2026 Vol-6 Issue-2 | MAPPING FOOD SECURITY RESEARCH IN THREE NIGERIAN AGRICULTURAL JOURNALS (2019–2025): TRENDS, GAPS, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Many nations are experiencing food insecurity, and food security research must provide direction based on empirical data on the core areas that governments and other stakeholders can tackle to mitigate the growing hunger indices. This study has the objective of studying food security research in Nigeria from 2019 to 2025 within the disciplines of agricultural economics and agricultural extension. The study adopted quantitative content analysis of three open-access journals – Journal of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development (JAEERD); Journal of Agricultural Economics, Environment and Social Science (JAEESS); and Journal of Agricultural Extension (JAE). The population of the study was 681 articles, and total population sampling was adopted as the sample size. The findings showed that food security research was 6%, i.e., 41 articles out of 681 articles; there was geographical bias, especially by JAEERD, which concentrated on food security research in the south-south geo-agricultural zone, neglecting the middle belt and northwest. Also, sub-themes of food security differed from emerging areas covered by food security research in the Global North, with a focus on nutrition knowledge, agricultural practice, women's empowerment, soil management, and poverty status. The study concludes that food security research in Nigeria remains limited in volume, unevenly distributed geographically, and narrowly focused thematically and recommends that agricultural journals and scholars in Nigeria need to improve their food security research through an increase in publishing opportunities, geographical and topic diversification, classification standardisation, and the use of more elaborate methods of research.