<b>Banditry and food insecurity in Nigeria: Challenges, implications, and policy responses</b>

This paper titled “banditry and the challenges of food security in Nigeria’s fourth republic,” sought to examine the challenges of banditry on food security and availability towards maintaining a healthy and active life in the state. The paper specifically sought to examine the challenges of banditry on food security in Nigeria, the effects of banditry on food security, and recommendations towards tackling banditry to improve food security in Nigeria. The methodology adopted to generate data for the study is qualitative data. This study employed Situational Action Theory (SAT) as theoretical framework. The basic tenet and assumption of the theory is that crime is a function of individual morality and the prevailing situation and that people are responsible for their actions, but the causes of their actions are entirely circumstantial.  The study also identifies some of the challenges posed by banditry to include kidnapping of farmers, killing of farmers, and seizing of farmlands, amongst others. The study concluded that banditry have directly or indirectly affected food security in Nigeria. The study therefore recommended that the federal government should deploy enough troops to provide security for farmers; also, the Federal, State and Local Governments, including farming communities should come together to rubbing minds and cross-fertilize ideas with a view to mapping out strategies that will end banditry in Nigeria, amongst others.