The prevalence of food insecurity and declining global nutrition prompted the United Nations to target ending hunger, food insecurity, and all forms of malnutrition by 2030 under Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2.1 and 2.2). Despite this, food security and malnutrition remain critical global concerns, especially for developing countries, including Nigeria, in 2025. The recent regression, coupled with the persistently high level of hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, raises concerns about the feasibility of achieving this Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) by 2030. Progress in addressing the various underlying factors has been slow, while the intensity and frequency of these challenges continue to rise daily. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2.33 billion people struggle to access adequate food, with 864 million facing severe food insecurity. The prevalence rate remains highest in developing economies, particularly in rural areas, where it sits at 31.9 % compared to urban areas at 25.5 %.
Food insecurity, driven by various factors, can be classified into internal and external causes. These factors include conflict, climate extremes, low productivity, and an inadequate supply of nutritious foods. Economic downturns further exacerbate the issue, alongside persistent challenges such as limited access to affordable, nutritious food, unhealthy food environments, and systemic inequality. These factors drive rising hunger and food insecurity, significantly threatening overall well-being, underscoring the urgent need to address food insecurity and nutrition, particularly in developing countries, which are mostly affected by this crisis.
Food Security and Nutrition: The Nigerian Case
Food insecurity remains widespread in all regions except North America and Europe. As shown in Figure 1, food insecurity in Africa ranges from moderate to severe across urban, peri-urban, and rural areas.
Figure 1: Food Security Prevalence Rate
Source: FAO
Food insecurity, defined as the lack of consistent access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for healthy growth, development, and an active life, remains a significant challenge in Nigeria. The country ranks high among the most affected nations, with food shortages and limited resources contributing to the crisis. Nigeria's terrible economic position has worsened citizens' nutritional status, with citizens facing significant dietary challenges, including protein-energy malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. These scourges have had the greatest impact on vulnerable groups, including newborns, young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, especially in low-income communities. Malnutrition drains human resources and hinders development, resulting in significant human, societal, and economic costs.
Agriculture remains dominant in Nigeria’s economy, with over 70.8 million hectares of land dedicated to farming. Major crops cultivated include maize, cassava, sorghum, yam, beans, millet, and rice. The sector also employs over 70% of the country's population, highlighting its economic relevance. Despite its vast agricultural resources, Nigeria ranked 107th out of 113 on the 2022 Global Food Security Index, performing poorly in affordability, availability, quality, safety, and sustainability. This is unsurprising, as malnutrition and food insecurity stem directly from poverty, with over 133 million Nigerians living in extreme multidimensional poverty. The high inflation rate, driven mainly by food inflation, which stood at 35.41% in January 2024 from 33.9% in December 2023, increased the number of food-insecure Nigerians from 66.2 million to 100 million by Q1 2024. Among this number, 18.6 million suffer acute hunger, and 43.7 million show possibilities of crisis-level and above-crisis-level hunger coping strategies.
By Q4 2024, over 31.8 million Nigerians suffer acute food insecurity, with this number compounded by women and children's malnutrition. This surge, resulting from the rising cost of food commodities driven by fuel subsidy removal, in addition to other ongoing insecurity challenges caused by activities of Boko Haram terrorists and banditry, as well as the farmers-herders crisis in the country’s food-producing regions, has continued to drive up this number. The activities of these terror groups, especially in Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe, in addition to the farmers-herders conflicts in Benue and the ongoing banditry in the north-west region, have continued to disrupt agricultural activities, food supply, availability, and access. The ongoing insecurity has displaced millions of farmers, hindered agrarian activities, and further strained food resources. Another key contributor to this surge is climate change and other environmental factors. This is evident in the recurring floods in Nigeria between 2022 and 2024, with the most recent event in Borno affecting over 320,791 people and submerging 9,768 farmlands, leading to substantial losses in agricultural output and constraining productivity, thus resulting in a food shortage.
Regional Analysis
A study by the World Bank revealed that food insecurity is a formidable concern across all regions in Nigeria, although the effect is not evenly distributed. The North East ranks highest at 79%, primarily due to the ongoing conflict in the region. The North West and North Central are not far from the North East in terms of numbers, although aside from insecurity, the lack of money to buy food commodities is also a major issue that drives food insecurity in these regions, as highlighted by the study.
The Southern region (South West, South East, and South-South) also faces food insecurity, though not as severely as the North. In the South-South, food security is as high as 74%, but many households remain moderately food insecure, unlike the North East, where extreme food insecurity is prevalent. Overall, food insecurity in all regions exceeds the threshold of 10, indicating a highly food-insecure status in the country.
Government and International Interventions
The Nigerian government, alongside other international organisations such as the World Food Programme (WFP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), among others, have made significant efforts to tackle food insecurity in Nigeria. Most famous among all is the declaration of a state of emergency on food security by the current administration on July 13, 2023, to tackle rising food prices and shortages in Nigeria. The initiative redirected savings from fuel subsidy removal to support agriculture and vulnerable populations. Funds were allocated to provide fertilisers and grains to farmers, enhance security measures to help displaced farmers safely return to agro-production, and offer cash transfers to support low-income citizens. Another move by the current administration is the establishment of the Presidential Food Systems Coordinating Unit (PFSCU) in July 2024, headed by the Office of the Vice President. PFSCU aims to accelerate responses to food security challenges while setting Nigeria on a path to resilient and sustainable food systems. Other initiatives include the recruitment of 1,650 agricultural scientists by the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) in 2024 to beef up agricultural research and address food scarcity in Nigeria, the temporary lifting of import duties on essential agricultural commodities to mitigate food inflation and support local production, and the bill to criminalise unprocessed corn exports from the country, among others. While these efforts are commendable, significant gaps in the agricultural sector must be addressed to achieve food security in Nigeria.
Critical Focus Areas in Combating Food Insecurity
Addressing gaps in post-harvest management, land and seed security, mechanisation, infrastructure, and access to credit is crucial for Nigeria to combat food insecurity effectively.
Key areas requiring urgent attention include:
- Post-harvest security: Post-harvest losses remain a critical challenge to food security in Nigeria, as over 60% of tubers, fruits, and vegetables produced go to waste. Nigeria’s inability to secure primary agro-harvests stemming from its infrastructural deficit has kept the post-harvest loss constant over the past 5 years, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Postharvest Loss Estimates in Nigeria
Sources: APHLIS postharvest loss estimates
Addressing post-harvest losses is crucial for achieving food security. This requires investment in hermetic storage bags and silos to protect grains from moisture, mould, and pests, as well as cold storage and refrigeration for perishable goods like vegetables and fruits.
- Land security: Around 80% of agricultural activities in Nigeria are affected by climate change (flooding and drought), insecurity (terrorism and banditry), and farming-related conflicts like the farmers-herders crisis. Addressing these challenges must be a priority in food security strategies. Policies tackling these issues will significantly enhance food security.
- Seed Security: High-yielding seeds are essential for good agro-output and increased agricultural production; however, only 5% of smallholder farmers can access such seeds. Nigeria’s production of high-performing seeds is insufficient, less than 1000 metric tons per year, despite having over 314 formally registered seed companies. Increasing the production of high-performing seeds will be instrumental in the fight against food insecurity in the country. This can be achieved by making funds available and partnering with seed companies to increase the production of high-performing seeds.
- Mechanisation: Over 70% of the Nigerian population is employed in agriculture, but the vast majority is in subsistent farming; thus, their output and quality remain low. Also, fewer than 45,000 tractors are available for agricultural development; this is insufficient given the size of the land put to agricultural use in the country. To actively combat food insecurity, the mechanisation of agriculture is sacrosanct, and that can be achieved through investing and partnering to build, assemble, and maintain mechanised agricultural units in Nigeria.
- Access to Credit: Increased access to credit for smallholder farmers is necessary to address Nigeria’s food insecurity. Enhancing food security requires expanding smallholder farmers' credit access since it allows them to purchase quality inputs like improved seeds, fertilisers, and modern equipment to increase productivity. With credit access, farmers can enlarge their cultivation areas while diversifying crops and implementing climate-smart technologies to build a robust and sustainable food system. This also reduces post-harvest losses by enabling the construction of advanced storage and processing facilities, which in turn prevent food waste and stabilise supply. Through enhanced market participation mechanisms, farmers can expand their operations while optimising logistical processes to secure equitable pricing. Financial limitations, when addressed through credit mechanisms, enable smallholder farmers to boost food production while stabilising prices and securing steady food supplies for expanding populations.
Over 2.33 billion people globally face the threat of food insecurity, making it a formidable global concern. Food insecurity remains a pressing challenge in Africa, with Nigeria ranking highest in the region. While studies confirm that food insecurity exists across all regions of Nigeria, its prevalence is disproportionate. The Northeast experiences the most severe food insecurity, followed by the North Central.
Despite efforts by the government and international organisations to address this crisis, significant gaps remain, hindering the country's path to food security. To effectively combat food insecurity, Nigerian policymakers should focus on key areas such as post-harvest management, land security, seed security, mechanisation, infrastructure, and access to credit. Addressing these issues is crucial to achieving lasting food security in Nigeria.
References
Economist Impact. (2022). Global food security index 2022. https://impact.economist.com/sustainability/project/food-security-index/
Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning. (2024). 31.8m Nigerians suffering from acute food insecurity. https://nationalplanning.gov.ng/31-8m-nigerians-suffering-from-acute-food-insecurity/
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (2023). Nigeria at a glance. https://www.fao.org/nigeria/fao-in-nigeria/nigeria-at-a-glance/en/
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (2024). The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2024. https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/39dbc6d1-58eb-4aac-bd8a-47a8a2c07c67/content/state-food-security-and-nutrition-2024/introduction.html#ref-note-1_5&gsc.tab=0
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). (2024). Understanding food insecurity insight through the lenses of gender and urbanization. https://www.fao.org/interactive/state-of-food-security-nutrition/en/
International Organization for Migration (IOM) UN Migration. (2024). Flood situation report—Borno State. https://dtm.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl1461/files/reports/Borno%20Flood%20Situation%20Report%20%2813%20September%202024%29_final_0.pdf
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). (2022). Nigeria launches its most extensive national measure of multidimensional poverty. https://www.nigerianstat.gov.ng/news/78
The Nigerian Economic Summit Group. (2024). NESG issues a policy brief on the status of food security in Nigeria. https://nesgroup.org/blog/NESG-Issues-a-Policy-Brief-on-the-Status-of-Food-Security-in-Nigeria#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20food%2Dinsecure,strategies%20as%20of%20March%202024
World Food Programme. (2024). Nigeria. https://www.wfp.org/countries/nigeria?utm
BBC (2023). Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu declares state of emergency over food. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66199237
