Journal of Food Processing & Technology

The Role of Agriculture Contribution in Food Production

Capanoglu Esra^* Department of Food Technology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA
^*Correspondence: Capanoglu Esra, Department of Food Technology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA, Email:

Received: 04-Jul-2022, Manuscript No. JFPT-22-17747; Editor assigned: 07-Jul-2022, Pre QC No. JFPT-22-17747 (PQ); Reviewed: 21-Jul-2022, QC No. 21-Jul-2022; Revised: 28-Jul-2022, Manuscript No. JFPT-22-17747 (R); Published: 04-Aug-2022, DOI: 10.35248/2157-7110.22.13.943

Description

Humanity is having trouble keeping up with the rising global food demand. It will continue to be challenging to increase food production to feed the exploding global population because there are fewer arable lands, more expensive farm equipment due to inflation, fewer farmers have access to credit, food production competes with biofuel production for land, and rural urban migration, among other factors. The ideal way to speed up global population growth and increase food production in order to accomplish Sustainable Development Goal 2 (to ensure food security at all levels, enhance nutrition for everyone, and promote sustainable agriculture) by 2030.

Government and stakeholders at all levels have proposed a number of measures to enhance food production, one of which is based on the need to expand farmers' access to agricultural financing (credit) in order to boost productivity, while others place a greater emphasis on agricultural diversification. These are crucial since the agricultural sector employs more than half of the labour force and contributes considerably to the gross domestic product of developing nations, particularly in Africa Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Similar to this, agricultural accounts for a significant number of activities involved in producing food throughout Africa, particularly in Nigeria, where it accounts for around 80% of the entire industrial size. The remaining 20% is made up of livestock, forestry, and fishery. Despite its important function, despite its critical function, agriculture's contribution to Gross domestic product has decreased recently as a result of poor yields brought on by farmers' limited or restricted access to financing, which has led to low yields. Between 2013 and 2017, the sector's contributions to Gross domestic product decreased from 31% (113.64 billion USD to 78 billion USD). With over 50% of the population relying only on subsistence farming and poor productivity, low food production is one of the primary concerns in Africa that need immediate attention. At this point, it should be noted that the mass, demographics, and resource endowment of the many African nations vary. As a result, different countries have different agricultural potential in terms of supplying for human requirements. Food production is important because a decrease in food production results in a worsening of household livelihoods and food security.

The food economy is in charge of producing food, which includes all types of farm-level activities including processing, packing, transportation, distribution, and retailing. About 85 million people are employed by the food economy in Nigeria, where more than 75% of jobs are in agriculture, 65% of jobs are in local communities, and 20% of jobs are in food processing, marketing, and moving food outside of local areas. Food imports have increased as a result of Africa's declining food output. The cost of importing food was at roughly 35 billion United States Dollar (USD) by 2017, and it is predicted that this amount would rise to nearly 110 billion United States Dollar (USD) by 2025. In all, the continent makes up 60% of the estimated 600 million hectors acres of uncultivated arable land worldwide.

Due to a lack of funding and equipment, food production and cultivation are mostly done using subsistence methods, which require little technical expertise and a lot of labour. Due to low levels of agricultural productivity brought on by low levels of agricultural engagement, rising prices for machinery and other farm equipment due to inflation, as well as other internal factors like crises and conflicts and a lack of social protection to lessen the effects of climate change that have made agriculture unattractive for employment, the Nigerian agriculture sector, which contributed to Gross domestic product, has declined in recent decades.

Food imports have decreased from 481 billion in the second quarter of 2017 to 349.9 billion in the second quarter of 2018, but Nigeria still depends significantly on them. However, as food imports have gradually increased, as shown in the first and second quarters of 2018, there is a need to take action to curb this trend. Improving agricultural funding can help enhance local food production, which is necessary to reduce food imports. According to budgetary allocation, it has been noted that Nigerian agricultural finance has decreased.