According to a household expenditure survey conducted from September 2018 by nigerianstat to October 2019, it costs approximately N82,000 annually for one household member to meet the average daily requirement of 2,000 calories, as recommended by the NHS. The study revealed that over 40% of Nigerians are facing food scarcity.
With these figures in mind, it’s evident that the ruling class’s systemic neglect of food security has exacerbated the crisis. The widespread hunger didn’t occur overnight; it resulted from a slow and deliberate reduction in food availability for the poor and vulnerable.
Currently, the food inflation rate stands at 40.7%, the highest seen in Nigeria in the past 25 years. Contributing factors include rising foreign exchange rates, climate change, and disruptions in the food supply chain due to violence in key agricultural areas. The COVID-19 pandemic further crippled food production as farmers and food companies struggled to operate effectively.
While the pandemic is often cited as a major factor in Nigeria’s food crisis, other issues have played a significant role. In an effort to save its infrastructure, Nigeria reduced a portion of its fuel subsidy, leading to higher transportation costs and, consequently, higher food prices. This shift was particularly noticeable in 2021 and 2022.
The idea of removing the fuel subsidy was not new; it was first proposed in 2012 under the Goodluck Jonathan administration. However, the decision was more critical now due to the drastic rise in fuel prices, which jumped from 65 Naira per liter to 141 Naira per liter, causing food prices to soar. Although the subsidy removal was eventually repealed, it left a lasting impact on the nation’s food security and marked the beginning of a continuous decline.
Since the beginning of 2022, Nigeria’s electricity grid has collapsed at least five times. These collapses have been attributed to issues such as insufficiently trained personnel, inadequate local manufacturing, poor utility performance, theft of grid equipment, adverse weather conditions, gas supply shortages, insufficient funding, and outdated grid infrastructure. Power outages disrupt businesses, hinder socio-economic development, and increase the cost of living as people turn to more expensive means of generating electricity. This additional cost is then reflected in the prices of food products.
From July 2020 to the present, the prices of basic food items like beans and tomatoes have increased by 253% and 123%, respectively, pushing millions to the brink of starvation. Over the past five years, ethnic conflicts, banditry, and the Boko Haram insurgency, particularly in the North-East and North-Central regions, have intensified. These conflicts have resulted in the deaths of approximately 77,000 people and the displacement of 2.6 million others. The violent activities of herdsmen, kidnappers, bandits, and Boko Haram have disrupted farming communities, markets, and agricultural production, forcing many farmers to abandon their lands and seek safety elsewhere.
The decline in food production can be attributed to factors such as insecurity in farming areas, climate change, and outdated farming practices. In 2023, Nigeria’s Meteorological Agency (NiMet) reported significant deviations in rainfall patterns across several states, leading to severe disruptions in agriculture.
One such event was the catastrophic flooding experienced in most Nigerian states in 2022, the most severe in a decade, displacing over 2.4 million people and submerging hundreds of villages and urban areas. To combat climate change, Nigeria has implemented new Methane Guidelines requiring oil and gas companies to adopt measures like leak detection to reduce methane emissions. Additionally, the 2021 Climate Change Act mandates the government to develop carbon taxes and carbon trading mechanisms.
According IMF eLibrary’s statistics on food supply in Nigeria, a significant portion of Nigeria’s population is at risk of losing access to food. if we continue at this state, the hunger in the land may consume the people to feed its belly.
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