Agricultural transformation, youth participation and food security in Nigeria

This study examines how the agricultural transformation will stimulate youth participation, thereby leading to food security in Nigeria. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption, insurance and health care provision was used as transformation variables. The study applied the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) model on the data sourced from Wave 4 (2018/2019) of the Living Standard Measurement Study-Integrated survey on agriculture (LSMS-ISA). The result showed that; agricultural transformation using ICT, insurance, and health care provision is positive and statistically significant in explaining the level of food security in Nigeria. Therefore, the study concludes that the transformation of Nigerian agriculture should focus on the provision of household's safety net programmes such as insurance. Also, there is a need for the enhancement of households' access to mechanisation services, access to quality and affordability of agricultural input materials to increase productivity, thereby leading to food security. Keywords: agriculture; food security; ICT adoption; insurance; youth