CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background to the Study

The agricultural sector in Nigeria have little ammunition with to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Government of Nigeria is forced to balance the health of their citizens with economic stability and their own debt. After more than a decade of unprecedented economic growth, the world is facing another global economic recession. In the past week, Nigerian government have been introducing aid programmes to ease the economic pressure brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak and the inevitable economic downturn that will follow.

Controlling the spread of influenza to reduce the effects of infection on a population is an important mandate of public health sector and the government of any nation. The Nigeria private sector and the agricultural sector get affected. As public life shuts down, concerns over food supply are the latest scare. Market stability and availability of supplies are the backbone of a country’s GDP.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person. The virus that causes COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that was first identified during an investigation into an outbreak in Wahan China in late December 2019. COVID-19 is spreading from person to person in China and limited spread among close contacts has been detected in some countries outside China including Nigeria. There is presently no vaccine to protect against COVID-19 and there is no specific antiviral treatment for COVID-19.

Akinboyo (2008) defines Agriculture as the science of making use of the land to raise plants and animals. It is the simplification of nature’s food webs and the rechanneling of energy for human planting and animal consumption. It is not an overstatement to assert that the growth and development of any nation depend, to a large extent, on the development of agriculture. Agriculture has serve as an engine of growth in the Nigerian economy.

The contribution of the agricultural sector to any economy cannot be over emphasized when considering its employment potentials and financial impacts. Nigeria’s wide range of climate variations allows it to produce a variety of food and cash crops. The importance of agriculture to the economic development of Nigeria is enormous owing to the fact that agriculture was the main source of food and employment for a sizeable number of the people.

Although COVID-19 epidemic is primarily a public health crisis, experts are already voicing out their concerns that the virus could have a much broader impact on Nigeria and the Global economy, leading to worldwide socio-economic disruptions. Their stability is crucial to keep the system up and running. Individuals are being placed on quarantine or lockdown, as a result, the ability to carry out agricultural activities is limited.

This study, therefore, is posed to assess the impact of Infectious epidemic on agriculture and food security a case study of corona virus disease.

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