Food Import Demand and Domestic Food Production in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper aimed to determine the factors that drive food import demand in Nigeria, using time series data for the period 1981-2019. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach was employed to assess the short run and long run impact of some selected variables. Findings from the study suggest that in the short run, food import demand decreases with the increase of domestic food production, pointing to its substituting role in the economy. Income, import price and trade openness are also significant factors that contribute to the increasing demand for imported food in Nigeria. Also the positive impact of foreign exchange reserve in explaining food import demand underscores the role of the reserve in financing food import. It is concluded that policies that target sustained increase in domestic food production rather than food import ban, would be more effective in tackling the surge in food import demand in Nigeria.