Physics: A panagea for food insecurity in Nigeria

Abstract

The problem of geometrical increase in population growth compare with the production and supply of food, poses a problem of food insecurity in the nearest future. This paper examines the applications of physics in rescuing the situation by ensuring improvement on production and proper handling of storage, distribution, as well as packaging and marketing of the goods. The knowledge of physics has brought innovations to Agriculture in areas such as the application of indicated power (ip), brake power(bp), friction power (fp), mechanical efficiency, brake mean pressure (bmep), engine power, rated take-off power, hydraulic power, drawbar power and draft, which help to invent and increase the efficiency of farm machinery like tractors, bulldozer, harvesters, etc. The paper, therefore, concludes that the application of physics in Agriculture would increase the number of land hectarage that would be put into cultivation and ensure availability of farm produce throughout the year through enhanced preservation and storage technologies which would invariably increase food production in Nigeria.