FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: AN ENHANCER TO WOMEN CONTRIBUTIONS TO FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA

Food security has become an issue of global concern in the recent time. Nigeria, with her huge endowed natural and human resources is not spared. The country also faces a looming food security crisis with a growing population that is increasingly dependent on imported foods. The once dominant subsistenceoriented farm economy is at risk of gradual marginalisation. Insecure land tenure, scarcity of funds and credit, labour scarcity despite overall high unemployment and stagnant technology have crippled its further development. Studies of food security and the right to food both offer important starting points in tackling the production, access and consumption of food; they do not provide routes for challenging and changing the gender-inequitable food systems. This study, therefore, examined Food sovereignty and how it could enhance the role of women in food security in Nigeria. The diffusion theory provides the conceptual framework for this study. The design is descriptive in nature and a secondary source was used to elicit information for the study. Keywords: Food sovereignty, Food and food security, economic development, agricultur