Nigeria’s grain resource structure and government sustainable policy: a review

Abstract

Nigeria is rich in several food grain resources that empower the country with a large capacity to develop a food-grain policy. The current food-grain resource structure of Nigeria is reviewed in terms of production, milling, storage structure and issues confronting the sector growth, sustainability, policies and frameworks towards the actualization of food production efficiency. Total food-grain consumption (wheat, maize, sorghum and rice) decreased by 1.2 Mt in 2011-2013. Local consumption of wheat, and rice marginally increased by 191,000 and 500,000 t respectively in 2011-2013, that of maize and sorghum decreased by 1.5 Mt and 350,000 t respectively at the same period. About 76% of the total food grain consumption was produced locally in 2011/2012 while 73% was produced locally in 2012/2013. In 2011/2012, only 0.023% of wheat and 53.3% of rice was locally produced while 0.022% and 52.5% was produced in 2012/2013. The short fall in supply was met through importation. Challenges were found to exist, not only in low production capacity in the case of wheat but generally from low milling and storage capacity, which is less than 50% of the country’s total installed milling capacity. Challenges were also found to exist from energy production and distribution pattern, which alienates the grain hubs of the country, causing them to seek for costly alternative energy sources for drying, milling and storage. Dependence on import to fill the shortfall in local production is a problem. In addressing these challenges, the government plan was to treat food-grain production as a business by integrating food-grain production, storage and processing by value chain and adopting import-substitution measures to drive sector growth. For all this to work, it must follow a sustainable framework to enhance economic growth and reduce poverty.