Grain stocking and storing in Benue State: An appraisal of the Federal Government of Nigeria's food grain storage policy

Abstract

Grain storage requirements in Nigeria are 5%, 10% and 85% of the total annual production at the Federal, State and on-farm levels, respectively. Storage at both Federal and State levels are geared towards some strategic targets — price stabilization, cushioning the bad effects of unforeseen circumstances, etc. The annual hunger period in Nigeria which is assuming some increasing magnitude casts a dark shadow on the implementation of the grain storage policy. This paper therefore appraises Nigeria's grain storage policy using Benue State as an example. Descriptive and inferential statistics are employed as analytical techniques. About 0.0033% and 0.0005% of the total grain production are stored at the Federal and State levels, respectively leading to over 99.9% storage volume at the on-farm level where fragile and clearly inefficient storage out-fits are in use. The food security in Nigeria is therefore in jeopardy. There is an urgent need to reallocate the grain distribution proportions in commensurate with the storage efficiency per level of storage. The implications of this key recommendation within the Nigerian economy are discussed.