Introduction to Food Importation in Nigeria
Food importation refers to bringing food from where it is produced in surplus to an area where it is lacking or inadequate or to supplement the existing food level in that area.
Food importation in Nigeria and other West African countries has become a thing of concern as food is imported nearly every year in Nigeria.
Despite the abundance of fertile agricultural land, food importation in Nigeria is still very high. Nearly all the food consumed in Nigeria has a certain percentage that is imported into Nigeria accept cassava and yam.
Even the refined products of cassava and yam that are produced in excess is still been imported.
The government, non-governmental organizations, and stakeholders in agriculture are brainstorming and giving various interventions to farmers and manufacturers of agricultural products to aid local food production in Nigeria and to make the country self-sufficient in food production.
This food importation is affecting every sector of the Nigerian economy and has increased the inflation rate of household income in Nigeria.
Food importation has even affected the Gross Domestic Product of the Nation. Every year Nigeria government sets out aside some percentage of the national budget for food importation.
The efforts of the government and non-governmental organizations in agriculture have been massive in recent times, but food importation is still very high, some of the factors that are aiding food importation in Nigeria are:
Read Also: Top 8 Causes of Food Shortages in Nigeria
Causes of Food Importation in Nigeria
Some of the major causes of food importation in Nigeria are:
Farming is Mostly Subsistence Level
Nigeria farming is mostly at the subsistence level where farmers operate between one to two hectares with scattered pieces of land producing food mainly for the family and not for sales. These farmers make use of simple farm tools which limit food production.
Even the size of the farm operated by the farmers is used for mixed cropping where different types of crops are cultivated which doesn’t guarantee food security.
Farming Operations are not Mechanized /Uses of Simple Farm Tools
Nigeria’s agriculture is characterized by the use of simple farm tools such as cutlasses, hoes, shovels, spades, wheelbarrows, axes, and so on.
The uses of these simple farm tools require a high level of energy to cover the reasonable expanse of land.
These Simple farm tools used by Nigerian farmers don’t help farmers cover large expanses of land, thereby operating small scattered pieces of land usually one hectare to two hectares.
This limited food production to only family needs rather than to sell, which led to food importation in Nigeria.
Inadequate Storage Facilities
during the harvest period, agricultural produce in Nigeria is largely produced, but it deteriorated due to inadequate storage facilities to store these produce.
In some rural areas where traditional storage facilities such as barns, rhombuses, cribs, and underground storage are used for the storage of crops, giving room for rodents and pest attacks which reduce the quality and quantities of stored crops.
In some instances, the crops are destroyed by rodents or pests. In the dry season, food becomes very scarce which results in food importation.
Inadequate Capital
Due to inadequate capital farmers find it difficult to expand their farms beyond the subsistence level.
Farmers don’t have the capital to purchase farm inputs such as fertilizers, plant seeds, hire labor, rent land, and so on, to expand their farms beyond the subsistence level.
The farmers in Nigeria don’t have beyond their pieces of land which don’t have a certificate of occupancy (Government evidence of land ownership) which could be used to source for loan from commercial banks.
Even when these loans are available, the interest rate is beyond farmers’ ability to pay. Since these farmers are average farmers when they manage to secure a loan from the bank they transfer the loan acquired into personal use.
Inadequate Infrastructural Facilities
The rural areas where farming in Nigeria occurs suffer from some form of basic infrastructure or the other.
Basic infrastructure such as electricity, piped water, health care services, and functional schools are not there for farmers to enjoy in rural areas.
Since the rural areas have been left deplorable the able-bodied young men who should stay in the rural to farm have left for the urban area.
Some have moved to the urban settlement not to search for white-collar jobs but to enjoy basic amenities.
Since the able-bodied young men and women who should join the aged people to farm are not there, the farming population is now left for the aged people and children therefore leading to low food production in Nigeria.
High Cost of Agricultural Input and Machines
Agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, planting materials, farm machines, and their implements are so expensive, that farmers in Nigeria cannot even afford to buy them.
Few agricultural farm machines that are available in Nigeria or used by some commercial farms are substandard with very poor qualities.
Some of the times the Nigerian government supplies farm inputs to farmers, but these inputs get to the farmers at a very very wrong time when it is not appropriate to use them.
Even when these facilities are available to the farmers the technical know-how to operate them is also lacking. All these lead to food importation in Nigeria.
Inadequate Processing Facilities
Inadequate processing industries in Nigeria have led to wastage of agricultural produce in Nigeria.
Most of the food that is imported into Nigeria can be effectively produced due to the abundance of fertile agricultural land, however during the season these crops are usually in abundance that one will eat daily and fed up with them, after that particular season since they are fragile and perishable coupled with inadequate processing facilities they become very scarce in the off-season.
These now account for the importation of food to Cause the effect of food shortage.
Poor Marketing System
Nigeria’s marketing system is not well organized, there are no organized bodies established to work out modalities to see how agriculture produced will reach the market.
Since there is no organized market, agricultural produce is sold off immediately after harvest. The buyers of produce in Nigeria have stronger cooperative societies than the farmers, they regulate the buying price of agricultural produce that is not in the best interest of the farmers.
The commodities board established to coordinate agricultural produce some years back is not functioning again due to inconsistent government policies.
Poor Pricing System
Since there are no organized markets coupled with a lack of storage facilities, agricultural produce is sold off immediately after production.
Leaving the farmers at the mercy of the buyer. Buyers of agricultural produce in Nigeria are usually richer than the producer.
The buyers have strong cooperative societies where they meet often to fix the price of commodities to the detriment of the farmers and producers.
These factors discourage the farmers or intending farmers from investing more of their resources into farming since little or nothing will be returned to them as profit. All makes the Nigerian economy prone to food importation.
Rural-Urban Migration
Rural-urban migration has depleted the labor force of the rural area leaving the agriculture for mainly the aged people and children residing in the rural areas.
Since able-bodied young men and women are not available to farm in the rural the quality of labor in the rural will be very poor thereby reducing agricultural productivity and increasing the importation of food into the country.
Poor Distributive System
The distributive channel for agricultural produce allows the middlemen to exploit the farmers/producers excessively.
Most middlemen try to know the source of a particular product and decide to buy at the farm gate shooting out the producers/ farmers from exploring the real market price.
Most of these farmers also reside in rural areas that are not motorable in most cases farmers need to trek long distances to move their produce to the market for sale.
Negative Perception of Agricultural Education
Agricultural education which is concerned with the study of agricultural science in schools and other institutions of learning is perceived as the occupation of the downtrodden and less privileged individual.
People see the agricultural education students as farmers. The agricultural education students have a poor image and social disposition among their fellow students because they see them as one dirty and poor farmers.
Even the parents of the agricultural science students in Nigeria may not be happy their wards are studying agriculture in higher institutions other than professions like medicine and surgery, law, pharmacy, banking and finance and what have you.
Even the students of agricultural education graduates from higher institutions with the skills and competencies will still not be proud to take agriculture as a profession.
This limits students applying to study agriculture education in secondary and higher institutions.
Poor Extension Service
Agricultural Education and extension services are not the same, agricultural education deals with students and farmers while extension deals with only farmers.
Hence Agricultural Education is broader than Agricultural Extension. In Nigeria extension services are lacking not even inadequate, farmers keep on using old and outdated farming practices that were used by their parents, since farming is from generation to generation.
The ratio of extension to farmers in Nigeria exceeds 1:1600 because in whole communities you may not find the extension agent.
The work of extension service has been left to the agricultural education teacher who inculcates awareness of farming and builds interest in farming in the children who convince their parents of the need to adopt modern agricultural innovation
Inconsistency Government Policies
Nigeria’s policies on agricultural development from 1960 till date have been inconsistences. Various governments with good intentions in agriculture immediately they exist government offices.
The next government abandons the program to initiate another and vice versa. This has led to the failure of many government agricultural programs in Nigeria.
These abandoned agricultural programs have one or two connections with food production and to make the nation food sufficiency in food production.
High Incident of Pest and Disease
This is one of the major causes of food importation in Nigeria. Nigeria farmer has no good culture of pest and disease control.
Modern Innovations in this area are still lacking, pest and disease infestation have led to poor productivity of crops and animals in Nigeria.
Environmental Hazard
Major crops, poultry, and fish ponds have been washed away in Nigeria by flood. Every year there has been a continued occurrence of the ugly in the country, thousands of fish and crops are washed away continuously in major cities and villages in Nigeria.
Bush burning is another factors in Nigeria that lead to the destruction of crops and animals. Nigerian farmers have a culture of setting bushes on fire without proper control which leads to the destruction of crops and farmers’ properties, and some farmers are curious to start early farming and burn up their farms without proper control.
Climate and drought have also led to delays or damage of crops and animals in Nigeria, oil spillage in the south, and desertification encroachment are other factors that reduce crop productivity in Nigeria.
Frequently Ask Questions
Most imported food in Nigeria.
For the past two decades, Nigeria has struggled to meet the food demand of its citizens, and this has resulted in heavy food importation in the country.
The government has made copious efforts to encourage local production of essential commodities to meet the food needs of citizens, but the efforts of the government have yielded little or no result in a bid to boost the country’s food sufficiency.
Efforts have been made to restrict and increase tariffs on some foreign food to increase local agricultural food production.
The locally produced agricultural commodities have not helped much. Nigeria still imports certain foods, some of the most imported foods in Nigeria are
S\no Food imported
1 boiler
2 Cereals
3 Sugars and sugar confectionery
4 Fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatics invertebrates
5 malt, starches, and starch by-products, wheat gluten
6 Dairy products, eggs, honey, edible products
7 Animal, vegetable fats and oils, cleavage products
8 Tanning, dyeing extracts, tannins, derivatives, pigments
9 Salt, earth stone, plaster, lime fertilizers
10 Tobacco and manufactures tobacco substitutes
11 vegetables, roots, and tubers crops
12 Coffee, tea, mate and spices
13 Edible fruits, nuts, peel of citrus fruit, melons
14 Vegetable, fruit, and nut food preparations
15 Bird skin, feathers, artificial flowers, human hair
16 Meat, fish, and seafood preparations
17 live animals
18 Vegetable plaiting materials, vegetable products
19 Beverages, spirits, and vinegar
List of agricultural products imported in Nigeria
The astronomic increase in Nigeria’s population, land tenure system, and wide practice of intensive substance farming in Nigeria have made farming and food-producing companies unable to cultivate and produce food in sufficient quantities.
This has made many agricultural companies or food factories run out of raw materials for their food production resulting in food importation. Some of the agricultural products imported into Nigeria according to trading economics are:
S\no Nigeria imported agricultural produced
1 Paper and paperboard, articles of pulp, paper, and board
2 Machinery,
3 Cereals, boilers
4 Organic chemicals
5 Sugars and sugar confectionery
6 Fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatics invertebrates
7 malt, starches, and starch by-products, wheat gluten
8 Inorganic chemicals, precious metal compounds, isotope
9 Dairy products, eggs, honey, edible products
10 Animal, vegetable fats and oils, cleavage products
11 Tanning, dyeing extracts, tannins, derivatives, pigments
12 Salt, earth stone, plaster, lime fertilizers
13 Tobacco and manufactures tobacco substitutes
14 vegetables, roots, and tubers crops
15 Edible fruits, nuts, peel of citrus fruit, melons
16 Vegetable, fruit, nut food preparations
17 Bird skin, feathers, artificial flowers, human hair
18 Meat, fish, and seafood preparations
19 live animals
20 Vegetable plaiting materials, vegetable products
21 Fertilizers
22 Tanning, dyeing extracts, tannins, derivatives, pigments
23 Beverages, spirits and vinegar
24 Furniture, lighting signs, prefabricated buildings
25 Other made textile articles, sets, worn clothing
26 Pulp of wood, fibrous cellulosic material, waste
27 Coffee, tea, mate, and spices
28 Albuminoids, modified starches, glues, enzymes
29 Articles of leather, animal gut, harness, travel goods
30 Residues, wastes of the food industry, animal fodder
31 Live trees, plants, bulbs, roots, cut flowers
Nigeria’s agricultural export crops
Although Nigeria is a consumer economy that relies heavily on imports. However, the country still exports some agricultural commodities. Some of the exported agricultural commodities to other countries are
S/NO Nigeria Export Commodities
1 Cashew nuts
2 YAM
3 CASSAVA
4 Sesamum seeds
5 Cocoa and Cocoa beans
6 Ginger
7 Natural Cocoa Butter
8 Shrimps/ Crayfish
9 Kolanut
Why does Nigeria need to import food?
Food is the major source of energy for human man and animals. Food must be available in quality and quantity to avoid food insecurity. Some of the reason Nigeria need to import food are:
- Insecurity: due to the current insecurity bedeviling the country, it is paramount the country should import food to prevent food insecurity.
- Population increased: Nigeria’s population is estimated to be above a 200million people, in numbers of people 75% are farmers but subsistence farmers producing food for family consumption and little for sale.
- High cost of raw materials: the cost of raw materials in Nigeria coupled with the high cost of electricity bills in Nigeria is astronomically high compared to the cost of importing that very commodity.
- high cost of labor: the scarcity of labor coupled with the high cost of pay labor is very high compared to the cost of importing food commodities.
- Inadequate raw materials: most raw materials used in producing food commodities in Nigeria are imported. The locally produced raw materials are grossly inadequate. Therefore instead of paying tariffs for raw materials and also incurring the cost of production, it is better to import the already-produced food instead.
In conclusion
Nigeria’s food production level cannot sustain the citizens, so it is expedient that a holistic approach is put in place to encourage more people to go into commercial food production.
The effort of the government toward boosting food products needs to be increased. Some of the causes of food importation in Nigeria as discussed above are: Environmental hazards, Poor Pricing System, Inadequate Capital, Inadequate Storage Facilities, and Poor Extension Service