Agricultural neglect driving food and job crises in Nigeria, economists warn
New research presented in Lagos says the country’s neglect of agriculture is fuelling unemployment, food insecurity, and economic dependence.
Nigeria is losing millions of potential jobs by refusing to treat agriculture as the economic engine it should be, according to new research unveiled in Lagos by leading economists and development experts. Their message was blunt: Nigeria’s unemployment crisis and its food crisis come from the same failing sector, and the country is running out of time to fix it.
The warning was delivered at the public presentation of How Africa Eats: Trade, Food Security and Climate Risks, a new book by trade and development specialist Professor David Luke. Scholars at the event argued that Nigeria is trapped in an avoidable cycle of food importation, job losses, and policy inconsistency, even though agriculture remains the country’s natural comparative advantage and one of the world’s most labour-absorbing sectors.
The research lays out a stark picture. While Nigeria continues to import what it can grow, it also exports jobs that could be created through farming, processing, logistics, mechanisation services, input supply, and agro-industrial production. The experts noted that modern agriculture now drives employment far beyond the farm itself, but Nigeria’s weak institutions, chronic underinvestment, and insecurity in farming communities have prevented the sector from taking off.
Professor Babatunde Adeoye of the University of Lagos stressed that the continent’s food insecurity is the predictable result of underinvestment. He linked Nigeria’s food crisis directly to unemployment, arguing that an agricultural system starved of funding, protection, and security drains jobs across multiple sectors.
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He warned that expecting external rescue is unrealistic, saying the region must “accept that its fate lies in its own hands.” Adeoye also criticised the exploitative farm-gate pricing structure, explaining that multiple layers of intermediaries “squeeze farmers out of fair earnings,” weakening rural income and discouraging production.
Professor Luke reinforced the gravity of the situation, highlighting that over 200 million Africans face food deprivation even as governments treat the crisis with alarming normalcy. He said the scale of hunger on the continent “should not be seen as normal in any society.” He noted that African producers struggle to compete with heavily subsidised agricultural exports from other regions. This imbalance keeps local markets vulnerable and dependent, leaving Nigeria, along with 41 other African countries, as a net food importer, a position that erodes local industry and employment.
Another expert, Professor Olawale Ogunkola, also of the University of Lagos, drew attention to the policy incoherence that continues to undermine Nigeria’s agricultural potential. He argued that ministries and agencies often pursue isolated budget lines rather than national goals, and warned that without consistency, collaboration, and accountability, agriculture will remain trapped in stagnation.
Addressing fears about mechanisation, he dismissed claims that technology displaces workers, insisting that it instead creates new, skilled roles that could attract younger Nigerians back to the sector. He added that the real threat is not mechanisation but the absence of proper monitoring and implementation within agricultural institutions.
Speaking on the broader implications for economic transformation, Professor Lennart Oestergaard of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) noted that agriculture offers a path to both decent work and diversification. He urged policymakers to build competitive industries capable of exporting finished goods, not just raw commodities.
Oestergaard also criticised European agricultural subsidies, which he said distort global markets and undermine the competitiveness of producers in countries like Nigeria, making it even harder for local farmers to scale.
Across all viewpoints, the message converged on one point: Nigeria’s agricultural decline is not inevitable. With coherent policies, improved security, targeted investment, and accountability, the country could transform agriculture into a national job engine. Without such action, experts warn, Nigeria will continue to import food, export jobs, and deepen the unemployment and food insecurity that now define its economic landscape.
