Examining the drivers of ecological footprint components: Is pursuing food security environmentally costly for Nigeria?
Amidst the fact that Nigeria’s ecological footprint exceeds its biocapacity by 58 percent, rapid population increase, and incessant farmers and herders conflict continue to pose a significant danger to the country’s food security drive. Motivated by this observation, this study attempts to examine w...
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| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Ecological Indicators |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24014663 |
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| author | Hephzibah Onyeje Obekpa Andrew Adewale Alola Adejo Moses Adejo Chukwuemeka Echebiri |
| author_facet | Hephzibah Onyeje Obekpa Andrew Adewale Alola Adejo Moses Adejo Chukwuemeka Echebiri |
| author_sort | Hephzibah Onyeje Obekpa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Amidst the fact that Nigeria’s ecological footprint exceeds its biocapacity by 58 percent, rapid population increase, and incessant farmers and herders conflict continue to pose a significant danger to the country’s food security drive. Motivated by this observation, this study attempts to examine whether the pursuit of food security agenda amidst population increase, and economic growth exhibits a significant impact on the country’s aggregate ecological footprint and footprints of built-up land, carbon, cropland, fishing grounds, forest products, and grazing land especially over the period 1981–2020. While the quantile regression method provides robustness to the main Kernel-based regularized least square approach, the Kernel-based regularized least square approach found that food production activities and geometric increase in food production, i.e., the square of food production, both increase the aggregate ecological footprint and footprints of built-up land, cropland, forest products. This revelation suggests serious environmental woe arising from the country’s attempt to improve food production. While the aggregate ecological footprint and its components, except for the fishing ground, experience a surge with an increase in population, economic growth promotes carbon, cropland, fishing ground, and grazing land footprints. The result of the investigation provides insight and measures for improving food security without necessarily increasing ecological pressure. The study suggests that policy measures that directly target recycling, preservation, and conservation of agricultural activities and products be encouraged to reduce the demand on the ecological components. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-fbc9fd646a594b859fdbec3cd4571081 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1470-160X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecological Indicators |
| spelling | doaj-art-fbc9fd646a594b859fdbec3cd45710812025-01-31T05:10:28ZengElsevierEcological Indicators1470-160X2025-01-01170113009Examining the drivers of ecological footprint components: Is pursuing food security environmentally costly for Nigeria?Hephzibah Onyeje Obekpa0Andrew Adewale Alola1Adejo Moses Adejo2Chukwuemeka Echebiri3Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Nigeria; Social Standards Node, Center for Innovation in Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards, Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue State, NigeriaCREDS-Centre for Research on Digitalization and Sustainability, University of Inland Norway, 2418 Elverum, Norway; Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Sciences, Nisantasi University, Istanbul, Turkey; Applied Science Research Center, Applied Science Private University, Amman, JordanDepartment of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, NigeriaDepartment of Organization, Leadership and Management, University of Inland Norway, Lillehammer Campus, Norway; Corresponding author at: Department of Organization, Leadership and Management, University of Inland Norway, Lillehammer Campus, Norway.Amidst the fact that Nigeria’s ecological footprint exceeds its biocapacity by 58 percent, rapid population increase, and incessant farmers and herders conflict continue to pose a significant danger to the country’s food security drive. Motivated by this observation, this study attempts to examine whether the pursuit of food security agenda amidst population increase, and economic growth exhibits a significant impact on the country’s aggregate ecological footprint and footprints of built-up land, carbon, cropland, fishing grounds, forest products, and grazing land especially over the period 1981–2020. While the quantile regression method provides robustness to the main Kernel-based regularized least square approach, the Kernel-based regularized least square approach found that food production activities and geometric increase in food production, i.e., the square of food production, both increase the aggregate ecological footprint and footprints of built-up land, cropland, forest products. This revelation suggests serious environmental woe arising from the country’s attempt to improve food production. While the aggregate ecological footprint and its components, except for the fishing ground, experience a surge with an increase in population, economic growth promotes carbon, cropland, fishing ground, and grazing land footprints. The result of the investigation provides insight and measures for improving food security without necessarily increasing ecological pressure. The study suggests that policy measures that directly target recycling, preservation, and conservation of agricultural activities and products be encouraged to reduce the demand on the ecological components.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24014663Ecological footprintPopulationGross domestic productFood productionKRLS |
| spellingShingle | Hephzibah Onyeje Obekpa Andrew Adewale Alola Adejo Moses Adejo Chukwuemeka Echebiri Examining the drivers of ecological footprint components: Is pursuing food security environmentally costly for Nigeria? Ecological Indicators Ecological footprint Population Gross domestic product Food production KRLS |
| title | Examining the drivers of ecological footprint components: Is pursuing food security environmentally costly for Nigeria? |
| title_full | Examining the drivers of ecological footprint components: Is pursuing food security environmentally costly for Nigeria? |
| title_fullStr | Examining the drivers of ecological footprint components: Is pursuing food security environmentally costly for Nigeria? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Examining the drivers of ecological footprint components: Is pursuing food security environmentally costly for Nigeria? |
| title_short | Examining the drivers of ecological footprint components: Is pursuing food security environmentally costly for Nigeria? |
| title_sort | examining the drivers of ecological footprint components is pursuing food security environmentally costly for nigeria |
| topic | Ecological footprint Population Gross domestic product Food production KRLS |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X24014663 |
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