Key Points
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Experts stress innovation is key for food crisis.
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Innovation could transform Nigeria’s struggling agricultural sector.
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New technology may ease Nigeria’s food crisis pressures.
Experts are calling for quick, creative solutions to rebuild Nigeria’s agro-food systems because the country’s hunger crisis is getting worse. The Intergenerational Rescue Foundation (IRF) and the University of Lagos’ Department of Social Work put on the Agroween ’25: Food, Agriculture, and Innovation Festival.
The festival brought together community leaders, researchers, policymakers, and agritech experts to talk about new ways to make food security and agriculture more sustainable. Experts say that Nigeria’s food system is weak, relies heavily on imports, and is vulnerable to climate shocks, low technology adoption, and poor policy coordination.
To solve Nigeria’s food crisis, new ideas are needed
Bimbola Aghahowa, COO of IRF, said that about 25.6 percent of Nigerians, or about 50 million people, are hungry. This is much higher than the global average of 9.2 percent. She said that Lagos and the north are the worst off, with hunger rates of 30% and 50%, respectively.
Aghahowa told stakeholders to stop blaming parents for their family’s poverty and instead focus on the structural failures and gaps in governance that are causing the problem. She showed off IRF’s “Food Not for Sale” model, which sees food as a human right instead of a product and encourages community-driven redistribution and food banks.
Experts support policies that promote sustainable farming
Professor Vide Adedayo from UNILAG said that Nigeria is a “hunger hotspot” because half of the food that is grown there goes to waste every year. She called for new ideas throughout the food chain, combining old farming methods like agroforestry, crop rotation, composting, and water harvesting with new technology to make things more sustainable.
Adedayo stressed how important it is for policies to be in line with each other and for frameworks like the Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy to be put into action. She suggested bringing back programs like Operation Feed the Nation to fight food insecurity caused by urbanisation.
It’s important for young people to be involved in their communities
Professor Desmond Majekodunmi, an expert on the environment, said that soil depletion and climate change are to blame for food insecurity. He told young Nigerians to get into farming because it is good for their health and helps them grow food.
Prof. Samuel Adejoh from UNILAG talked about how social work can bring people together, change their behaviour, and help new ideas in food security. Abiodun Oladapo, the founder of Comtrade Group, said that rising insecurity and food prices, which have gone from less than N2,000 to almost N100,000, are making farmers less likely to work and hurting rural economies.
Panellists also stressed the need to improve agricultural education in schools by teaching practical farming skills, medicinal plants, and how to solve local problems. Experts agreed that Nigeria’s growing food crisis needs new ideas, young people to get involved, and policies that work together to make sure that development is sustainable.
