Neoliberal reform and food security in ebonyi state, 1999 -2013

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></p><p><strong>1.1 Background of the Study</strong></p><p>This study set out to investigate the impact of neoliberal reform on food security in Ebonyi State, between 1999 and 2013. Neoliberal reform, a theory of political and economic practices was developed in the late 1970s. As a policy objective, the liberalization and deregulation of the exchange control regime was designed to facilitate and enhance trading activities. Items on the import prohibition list have over time been drastically reduced, with government opting to utilize tariff structures to protect end-user product pricing of local industries and discourage frivolous imports. Nigeria’s real first move towards large scale deregulation of the economy started with SAP in 1986 and this has been subsequently upheld and reinforced by successive regimes. Ebonyi State, being one of the states in Nigeria is not left out in this reform process. The study however, focused on Ebonyi State, which is in the south-east zone of Nigeria. The state is made up of 13 local government areas with the capital in Abakaliki. It is located on latitude 6015’N and longitude 8005’E on the globe and it shares boundaries with Cross River, Abia, Enugu and Benue States in the east, south, west and north respectively. Its total land area is 5,530km (Wikipedia, 2012). It also shares boarder with Imo State at Ivo L.G.A. According to NBS (2006) the population of the area is 2,173,501 made up of 1,132,517 males and 1,040,984 females. Ebonyi State is an agrarian state with the majority of the populace involved in one form of agricultural production or the other mainly at a small scale. The crops produced in the area include: rice, yam, cassava, cocoyam, vegetables and others. Apart from the production of crops, rearing of animals especially the small ruminants (sheep and goat) as well as Muturu cattle and fishing are also practiced by the people. The pattern of agricultural production is mainly defined by the influence of the annual weather regime of the area based on two distinct seasons: the dry and the rainy seasons. The dry season starts around November and ends around March while the rainy season starts in April and ends in October with the average annual rainfall at about 134 mm (EBADEP, 2011).</p> <br><p></p>