Fostering Sustainable, Resilient Food Security in Nigeria

Jun 8, 2016 | Nkechi Isaac
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Speaking during a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Environment Facility (GEF) program development workshop with the theme “Fostering sustainability and resilience for food security in Nigeria” for stakeholders from the north central, north east and north west zones of the country, the lead consultant for the project document development, Prof. Emmanuel Oladipo, identified the rapidly growing population; changing and uncertain climate; shrinking farming workforce; poor infrastructure; flat crop yields over the past decades and conflicts in the northern agro-ecological zones (AEZs), where most of the grains are produced as the main causes of food insecurity in the country. He emphasized that these challenges put food security in danger unless the decline in food production was offset by vast increase in the country’s food production and food imports despite infrastructure, production and market support services constraints. He said the project aimed to enhance long-term environmental sustainability and resilience of food production systems of the country to achieve improved national food security.