Global Advanced Research Journal of Agricultural Science (GARJAS) ISSN: 2315-5094
November 2014 Vol. 3(11): pp. 334-341
Copyright © 2014 Global Advanced Research Journals

Review

Nigeria and the Search for Food Security since the Amalgamation

Christian Chukwuma Opata

Department of History and International Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Email:opatacc@gmail.com;  Christian.opata@unn.edu.ng;

Tel: 08035118199

Accepted 29 October, 2014

Abstract

That Nigeria is becoming more dependent on external sources to feed her citizens is epitomized in the level of importation of foreign food items into the nation. This phenomenon has engaged the mind of various administrations in the nation both colonial and post colonial. To attain food security, various regimes came up with one agricultural programme or the other. For instance, from 1972, at the establishment of the Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs), there have been well over fourteen major policies on agriculture. Howbeit, what is obvious is that the various measures adopted by government suffer one form of alopecia captious which is not idiopathic in origin. This then calls for serious enquiry with a view to unravelling the reasons for the failures as problem identified is half solved. How the nation could extricate itself from food insecurity would be suggested based on the experience of other nations. This done, one of the major problems confronting the nation and one factor that is tangential to the nation’s corporate existence would have been addressed, thus contributing to the self examination being carried out in various quarters in Nigeria. Until we know that unstable is the future of any country which has lost its taste for agriculture and that one lesson in history which is unmistakeable is that the strength of a nation lies very near its soil- and Nigeria is blessed with vast fertile land- we will be groping in the dark.

Keywords: Amalgamation, Nigeria, Agriculture, Food, Security.