CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The importance of
food as the requisite condition for the survival of a state, its relevance to
human survival cannot be over emphasized. Adequate food or what is commonly
known as food security is a fundamental need for human existence. No doubt,
food is life hence; food has become an instrument of national power. Food is a
negotiating kit in international politics. The security of a state therefore is
in danger, if this particular need is not satisfied.
If an individual or a
community suffers from food insecurity, to the extent that there is no means of
feeding, that society as an aggregate is insecure. Be that as it may, it is an
undeniable fact that the survival of a particular state is largely dependent on
the survival of its populations. A hungry nation is a weak one, while any
region that is prone to famine or starvation is a weak one, while any region
that is prone to famine or starvation is an insecure region, no matter how
waste and greatly populated it may be. Such a region will continue to be
constantly under threats and exposed to external influence, either as a result
of foreign aid, relief materials or other forms of assistance presumably put
together to alleviate the sufferings of the people, by outside countries.
Food security refers
to a secure access to sufficient and affordable nutritious food. It implies
access by all people at all time to enjoyed enough food for an active and
healthy life. Food security is a multi-faceted concept. At one end of the
spectrum, food security implies the availability of adequate supplies at a
global and national level; at the other end, the concern is with adequate
nutrition and well being of the people.
Therefore, achieving
food security is imperative, but the most pressing challenge is how to do this
and its has remained an elusive or complex problem in Nigeria. Part of the
problem is lack of interest, investment and increased measures in agriculture,
since majority of the people have neglected or abandoned the rural areas for a
white colour jobs in the major cities. In order to ensure food availability and
accessibility of a people at all times, certain public policies and strategies
by the national, state and local governments (non-discriminating and
non-political laws) must be adopted and implemented to ensure that their
population have access to adequate food. According to James Anderson (1979:3),
public policy can be defined as a relatively stable, purposive course of action
followed by an actor or set of actors in dealing with a problem or concern. In
addition, its implies something willed, rather than accidental, incidental,
coincidental thing that just happens. It is goal-oriented and goal-directed in
the sense that it focuses at achieving a particular objective or target.
Although past and
present government have introduced various policies targeted at improving food
production in Nigeria, it is important to state that those policies had
abysmally failed to achieve the set objectives or results. In fact,
government’s neglect of the agricultural sector that accounted for more than 80
percent of foreign and domestic earnings to the Nigeria’s economy since the
1970’s and 80 due to the discovering and exploration of petroleum resources,
further complicated the crisis of food insecurity for the teaming Nigerian
population.
The mono-cultural oil
export-led economy of the country has adversely affected agricultural (food)
production in the country. It is important to note that, if Nigeria is to meet
her vision 2020, agricultural sector must, as matter of priority, be revived b
government through sound policies that will encourage the sector and boost food
productive. The most important national priority therefore is to feed its
populace because the continuous existence of human beings depends solely on
adequate provision of food, it is within that imperatival need for food that
this study takes a cursory look at the issues in its entire ramification.
Therefore, emphases
will aim at examine how food insufficiency directly affects the political
stability of the country. It also explores the success or otherwise of various
agricultural programes or policies aimed at ensuring food security in Nigeria
since independence.
1.2
STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
As concerns toward
maintaining national security and growing a sound and healthy population,
agricultural policies which ensure food security have been pursued vigorously
by successive governments. Such policies are made to fulfill the Universal
Declaration of human Right on December 10, 1948 by the United nations General
Assembly which proclaims that the human person has the right to adequate food
and to be free from hunger, as a set out in Article 25 of the universal
Declaration. This right has been spelt out in various human rights instruments
vis-à-vis the concern on economic, social and cultural right; the convention in
the rights of the child and many other instruments (Ojo and Adebayo, 2012).
Food is the most
basic of human need and is central to the discussion of human rights and social
development. This is why clover (2003) in Ojo and Adebayo (2012), averred that,
‘no human right has been so frequently and spectacularly violated in recent
times as the right to food’. To address this problem and ensure that this right
is respected, governments since independence have embarked on successive
agricultural and food security policies to make food available and accessible
to it citizenry.
In addition to the
above, the United Nations secretary-General ban kimono laid out these sobering
statistics as he kicked off a three day summit on world food security in Rome,
when he noted that, ‘more than one billion people are hungry… six million
children die of hunger every year, 17,000 everyday. In 2050, the world will
need to feed two million more mouths…’ (Cited in Ojo and Adabayo, 2012)
Before the civilian
administration in Nigeria in 1999, several agricultural policies and programmes
were introduced by successive administrations, viz-a-viz operation feed the
Nation (OFN) under the Olusegun Obasnjo military government; Shehu Shagari’s
Green Revolution; Directorate of food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI)
of Ibrahim Babangida etc. However, with the advent of civilian administration
in 1999, greater attention was given to food production. The then Minister of
Agriculture, publicly restated government’s commitment to combat hunger and
malnutrition by providing adequate food for the people and ensure food security
for all. To achieve this goal, a number of what he called food security
initiatives were launched which include among others: special programme for
Food security for all. To achieve this goal, a number of what he called food
for Food security (SPFS), Root and Tuber expansion programme, Fadama
Development project, Community-Based Agricultural and Rural Development
schemes, provision of infrastructures etc. Also international organization such
as the World Bank, Food and Agricultural Organizations (FAO), United States
Agency for international Development (USAID), and International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD), has always been giving a lending hand in form
of aid to facilitate the development of agriculture.
However, it appears
this objective has not been achieved as records, writings and evidence from
close observations reveal that people across the world and in Nigeria in
particular are malnourished and die of hunger, and the estimated figure is
alarming. This is captured in the writings of Ojo and Adebayo (2012) when they
noted that “Africa which reversed from being a key exporter of agricultural
commodities into being a net importer, has the highest percentage of undernourished
people and has shown less progress on reducing the prevalence of
undernourishment in the last 30 years. Chronic food insecurity now affects some
28% of the population that is nearly 200 million people who are suffering from
malnutrition. Famines are the most visible and extreme manifestation of acute
food insecurity”. The populace especially those in the rural areas are still
suffering from illnesses which are closely linked to malnutrition and hunger.
Medical and anthropometric findings shows a very close link between
malnutrition and infant mortality, poor growth in children as well as reduced
adults’ immune system to fight some disease. It is also revealed that 65
percent of the Nigerian population is suffering from lack of food security, 40
percent of children under five are stunted and 25 percent are under weight.
Food demand is not
sufficiently marched by supply and this has resulted to food insufficiency.
This is reflected in the huge sum of money spent on importation of food to
offset the food insecurity in the country arid is also evident in the
prevalence of underweight and malnourished children under five years of age,
and the proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy
consumption which are adopted as indicators adequate for measuring how well a
country is food- secured. Food is life; hence food is an instrument of national
power. Food is used to achieve political ends, because if people are well fed,
they would be able ready to contribute meaningfully to the effective
implementation of government policies. Malnutrition saps the working strength
of an economy, cripples and mind and body of children and consequently deprives
the society of its greatest potential available and sufficient, but the
quality, hygiene and safety conditions to protect the health and well being of
the consumers is of utmost importance. It is against this backdrop that this
study seeks to evaluate agricultural policy as it affects food security in
Nigeria.
1.3
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research
questions are formulated to serve as a guide to the study:
Does poor
implementation of agricultural policies bring about poor agricultural
productivity?
To what extent does
inadequate food security endanger national security?
OBJECTIVES
OF THE STUDY
(a) The main
objective of this study is:
To ascertain if poor
implementation of agricultural polices affect agricultural productivity.
Specific objectives
of this study are:
To determine if over
reliance on oil discourage food production in the country.
To suggest measure
that can be introduced to improve production of agricultural commodities to
make the enterprise attractive to the growing population.
To establish the
extent to which inadequate food security endanger national security.
1.5
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The following
hypotheses are formulated to serve as a guide to this study:
Lack of modernized
mode of production in a society tends to produce an ineffective food security.
Ineffective
implementation of rural development policies tends to decrease food security
arrangement in a society.
1.6
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The major
significance of this study lies in the fact that it will expand the frontiers
of knowledge on the factors militating against the success of agricultural policy
which leads to increase productivity. This study will reveal some of the
impediments responsible for the non-achievement of food security in the
country. The study will be significant in that it will prescribe measures
capable of improving agricultural produce and reduce imports which huge sums
will be channeled into other productive ventures which will reduce capital
flight and the multiplier effect will be felt with in the Nigerian economy.
Generally, the
findings, discoveries and recommendations of this study will be relevant to
policy makers and also expose the researcher to intricate issues relating to
agricultural policies and the poor implementation strategies by various
governments. This will enable the researcher understand why reasonable success
has not been recorded in the achievement of making food available, accessible
and affordable to the Nigerian populace and Akwa Ibom State in particular.
1.7
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This study will focus
primarily on agricultural policy as it affects food security in Nigeria with
particular reference to Akwa Ibom state. The study will concern itself with how
poor implementation of agricultural policies affects food production,
inadequate food endangers national security and how over dependence on oil
sector affects the agricultural sector. The field survey and data analysis will
be base on the data collected through structured questionnaire distributed
across the sample population and base on the writings and documented records
from extant literatures.
The study was not
without its limitations. The most obvious limitation was the time span within
which the study has to be completed. The study is also constrained by certain
factors like transportation, lack of funding, epileptic electricity supply,
poor attitude of respondents in the filling and returning of questionnaires
administered, difficulty of administering questionnaires to illiterate
respondents since majority of rural dwellers and farmers are not educated and
paucity of data occasioned by official secrecy.
DEFINITION
OF KEY CONCEPTS
Agricultural policy:
This is targeted at an expanded food production. It describes a set of laws
relating to domestic agriculture and imports of foreign agricultural
commodities. This has as it goal the consideration of minimum multinational
standards that will guarantee food security. While expansive agricultural
policy is being pushed, there is also the need for national food policy which
seeks to assure all citizens access to food supply that is reasonable priced,
relatively safe, adequate in quantity and nutrition. Thus it is any decision,
program or project that is endorsed by a government agency, business or
organization which affects how food is produced, processed; distributed,
purchased, protected and disposed.
Food security: Food
security is the availability at all times of adequate world food supplies of
basic food stuff to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to
offset fluctuation in production. Food security is also defined as access by
all people, at all times, to sufficient food for an active, and healthy life,
it included at a minimum the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and
safe food, and as assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in social
acceptable ways (FAQ, 1997). It is a condition related to the supply of food,
and individual’s access to the people are considered food secure where they
have avoidable access at all times to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to
maintain a healthy and active life.
Staple foods: To
adequately define what constitutes staple food is a difficult thing, as it is
hard to know how much of each crop actually ends up being eaten by humans. But
according to FAQ, in developed countries, corn is the number one staple food
followed by rice, as they provide humanity’s major source of carbohydrates;
though in Nigeria, yam, cassava, corn and rice are seen as the major staple
foods in the country.
Malnutrition: It is
the indication of intake of unbalance diet. It is a condition that results from
eating a diet in which nutrients an either not enough or are too much such that
the diet causes health problems. Extreme undernourishment known as starvation
may have symptoms that include: a short height, thin body, very poor energy
levels, and swollen legs and abdomen.
Agricultural
productivity: This refers to the output produced by a given level of input(s)
in the agricultural sector of a given economy. It can also be defined as the
ratio of the value of total farm outputs to the value of total inputs used in
farm production.