Youth Empowerment and Social Orientation: Policy Roadmap for Nigeria's Sustainable Food Security
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Abstract
Nigeria currently faces a critical structural paradox: immense agrarian potential is heavily overshadowed by severe food insecurity and high youth unemployment rates. Current state interventions, notably the N-Power program, consistently fail to provide structural exit strategies, operating merely as temporary symptom relief. Furthermore, deep sociocultural distortions alienate youths from agriculture, driving them toward the shadow economy. This study rigorously evaluates these institutional deficits and proposes a comprehensive policy roadmap. Employing a qualitative public policy analysis alongside a systematic literature review, this research actively synthesizes the Conceptual Triple E Model with prosocial orientation reforms. The findings reveal that addressing the agricultural crisis requires mitigating cognitive deficits through civic literacy, followed by smart vocational training and structural empowerment via land tenure redistribution. Ultimately, achieving sustainable food sovereignty and capitalizing on the demographic dividend mandates a holistic public policy framework that transforms destructive mentalities into a modernized agrarian work ethic for national development.
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