Frontiers of Agriculture and Food Technology

Full Length Research Paper

Food security and Food liberalization in Nigeria Agricultural trading system

Adebola K.* and Folorunsho Ayo

Department of Economics, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

E-mail: [email protected]

Accepted April 23, 2014

Abstract

It is a fact that the unilateral trade liberalization of 1986 did not produce any sustainable impact on the development of agriculture in Nigeria. It is however, not clear whether the Uruguay Round Agreements on Agriculture (URAA) and the optimism of the Doha Round and its Agenda (DRA) has done any better. Even then Nigeria’s external trade has been conducted within the framework of neutrality or open trade, consistent with the WTO provisions. This to a reasonable extent has engendered some sectoral as well as factoral effects. This paper investigates the effects of agricultural trade liberalization on food security in Nigeria. It is observed that in spite of the numerous policy measures to enhance food production, food demand has consistently outstripped supply with increasing number of people becoming more vulnerable. The paper proposed measures to mitigate the adverse effects of trade liberalization on domestic food security.