Nigeria

As policymakers and development practitioners aim to boost adoption of new technologies to promote sustainable agricultural development, they are increasingly turning to private sector companies for help. These companies can often provide marketing and financial incentives that the public sector cannot, making them an important potential pathway to reach farmers and increase their use of new technologies.

Humanitarian agencies around the world face a never-ending race against time to save lives in places where conflicts, extreme weather, and other shocks lead to collapsing economies, leaving populations facing hunger and other forms of food insecurity.

From 2010-2020, Nigeria experienced a sharp rise in violence propagated by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the northeast region and escalating inter-group conflict between farmers and Fulani pastoralists in the north-central region. Boko Haram’s violent attacks led to states of emergency in both 2011 and 2013; and while that group has dominated the news, conflicts between Fulani pastoralists and settled agricultural communities are often more deadly.

Creating opportunities to more effectively link farmers in Africa south of the Sahara with local, regional, and global markets has become a key development focus in recent years. However, questions remain about the impacts that increased agricultural commercialization may have on household food consumption and food and nutrition security. A recent article in Food Security examines such impacts in Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe and finds both positive and negative trade-offs to increased market integration.

Africa south of the Sahara has continued to face alarmingly high levels of acute food insecurity in 2024, according to the Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) Mid-Year Update. This includes populations in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe) food insecurity in Sudan, South Sudan, and Mali, with famine plausible in some areas of Sudan.

As in previous years and reported in the April release of the GRFC, conflict, extreme weather events, economic shocks, and forced displacement of large populations have driven worsening food and nutrition security outcomes across the continent.