Communicating Agricultural Policies Using The Media For Food Sufficiency In Nigeria

Abstract

In the last three decades, 1976-2016, Nigeria and Nigerians have been grappling with the problem of food sufficiency for its teeming population. In the process, several policies and programmes have been formulated albeit poorly implemented. The poor implementation of agricultural policies, it could be stated without equivocation, has been traced to the lack of understanding of the concepts, poor awareness creation and sensitization before and during policy initiation and implementation. The problem specifically is said to be the lack of sustained media awareness cultivation mainly to influence people attitude and imbibe the culture of sufficiency that would have effectively been propagated by the media. This paper seeks to highlight how a sustained and aggressive media sensitization and dissemination can influence citizens' attitudes towards any given programme. Two theories of media influence and dependency models are used to test the hypothesis. The research, it is hoped, will inculcate in the citizen the enduring habit of adapting the norms propagated in the media.

Keywords: Sensitization, information, food security, food processing, food preservation, food sufficiency.