Food security challenges in Nigeria: a paradox of rising domestic food production and food import

This paper examined the food security challenges vis-a-vis the paradox of increased domestic food production and food import in Nigeria. The study used time-series data from National Bureau of Statistic, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria's National Dailies and CIA Factbook reports. The trend analysis showed that the share of agriculture to the total Gross Domestic Product, GDP had a downward trend, especially from 1960-1979, where food import hovered around 2.92 % from 196074 and up to 9.85 % in 1975-79 of GDP. The result depicts an undulating trend in the contribution of agriculture and food import values to 2009 where food import rose astronomically from N2.6trillion (3.83 %) in 2005-2009 to about N20.6trillion (25.02 %) in 2010-2012. Results of the regression analysis confirmed that agriculture has a positive relationship with GDP, and contributes significantly with a coefficient of 0.852. The paradox however is that food import negates the a priori expectation as it is found to be positively related to the GDP: as food production increases marginally, food importation increases asymptotically. The paper recommends that reliance on food import could be minimized through increased budgetary allocation to the sector, and improvement in postharvest management practices that have hitherto, aggravated food insecurity in the country.