and believe in itsThe federal government of Nigeria earmarks ₦169.88 billion on road construction in 202012 .…”

Viability of Muzara’ah Contract on Agro-financing in Alleviating Rural Poverty in Kano State, Nigeria

“…Likewise in Nigeria, where the agricultural sector as the most important non-oil economic activity employs 70% of labor forces and contributes 40.07% of GDP (NBS, 2010). The sector up to the 1960s was the main pillar of the Nigerian economy providing enough food to the citizens and at the same time export the surplus food items to the foreign market, for instance; the famous groundnut pyramids in the Kano in the North, cocoa in the west, oil palm and kernel heaps in the East, and the rubber plantation in the Mid-west asserts the notion (Adebayo & Ojo, 2012).…”

Food Security and Trade in Food Products in Nigeria

“…Recently, the Northeast and some parts of the northcentral parts of Nigeria have been characterised by chronic food insecurity driven by the clashes between local farmers and cattle herders (World Food Programme, 2019), low-level of food production (FAO et al, 2018) relative to population growth (UN DESA, 2019). Food production in Nigeria has faced severe obstacles, such as adverse climate shocks, unpredictable rainfall (Adebayo & Ojo, 2012), lack of modern farm inputs and technologies, government neglect and lack of policy directions (Verter, 2016;MBNP, 2017;FAO el at., 2018). These constraints, coupled with other impediments, have nullified Nigeria's capacity to achieve food self-sufficiency (UNCTAD, 2019;FSIN, 2019).…”

“…These constraints, coupled with other impediments, have nullified Nigeria's capacity to achieve food self-sufficiency (UNCTAD, 2019;FSIN, 2019). Consequently, Nigeria has substantially dependent on advanced and emerging economies for processed food products (Adebayo & Ojo, 2012), as postulated by dependency theories (Verter, 2016). Free trade in food trade and over-reliant on food imports have been arguably accused of being among the principal causes of undernutrition and food insecurity in developing countries.…”