The aggregate index of agricultural
production in Nigeria which has virtually remained in
the hands of small holders has been on the decline
thereby hindering the country’s historical challenge
of providing the basic needs for the people.
Meanwhile, the country as a member of the United
Nations has keyed into the number one goal of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which is
halving poverty and hunger by 2015. It is therefore
against this background that this paper examines
generally the problem of food insecurity in Nigeria
and sustainable development. Other specific
objectives include examining the causes and effects
of food insecurity in Nigeria, identifying policies
formulated, and evaluating the policies in order to
make appropriate recommendations. The study found
that the root causes of food insecurity include:
poverty, corruption and national policies that do not
promote equal access to food for all; and also that the
country lacks storage and mechanization facilities
and thus spends substantial income from oil on food
importation. Research, farmers and extension
linkages was poor. Therefore, it is recommended that
there is need for a strong political will to transform
the predominantly small holders to become efficient
as is the case with the Japanese experience by
ensuring that food storage policy place emphasis on
small scale food storage operations, the
mechanization of Nigerian agriculture must be based
largely on indigenous engineering initiative and
research-extension-farmers linkages be strengthen
and Nigeria will bid farewell to food insecurity for
sustainable development.