Report: Climate change, insecurity threatening Nigeria’s food supply

Nigeria’s agricultural sector is facing a deepening crisis due to climate change and rising insecurity, according to a report released on Wednesday by SBM Intelligence.

The report highlights how these two challenges are working together to reduce food production, increase hunger, and threaten national stability.

“Nigeria’s agricultural sector—long a cornerstone of its economy and the largest employer of its population—is facing an escalating crisis,” the report stated.

“These two mutually reinforcing threats are undermining the country’s agricultural productivity and plunging millions into hunger.”

For many years, Nigeria’s different climate zones supported a wide range of crops. But changing weather patterns are disrupting this balance.

The report noted that rain-fed agriculture, which most Nigerian farmers depend on, is being hit by erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, pest outbreaks, and extreme weather events like floods and droughts.

Staple crops like maize, rice, and cassava are becoming harder to grow. In Borno state, the report said recent floods destroyed farmlands, worsened displacement caused by insurgency, and triggered health problems. “This exemplifies how climate events are reinforcing humanitarian emergencies and security threats,” the report said.

Insecurity is another major reason why farmers are abandoning their land. According to the report, armed groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP in the northeast, as well as bandits in the northwest, are making farming dangerous. In the Middle Belt, farmer-herder clashes over land and resources have become more violent. These problems have grown into organised crime, involving kidnapping, extortion, and deliberate destruction of crops.

SBM Intelligence said that over 2.2 million people have been displaced, including 1.3 million in the Northcentral and Northwest regions alone as of April 2024.

States like Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau are the main hotspots for farmer-herder violence, while Kaduna, Katsina, and Zamfara are hit hard by banditry.

Insecurity is also spreading south to previously peaceful states like Edo, Ondo, and Oyo, as pastoralists move southward due to desertification, leading to more conflict over farmland.

These issues have worsened food inflation, which reached 35.41 percent in January 2024. “This surge in food prices further marginalises vulnerable populations and reflects the broader global trend of climate and conflict-induced food insecurity,” the report said.

Efforts to solve the crisis have fallen short. The report noted that the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) has struggled due to “corruption, underfunding, and political resistance”. Military interventions have not led to lasting improvements either.

SBM Intelligence called for a complete rethink of Nigeria’s approach to food security. It recommends stronger climate adaptation strategies, better conflict resolution, reforms in the security sector, and more investment in food systems like storage and transportation. Improved governance and accountability are also key.

“Without these urgent interventions,” the report warned, “Nigeria faces a deepening food crisis, marked by widespread hunger, economic hardship, and growing instability.”