Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 32.1 Nigeria: GDP per capita by State and location of Kaita Village in Katsina State.
in the Sahel has become highly commodified, that food security for the poor is highly
market-dependent, and that food security and livelihood security are all but indistin-
guishable. As he shows, the vulnerability of households to food insecurity in Niger is
highly variable even within the same communities. There is growing inequality in the
distributionofproductiveassets.Inparticular,wealthierhouseholds(onequarterofthe
population)generate9to15timestheamountofrevenuecomparedtopoorerhouse-
holds,andtheypossess50 percentofthecultivatedlandandovertwo-thirdsoflivestock
assets(15).
Sincethe1970s —andinspiteoftheinsertionofvastoilwealth6—northernNigerian
agriculture seems to have changed little; indeed, the picture appears frighteningly, and
instantly,recognizable(Mortimore2010).Landscarcity,endemicpoverty,theannual
round of preharvest food scarcity, food price volatility, periodic bouts of asset liquida-
tionasfarmersdesperatelypurchasegrains,harvestluctuations,decliningfoodoutput,
andstagnantyields—allthesewoeswerelocatedonthelargercanvasofadeepening
commercializationofthefoodsector.heareaharvestedinKatsinaStatebetween1990
and2000revealsaseculardeclineforalmostallstaplefoodstufs;yieldsoverthesame
perioddidnotbudge—exceptforcowpeasmaize,whichfelldramatically,andcotton,
which increased. Significantly average annual staple prices revealed a slow downward
trendoverthesameperiod,suggesting—somethingtowhichI shallshortlyturn—that
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