Nigeria Ranks 80th On Food Security Among 105 Countries

The Global Food Security Index, GFSI of the Economist Intelligence Unit has ranked Nigeria as the 80th among 105 countries with food affordability, availability and quality.

  The Index was disclosed at the Biosciences for Farming in Africa, B4FA Media training workshop on Plant Breeding and Genetics, currently taking place at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA, Ibadan.

 According to the Index, Nigeria recorded weak scores in the areas of “Public expenditure on agricultural research and development, 0.0; presence of food safety net programs, 0.0; gross domestic product per capita, 3.0; proportion of population under global poverty line, 9.6; food consumption as a share of household expenditure, 9.6 and protein quality, 12.8.” 

 Nigeria, according to the Index however, was scored more favourably in “sufficiency of supply, micronutrient availability, volatility of agricultural production, diet diversification, protein quality, agricultural import tariffs and gross domestic product per capita.”

 The 105 countries grouped as those with “Best environment”, Good environment” and “Moderate environment,” Nigeria was categorised among countries that “Need improvement.”

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