Food Security, Institutional Framework and Technology: Examining the Nexus in Nigeria Using ARDL Approach

Growth in agricultural science and technology is deemed essential for in-creasing agricultural output; reduce the vulnerability of rural poverty and in turn, food security. Food security and growth in agricultural output depends on technological usages, which enhances the pro-ductive capacity of the agricultural sector. The indicators of food security utilised in this study in-clude: dietary energy supply, average value of food production, prevalence of food inadequacy, among others.

In this paper, we examined the level of technology and how investment in the agriculture and technology can improve technical know-how in Nigeria with a view to achieving food security.

We carried out the analysis on how investment in technology and institutional framework can improve the level of food availability (a key component of food security) in Nigeria using econ-ometric technique based on Autoregressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) framework.

The results showed, inter alia, that in Nigeria, there is a high level of food insecurity as a result of low attention on food production occasioned by the pervasive influence of oil that become the major export product.

It was noted that the availability of arable land was one of the major factors to increase food production to solve the challenge of food insecurity. Thus, the efforts of reducing the rate of food insecurity are essential in this regards. This can also be achieved, among others, by active interactions between government and farmers, to make contribution to important planning issues that relate to food production in the country and above all, social protection policies should be geared or channelled to agricultural sector to protect farmers who are vulnerable to shocks and avert risks associated with agriculture.