Role of Staple Food Production in Ensuring Food Security in Nigeria

The study investigated the role of staple food production in ensuring food security. The study investigated role of staple food production in ensuring food security in Nigeria. The objectives of this study are to: determine the impact of staple food production on gross domestic product of crops in Nigeria, investigate the value of government guaranteed agricultural loan to farmers on agricultural production in Nigeria, and examine the value of food import bill on total value of import of Nigeria. The study employed time series data. Data is generated from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Bureau of statistics bulletin. The study employed the ordinary least square (OLS) of simple regression. The study conducted both econometric and statistical tests. The empirical results showed R2 value of 0.24,053 and 0.22 for models 1-3 respectively. The three models are rightly signed. The coefficient (β) of 0.1631 (model 1) showed that 100% increase in staple food production would lead to a 16.31% increase in gross domestic production of crops (GDPC). Since the computed t-value of 3.102765 falls outside the critical region of  0.0042, we reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternate hypothesis at 5% level of significance. The model 3 test showed that the total import bill (TIMB) was significantly sensitive to variation in the food import bill (β=30.7422). The result confirms that 30.7% of the variation in total import bill was accounted for by the food import bill. Based on the results, the study recommended that emphasis should be placed on one hand and ensuring food security (self-sufficiency) in general.