The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has listed low crop yields, post-harvest losses, food safety concerns, and weak implementation of relevant policies, among others, as stagnating agriculture production in Nigeria.
It said this was part of findings contained in the latest Nigeria Food System Assessment Profile that was conducted in 2022, which was a joint initiative launched by the European Union FAO, French Research Centre for Agricultural Development, in collaboration with the government of Nigeria.
The UN agency said Nigeria’s population was estimated to hit 400 million by 2050, but noted that large food deficits remained a cardinal challenge to the food system.
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It, however, stated that Nigeria had the potential to feed its growing population into the coming decades, adding that this food self-sufficiency could be attained through production technologies and entrenching sustainable and inclusive food systems in the structure, governance and administration.
This is highlighted in the recently released Nigeria Food System Assessment Profile conducted in 2022, where gaps such as low yields, post-harvest losses, food safety concerns and climate change impacts, coupled with weak implementation of relevant policies and legislation, all combine to stagnate the predominantly rain-fed agriculture production,” it stated.
It said in a statement, issued in Abuja on Wednesday, that the purpose of the assessment was to identify key constraints and entry points for understanding the bottlenecks to sustainable food systems.
It said the assessment report was to also propose innovative policy and investment solutions to make food systems more sustainable and inclusive.
