An Exploration of Human-Environmental Impact on Food Security in Nigeria

OLADITI Abiodun Akinola

 

Review I Published March,2019

 

Journal of Agricultural Science and Food Technology  Vol. 5 (1), pp.10-14.

 

ABSTRACT

 

The importance of food as an integral part of human existence cannot be over-emphasized. However, it is disheartening to view the situation of food security globally. In the case of the African region, Nigeria in particular has been forced to rely heavily on food imports to prevent starvation. The rational use of environmental resources to cater to the present generation without necessarily jeopardizing the future generation is pertinent. Human beings have consciously and unconsciously overstretched the environment for their own benefit but to the detriment of the environment, the resultant effect of which is incessant food insecurity. This paper explores human-environmental impact (HEI) on food security in Nigeria. Among others, it was found out that the food situation in Nigeria is appalling with unfriendly statistics of food insecurity; multidimensional factors ranging from natural, human-induced, social, economic, technological, political, and socio-cultural, such as government policies, indiscriminate use of environmental resources; loss of biodiversity and extinction of crop biodiversity leading to reduction of traditional food crops; conflicts, terrorism, corruption, and environmental degradation; the overuse of natural resources in the environment; over-dependence on primary agricultural system degrading low fertility soils even further. Hence, necessary policies should be put in place towards the use of the environment; pollution of all forms, illicit bush burning, illegal mining, as well as bunkering leading to oil spillage should be jettisoned by all as well as loss of biodiversity and extinction resulting from crude agricultural practices and indiscriminate use of bio-technology. Again, sociological and demographical factors like conflicts, terrorism, environmental degradation, corruption, civil insecurity among others that are of grave impact on food production should be reduced to the barest minimum.

KeyWords: Human-environmental impact, Food security, Exploration, Nigeria.

 

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