Agriculture and Food Security: ‘Can You Fix Nigeria’ Series – Episode 6

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

‘Can You Fix Nigeria’ Series – Episode 6

In October 2020, after observing the drift that Nigeria was experiencing, the slow response to the COVID crisis and the general hopelessness of the citizenry, Culbeat Foundation initiated a series of non-partisan policy talks to re-evaluate the problems facing Nigeria.

There are strict rules in place to avoid partisanship and online abuse; and to open our minds in order to discuss issues concerning Nigeria. This series is tagged the Can You Fix Nigeria Challenge.

It is our pleasure to serialise these discussions with you via News Round The Clock.

Episode 6 – Agriculture and Food Security

In Fix Nigeria – Episode 6, we discuss the issue of agriculture and food security in Nigeria. The importance of food security has become apparent as highlighted by COVID-19 restrictions and the security issues between farmers and herders in Nigeria.

This episode catalogues some of the issues facing the agricultural sector in Nigeria including job creation, land reforms and capital for industrial-scale farming.

We also discuss the institutions that support agriculture and farming in Nigeria for example the river basin development authorities of the 1980s, the Agric-Credit Banks and the place of agricultural research institutes such as IITA in Ibadan, IAR in Zaria, NIFOR in Benin and ARMTI in Ilorin.

Finally, we discuss the value chain and how it can be better developed, including the development of our agriculture for the export market.

This episode’s guest

Dr. Aliyu Yakubu Bununu is an academic, consultant and farmer. He is a lecturer at the Department of Urban & Regional Planning of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

About Culbeat Foundation

Our motto is “re-defining Nigerian values.”