At the end of the Council of Ministers on Thursday, January 08, 2024, the Nigerian government announced that the country's agricultural production was in deficit of 39% in 2023 in 2023 compared to the previous year. This deficit affects 5,343 villages out of the 13,468 agricultural villages in the country

A fodder deficit of 18,471,309 tons of dry matter, representing 53.68% of the needs of the national livestock, has been recorded at the pastoral level. According to the government, these cereal and fodder deficits have “been caused mainly by droughts, attacks by crop enemies, floods, the decline in soil fertility and the effects of insecurity in certain large-scale production areas”

Thus, the government plans to accelerate the implementation of the “Food Sovereignty Initiative through the intensification of animal production and irrigated crops” for 2023-2024 in order to better deal with these deficits.