CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to Study

Reducing food insecurity continues to be a major public policy challenge in developing countries. Almost 1 billion people worldwide are undernourished, many more suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, and the absolute numbers tend to increase further, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (FAO, 2008). Recent food price hikes have contributed to greater public awareness of hunger related problems, also resulting in new international commitments to invest in developing countries agriculture (Fan and Rosegrant, 2008). Global Hunger Index (GHI) ranking of Nigeria as 40th among 79 food deficient countries in 2011, 40th again in 2012, 39th in 2013 and 38th in 2014 remains unacceptably high and has indicated that no remarkable progress has been made from all efforts geared towards hunger reduction (GHI, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014). The GHI Report (2012) further posit that rising food prices, malnutrition and deaths as a result of wide-spread poverty is an indication of the prevalence of food insecurity in the country. It is also a sign of extreme suffering for millions of poor people.

Agriculture is however one of the most important sectors of the Nigerian economy, it contributes more than 40% of the total annual GDP in 2010 (NBS, 2012). The sector employs about 70% of the labour force and accounts for over 70% of the non-oil exports and, perhaps most importantly, provide over 80% of the food needs of the country (Adegboye, 2004 and NBS, 2012). Agriculture provided adequate food for the Nigerian populace both in quantity and quality during the era before independence in 1960. Helleiner (1996), showed that in Nigeria, between 1950 and 1960, food production was at subsistence but self-sufficient level. The economy was experiencing rapid growth of 4.5% between 1958 and 1963, the driving force being a booming trade in agricultural commodities export, growing annually at 5.5%. The first decade of Nigerian independence (1960-1970) opened the way to food shortages as a result of declining agricultural production and increasing population growth rate. The increase in population at a rate considerably higher than the rate of increase in food production has continued to widen the gap between domestic food supply and domestic demand. This disparity has led to rising food prices (85-125% increases in many Nigerian cities) and declining foreign exchange earnings from agricultural exports. The interaction of these factors has led to food insecurity and the idea of self-sufficiency is becoming more and more difficult to achieve due to declining agricultural production and inefficient food marketing system (Helleiner, 1996).

In order to ensure self-sufficiency and food security in Nigeria, a number of agricultural development institutions and reforms were embarked upon by the federal government since 1970. These programmes include: National Accelerated Food Production Programme, NAFPP (1973); Agricultural Development Project, ADP (1975); Operation Feed the Nation, OFN (1976); River Basin Development Authorities, RBDA (1977); National Seed Service, NSS (1977); Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme, ACGS (1977); Rural Banking Scheme, RBS (1977); Green Revolution, GR (1979); Directorate of Food, Road and Rural Infrastructure, DFRRI (1986); National Agricultural Land Development Authority, NALDA (1992); National Fadama Development Projects, NFDP (1992); Nigerian Agricultural Cooperatives and Rural Development Bank, NACRDB (2000); National Agricultural Development Fund, NADF (2002); Commodity Marketing and Development Companies, CMDC (2003), Root and Tubers Expansion Programme, RTEP (2002), and the Food Security Thematic Group, FSTG (2009).

Food security exists when “all people at all times have access to safe nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life” (FAO, 1996). Food security entails ensuring sustainable access, availability and affordability of adequate quantity and quality food to all citizens to meet up with their physiological requirements (Okuneye, 2014). The main goal of food security is for individuals to be able to obtain adequate food needed at all times, and to be able to utilise the food to meet the body’s needs. Food security is multifaceted. The World Bank (2001), identified three pillars underpinning food security; these are food availability, food accessibility, and food utilization. This infers from the concept that food security is not just a production issue.

Food availability for the farm household means ensuring sufficient food is available for them through own production. However, due to lack of adequate storage facilities and pressing needs, they mostly end up selling excess produce during the harvesting period, and sometimes rely on market purchases during the hungry season.

Food security for a household in the overall would therefore mean access by all members at all times to enough food for an active healthy life. Food security includes at a minimum the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods; and an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways in the community (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing or other coping strategies). Aside from food production, which a large proportion of the Nigerian populace is involved in, accessibility is very important to attain food security level. Food security at national level does not therefore guarantee that all people, especially the poor, will have access to the minimum nutrition requirement because of existing regional, economic and social inequalities (Alderman et al., 1993).

Community food security exists when all community residents obtain a safe, personally acceptable, nutritious diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes healthy choices, community self-reliance and equal access for everyone (MHSHABC, 2004). This research intends to evaluate food security status among farm household and communities in Kaduna state vis-à-vis the global interest to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger as reflected in the Millennium Development Goal.

1.2 Problem Statement

Worldwide, about 852 million men, women and children are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty; while up to 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degree of poverty (FAO, 2003). FAO report in 2010 put growing extreme poverty figure at almost 2 billion people worldwide, while in Nigeria, more than two-thirds of the people are poor, despite living in a country with vast potential wealth (Omotesho et al., 2010).

Food insecurity is a major risk for Africa. Of the 86 low-income and food deficient declared countries the world over, 43 are in Africa where the majority of the world‘s 6.7 billion people live under the poverty line. In sub-Saharan Africa, although agriculture accounted for 70 % of the labor force and over 25 % of GDP, the continent has continued to register low priority for investment in agriculture (Eluhaiwe, 2008). The situation has resulted in a new global trend in the demand for food. Thus, there is therefore an urgent need to transform agriculture in Nigeria, to take advantage of these trends in food demand. For Nigeria to effectively increase its share in Africa’s agricultural space and harness the market opportunities, the need to re-focus the country’s agricultural financing policy to develop its agricultural food baskets and its commodity value-chains to meet the food market product demands, has become imperative.

Nigeria is still however, characterized by high reliance on food imports. Malnutrition is widespread in the entire country and rural areas and communities are especially vulnerable to chronic food shortages, malnutrition, unbalanced nutrition, erratic food supply, poor quality foods, high food costs, and even total lack of food. This phenomenon cuts across all age groups and categories of individuals in the rural areas. For example, there is a high level of malnutrition among children in rural Nigeria; the figures differ with geopolitical zones, with 56% reported in a rural area of South West and 84.3% in three rural communities in the northern part of Nigeria. Nationally, the overall prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight are 42.0%, 9% and 25%, respectively (Akinyele, 2009