Abstract
Nigeria has one of the highest population growth rates in the world resulting to rapid urbanization and an enormous increase in the population leaving rural areas and now living in urban centres. In spite of the increased emphasis on rural development, rural-urban migration has persisted mainly due to the farmerherder conflict situation, poverty, lack of job opportunities, insecurity and gross inadequacy of social infrastructures in the rural areas. This mass migration and other factors have put Nigeria in an emergency food and nutrition insecure situation. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was already an existing gap in the Nigerian food system, which led to the importation of food items to augment local production in order to meet local demand. However, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic undermined efforts to achieve SDG 2 as the country witnessed not only a major disruption to food supply chains in the wake of lockdowns and movement restrictions triggered by the global health crisis, but also a major economic slowdown. The commerce, service, and agricultural sectors were the hardest hit by the spread of the virus and the effects are different along the rural-urban continuum. The vacuum created by the migration of people from the rural to urban areas led to reduction of farm yields, while the urban areas were particularly affected in terms of food supply from rural areas as a result of movement restrictions made during the height of the pandemic. More urbanised areas may be harder hit than remote rural areas if connectivity remains broken down, as most food crops are produced in the rural and semi-rural areas. This paper recommends strategies and policies aimed at reducing poverty, food insecurity and inequality across the urban-rural continuum through agricultural development. This will assist in addressing the adverse drivers of migration with particular focus on improving the social and economic conditions of rural areas.
 Key words: agricultural development, COVID-19, food security, rural-urban migration
Highlights
Agriculture is the bedrock of the Nigerian economy, providing the main source of livelihood for the majority of the rural populace (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2019)
Agricultural development in rural areas in Nigeria is constrained by a couple of factors such as the use of crude tools, limited financial and technical support, poor transportation network, inadequate land due to land tenure system, problems of pests and diseases, lack of storage and processing facilities, inadequate agricultural education and extension services, negative attitude of people towards farming due to the low reward associated with it, and rural-urban migration, among others (Akanbi and Akinyoade, 2014; Udemezue, 2019)
The challenges posed by the pandemic have once again emphasized the importance of the long-running debate in Nigeria regarding food security
Summary
Agriculture is the bedrock of the Nigerian economy, providing the main source of livelihood for the majority of the rural populace (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2019). The mass migration of people especially the youths from rural to urban areas has negative implications for agricultural productivity in rural Nigeria (FAO et al, 2018).
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