Nigeria is known for its vast potential for food availability, dynamic agricultural sector, and large population. However, millions of Nigerians still go to bed hungry. By early 2024, over 100 million Nigerians were food insecure, with a staggering 18.6 million facing severe hunger and over 43 million using desperate measures like skipping meals or selling assets to get by. These numbers signal that food system interventions are not keeping pace with deepening vulnerabilities. What Nigeria’s food system needs isn’t more effort but more coherence, more collaboration, and more adaptive learning.
Nigeria’s food policies, though well-meaning, are often implemented in parallel. Agriculture might prioritise boosting yields, while the Ministry of Health focuses on malnutrition, and trade policies may inadvertently encourage unhealthy imports. The result is policy incoherence, duplicated programmes, donor fatigue, and ultimately, limited impact on the ground.
While Nigeria has invested in agricultural transformation initiatives, local vegetable markets still struggle with poor hygiene standards and food safety enforcement, increasing the spread of foodborne illnesses. Farmers may bring in baskets of fresh tomatoes, vegetables, or fruits, but without cold storage or proper transport, much of it spoils before it even reaches buyers. Similarly, some well-intended nutrition programmes are run without considering climate change or offering women and youth the financial tools they need to participate.
Our food system is more than farms and farm inputs. It includes everything from the land we cultivate and how we grow and process food to how it’s sold, consumed, and even wasted. A systems approach recognises these interconnections. It asks: What’s the point of increasing yields if food can’t get to market in good condition? Why design nutrition programmes without factoring in climate resilience or gender equity? How can school feeding programmes thrive if agriculture, education, and health are not planned together? When policies don’t speak to one another, we lose effectiveness, and communities suffer.
At this pivotal moment when food insecurity is deepening, Sahel Consulting, in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, is rolling out a sensitisation and awareness campaign on agriculture, food and nutrition systems transformation to change the narrative. This campaign, under GIZ’s Transformation of Agriculture and Food Systems (TAFS) initiative, is bringing together MDAs relevant to food systems to shift from working in silos to working in synergy—through joint planning, shared data, and adaptive learning.
Some key principles for driving systemic change are:
Break down silos through multi-sectoral coordination
Platforms such as the Office of the National Convenor on Food Systems Transformation and the Agricultural Sector Working Group (ASWG) must be empowered to drive joint planning and delivery.
Apply theories of change
By articulating clear cause-and-effect pathways and assumptions, MDAs and partners can anticipate trade-offs, focus on leverage points and adapt when outcomes diverge from plans.
Promote pooled financing and shared accountability.
MDAs with overlapping mandates should co-design programmes and align their budgets for greater efficiency and collective results.
Invest in reflective monitoring and data systems
Embed real-time learning mechanisms and shared indicators into programme implementation. The Nigerian Sub-National Food Systems Dashboard, developed by the Federal Government in collaboration with Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the Gates Foundation, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Advancing Nutrition, serves as a vital tool in this regard. It provides state-level data on food system components, enabling policymakers to make informed decisions.
Engage subnational governments and grassroots voices
National policies must be grounded in local realities. Farmers’ groups, women’s cooperatives, youth-led agribusinesses, and traditional leaders must help shape interventions that truly meet people’s needs.
The future of Nigeria’s food system cannot be fixed in isolation or by agriculture alone. It will require MDAs talking to each other, states learning from one another, donors aligning with national strategies, and every intervention being grounded in evidence.
Ultimately, the goal extends beyond food production; it’s about achieving environmental sustainability, improving nutrition outcomes, promoting equitable livelihoods, and strengthening national resilience against shocks, stresses, and vulnerabilities. It’s time to move from fragmentation to integration, from short-term fixes to systemic change.
Grace Omini is a Strategic Advisory Consultant at Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Limited.
