Food Prices and the Challenge of Food Security in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

High food prices are seen as synonymous with food insecurity. This is because it defiles one of the four cardinals of food security; food accessibility. To ensure the attainment of food security which is a common denominator in the United Nation’s MDGs and SDG as eradication of hunger, food must be economically accessible by all and sundry. Bayelsa State has been bedevilled by exorbitant food prices as confirmed by NBS data released in March 2020 which placed the state as having the highest cost in 15 out of 43 food items reviewed. This placed it as the state where food is most expensive in the federation. This study employing the tool purposive structured interview and schedule sought the view of 400 traders from five markets in the state capital, Yenagoa. Also 15 food truck drivers were interviewed. Using frequencies and percentages, the result showed that the key contributors to high food prices in the state are high dependence on food importation from within and outside the nation as the natives are not farmers, activities of touts, oil pollution, absence of large mechanized farms in the state, poor road network among others. The study strongly suggests the harmonisation of taskforce collecting agencies to eradicate multiple levies that are currently ongoing. It also suggested improved investment in agriculture by both public and private sectors with comparative advantage in mind to ensure that the potentials of the state in agriculture are adequately harnessed.

Climate change perception and adaptation among farmers in coastal communities of Bayelsa State, Nigeria: a photovoice study

“…A majority of the farmers were still in their middle and actively productive years. The result agrees with studies (Anugwa and Agwu, 2018; Ochuba and Cookey, 2020) that have documented that women in Bayelsa State are more involved in food crop farming, processing and marketing of artisanal fisheries than their male counterparts; noting that historically, Ijaw men are not farmers by nature.…”

“…The farmers’ experience of both flooding and drought highlights the extremes of weather events that are consequences of climate change (Weber, 2010). As noted by Ochuba and Cookey (2020), the most common natural/climate change-related disaster in Nigeria coastal communities is flooding (Ochuba and Cookey, 2020). However, at the time of conducting this study, farmers indicated high temperatures and drought as severe climate change consequences being experienced presently, and for them, this was a dilemma as they have been most challenged by flooding up till the last production season and have had to change their planting times, but now, the rains have not come as expected.…”