Women are vital to the food system in Nigeria, both as primary food producers and as primary caretakers of the household. They are major actors in agricultural production, processing, and utilization. Many of the gender issues exacerbated by the pandemic are pre-existing gender inequalities. The study explored the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural women in the food system in Nigeria. Nigerian women in agriculture bear the disproportionate brunt of shock as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens existing structural economic, social, and technological inequalities. Rural women were, on average, less likely to lose employment due to COVID-19 lockdown than men, possibly because rural women were more likely to find themselves in informal employment in agriculture before the crisis hit. Women in the food system in rural Nigeria do not also have public voice on economic, health, political, social or cultural issues. Governments at the national,, state, and local levels should therefore adopt policies and strategies that address the needs and aspirations of rural women in the food system in order to mitigate the COVID-19-related effects on the food system in Nigeria.
TopIntroduction
COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, first broke out in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and has rapidly spread across the globe, threatening fundamental activities like agriculture and food systems; and endangering all those whose livelihood depends on it. The index case of Covid-19 in Nigeria was announced on 27 February 2020, which led to the enforcement of a two-week lockdown on 30 March 2020 for three very busy commercial regions of the country, namely Ogun State, Lagos State, and the Federal Capital Abuja, following the advice offered to the Nigerian presidency by the National Centre for Disease Control (Kalu, 2020). The experience since then has shown negative effects not only on the socioeconomic conditions but also on agriculture, food security and dietary intake (Obayelu et al., 2021). Major disruptions to food supply chains in the wake of COVID-19 lockdown measures affected the availability, pricing, and quality of food (Barrett, 2020). For instance, the closure of hotels, restaurants and other food processing outlets led to a sharp decline in demand for perishable foods like eggs, dairy products, roots and tubers, fruits and vegetables (Terazono and Munshi, 2020).
The impacts of large-scale shocks and disasters are by no means gender-neutral, of which COVID-19 is no exception. Nigerian women in agriculture bear disproportionate brunt as the COVID-19 pandemic worsens existing structural economic, social and technological inequalities (Meem, 2021). Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria was faced with reduced incomes, rising poverty incidence, disrupted supply chains, chronic and acute hunger due to farmer-herder conflicts, socio-economic conditions, climate change and pest infestations, among others. COVID-19 impacts have led to severe and widespread increases in global food insecurity, affecting vulnerable households in almost every country, with impacts expected to continue through 2021, into 2022, and possibly beyond as the Delta variant continues its spread (World Bank, 2021a).
Incidence of severe food insecurity has been on a steady increase in Nigeria (Figure 1). About four out of 10 individuals in Nigeria have real per capita expenditures below 137,430 Naira per year, representing over 82.9 million Nigerians who are considered poor by national standards (NBS, 2020). Furthermore, Nigeria has a serious level of hunger with the Global Hunger Index diminishing from 29.2 in 2020 to 28.3 in 2021, which ranks the country 98th out of 107 countries and 103rd out of 116 countries 2020 and 2021, respectively. The country witnessed an upsurge in during the heat of the first wave of covid-19 (March-May 2020) with about 5.1 million Nigerians being food insecure amid armed conflicts, COVID-19 effects and climate change.