Sustainable Solutions to Food Insecurity in Nigeria: Perspectives on Irrigation, Crop-Water Productivity, and Antecedents

Improving living standards by enhancing agricultural productivity is mandatory to resolve Nigeria’s socioeconomic problems as more than 50% of the country’s population is dependent on agriculture for a living. Irrigation might offer huge potential in Nigerian agriculture, owing to the country’s vast water resources. This review seeks to provide an overview of Nigeria’s poverty and food insecurity situation and also proposes a long-term solution based on irrigated agriculture. This investigation utilized data from the past 20 years from more than 100 studies on food security, irrigation, and crop-water productivity between 2000 and 2020. The results elucidated that 92% of the evaluated studies opined that improvements in irrigation schemes enhanced the living standards of farming communities, reduced poverty, and improved food security status. Maintaining the current rise in the agriculture sector and its substantial contribution to poverty reduction seems to be indispensable in enhancing agricultural productivity. Therefore, agriculture equipped with better irrigation facilities is necessary for achieving the desired agricultural productivity. It is also crucial to increase the quality and efficacy of social services at all agrarian levels. In summary, enhancing food security, increasing irrigation efficiency, and crop-water productivity by improvement in social participation, facilitation of technical training, research and development promotion, intensification of governance, and public-sector management are of utmost importance for Nigeria. Appropriate access to high-quality marketing opportunities and the adoption of contemporary agricultural technologies would be key to the next level of success.