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Food Security

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Food Security
“There is no sincerer love than the love of food,” George Bernard Shaw a literary critic once said. His statement rings true, as food feeds the functions of society. However, not all countries feel the cushion of a full meal each day. Every year 15 million children die from hunger. Scarcity of food is an epidemic affecting people all over the world. Therefore, food security, the access by which all people at any time can have access to enough nutritious food for an individual to have a healthy life, is a vital part of a countries concern. Nigeria is one such country, like many others in which food security is of high concern. No longer a third world country, as of 2005, Nigeria has been declared a middle class country and continues to develop from there. However, this does not make Nigeria exempt from the brutality of hunger and the shortage of food.

Officially named the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Nigeria is a country located in West Africa with its borders being surrounded by Chad, Benin, Cameroon and Niger. Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa and the seventh most populated in the entire world. Naturally, with such a high population the amount and production of food is a large concern for the government. As stated by Olyeran-Oyeyinkain the book, The Gene Revolution and Global Food Security, “Agriculture has become a major contributor to the Nigeria's economy. Accounting for about 40% of gross domestic product (GDP) and employing about 60% of the work force" (Olyeran 117). The main crops that workers toil on are as follows: beans (varieties which include cocoa beans, soy beans) sesame, cashews, cassava, groundnuts, gum arabic, kola nut, corn, melon, millet, palm kernels, palm oil, plantains, rice, rubber, Guinea corn, and yams. Because of the many different climates that Nigeria possesses, it is possible for it to grow these varying crops.

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