International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition Engineering 2021, 11(1): 1-19 DOI: 10.5923/j.food.20211101.01 The Regional Assessment of Groundnut Farmland Use in Northern Nigeria E. C. Merem 1,* , Y. A. Twumasi 2 , J. Wesley 1 , D. Olagbegi 1 , M. Crisler 1 , C. Romorno 1 , M. Alsarari 1 , P. Isokpehi 1 , M. Alfarei 1 , G. S. Ochai 3 , E. Nwagboso 4 , S. Fageir 5 , S. Leggett 6 1 Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Jackson State University, 101 Capitol Center, Jackson, MS, USA 2 Department of Urban Forestry and Natural Resources, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA 3 African Development Bank, AfDB, 101 BP 1387 Avenue Joseph Anoma, Abidjan, AB 1, Ivory Coast 4 Department of Political Science, Jackson State University, 1400 John R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, USA 5 Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology, Jackson State University, 1400 John R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, USA 6 Department of Behavioral and Environmental Health, Jackson State University, 350 Woodrow Wilson, Jackson, MS, USA Abstract In the annals of Nigeria’s economic development, groundnut farming ranks high as a vital component of the nation’s prominence during the early days. Accordingly, groundnut sustained the economy at the federal and regional levels especially in the defunct Northern Nigeria through revenues generated from exports to local and foreign markets. The significance of the crop exemplifies common expressions associated with it like “groundnut pyramids” highlighting productivity and abundance of the produce. Under that scenario, in the economic imagination of the nation, groundnut farming flourished as a symbol of national wealth memorialized as iconic images in official stamps of the era and on warehouses awaiting exports with the crop stacked in bags mimicking the shape of pyramids. Such expressions deeply rooted in the fiscal policy and economic prowess in the Northern part of the country buttresses abundance of the crop in farm operations of the sector. Notwithstanding the overwhelming significance of the industry by the 1950s-1960s, the discovery and glut in oil and gas production resulted in the sudden decline of groundnut farming to the extent that, most peanut pyramids were turned into buildings instead of stacks of the produce. The other limiting factors consists of the volatility of the marketplace, changes in land use and output and other indicators located in the larger agricultural structure. Considering current initiatives to resurrect the production as part of economic diversification plans in Nigeria. Managers will benefit greatly from an in-depth assessment of the potentials and state of peanut farm activities in the North. At the same time, very little has been done in the literature to analyze the issue of groundnut production amidst decades of neglect. This enquiry will fill that void in the literature by assessing the state of groundnut farmland use under a mix scale method with focus on some selected states in Northern Nigeria. Emphasis is on the issues, trends, factors, impacts, resource analysis and efforts of institutions to sustain the sector. With results pointing to changes in land use and output over the years. The GIS mappings of the trends show gradual dispersal and expansion of groundnut producing activities into different portions of the North. Given some of the challenges and the factors that shaped changes under the rubric of socio-economic and physical forces. The paper provided recommendations ranging from education, effective land use regulation, the monitoring of groundnut farmland base, more lines of credit for farmers and the design of a groundnut farmland information system. Keywords Groundnut farms, GIS, Northern Nigeria, Change, Factors, Impacts, Declines, Economy 1. Introduction In the annals of Nigeria’s economic development, groundnut farming ranks high as a vital component of the nation’s prominence during the early days. Accordingly, groundnut sustained the economy at the federal and regional levels especially in the defunct Northern Nigeria through revenues generated from exports to local and foreign * Corresponding author: edmund.c.merem@jsums.edu (E. C. Merem) Received: Jan. 13, 2021; Accepted: Feb. 20, 2021; Published: Mar. 20, 2021 Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/food markets. The significance of the crop exemplifies common expressions associated with it like “groundnut pyramids” highlighting productivity and abundance of the produce [1-8]. Nigeria currently produces about 2 million MT representing 5% of the world production. In the periods 1956 through 1967, groundnuts including its cake and oil, accounted for a chunck of Nigeria’s total export earnings with much of that from the Northern zone [9]. Being the 13 th most important food crop of the world, peanut ranks highly as a major export crop for traders in the global marketplace. But there are concerns about aflatoxin level given the threats posed to the produce in Nigeria in the past, alongside drought and other elements [10,11,12]. While