Nigeria is still characterized by high reliance on food imports. Malnutrition is widespread
in the entire country and rural areas are especially vulnerable to chronic food shortages,
malnutrition, unbalanced nutrition, erratic food supply, poor quality foods, high food
costs, and even total lack of food. This phenomenon cuts across all age groups and
categories of individuals in the rural areas. There is a high level of malnutrition among
children in rural Nigeria; the figures differ with geopolitical zones, with 56 percent
reported in a rural area of South West and 84.3 percent in three rural communities in the
northern part of Nigeria. Nationally, the overall prevalence of stunting, wasting, and
underweight are 42.0 percent, 9 percent and 25 percent, respectively.
The problem of food and nutrition security in Nigeria has not been adequately and
critically analyzed, despite various approaches at addressing the challenge. The
enormous amount of money spent in attempting to assure the food security of Nigerians
without success calls for a fundamental review of the past approaches and
achievements to see what lessons can be learned to re-strategize and develop an
approach that will ensure that better progress is made toward achieving the first
Millennium Development Goal. Since the majority of Nigerians (70 percent) live in rural
areas, an analysis of the food and nutrition security status of rural dwellers will provide a
clear picture of what needs to be done to assure food security in Nigeria with the
attendant improvements in nutrition status when all the other necessary conditions, such
as adequate health and care, are present.
The main objective of this knowledge review was to collect and summarize available
secondary literature on food and nutrition security in rural Nigeria. The framework for the
analysis of food and nutrition security details the factors responsible for low consumption
of food and resulting malnutrition. The socioeconomic and political environment at the
national and subnational level is the principal determinant of food security, since it
influences food availability, stability of food supplies, and access to food, which in turn
influence the amount of food consumed. When these factors interact with the health and
sanitation environment as well as care practices they determine the nutritional status of
the individual.
There is a dearth of national surveys providing datasets for the analysis of food and
nutrition security in rural Nigeria. Though there have been a number of individual and
institutional efforts and attempts at generating databases on food and nutrition security
for Nigeria, these efforts are hampered by inadequate funds to implement large-scale
surveys.