Food-Deficit Areas of Nigeria

Bibliographic Data

ID4486888
AuthorsReuben K Udo (corresponding author)
Year1971
Volume61
Issue3
Pages415
Publication date1971-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeographical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7428 • E-ISSN: 1931-0846
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/213436
OpenAlexW2016588344
LanguageEN
Citations received9

A LTHOUGH Nigeria is one of the few countries in West Africa that are self-sufficient in food production, a number of areas in the country do not produce enough food for the local population. Understandably, urban centers are basically food-deficit areas that must depend on the produce of the countryside, but it is intriguing to find rural districts that depend on other rural districts for a considerable part of their basic food requirements. Our curiosity increases when we realize that well over 70 percent of the inhabitants of such rural areas are classified as farmers (many of them part-time) and that the imported food crops can be grown, and are actually being grown, though not in sufficient quantities. The food situation in such places is sometimes so bad that famine results at certain times of the year, and in consequence many people are obliged to migrate. Indeed, the deficit areas of the eastern states were the worst hit by food shortage during the Nigerian civil war, and it appears that the sudden collapse of the rebel government in Biafra followed the loss a few weeks earlier of the districts that supplied basic foods to the encircled rebel territory, which by December, 1969, consisted primarily of food-deficit areas. The present study examines, among other things, the reasons why the deficit areas do not produce enough food, their present economy, and the means of payment for food imports. It is essential to point out here that there is no reason why a food-deficit rural area should not have a healthy or even a boom economy. A city by virtue of its specialized functions and the services it provides is in a position to pay for the food it imports; the same should be true of a rural district that specializes in the production of one or two cash crops. This in effect is what we find in some food-deficit areas such as the cocoa belt and the Kano groundnut belt. But not all food-deficit areas in Nigeria have a specialized economy, and it is the unspecialized areas that present the most serious problems, since they experience difficulty in paying for the food they must bring in. Nine food-deficit areas have been identified: (1) the congested and soilimpoverished districts of Orlu, Awka, eastern Onitsha, eastern Owerri, Udi, and Okigwi, in the East Central State; (2) the congested districts of Abak, Ikot Ekpene, and parts of Uyo in the South-eastern State; (3) the Sokoto

Economics · Geography · Socioeconomics · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations

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