The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on Tuesday reawakened attention to the hunger epidemic in Nigeria when it disclosed that over 31.8 million Nigerians were suffering from acute food insecurity, worsened by malnutrition among women and children across the country.
FAO in its 2024 Cadre Harmonise report published in collaboration with other development partners attributed the problem to a surge in food commodity prices occasioned by the removal of the fuel subsidy and security challenges, advocating a multi-sectoral approach to tackle food insecurity.
From transportation to food, petrol is the oxygen of most businesses in the country. It has triggered record inflation since May 29, 2023, when the subsidy removal by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu hiked the pump price by over 300 per cent. The situation is compounded by the escalating insecurity, particularly in the north, which has forced many locals to abandon their farms.
SBM Intelligence, an Africa-focused market/security intelligence gathering consulting firm, painted the grim reality in its latest report released on Thursday when it revealed that 1056 Nigerians were killed and 7,568 abducted in 1,130 incidents between July 2023 and June 2024, and N1.048 billion paid as ransom to kidnappers.
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Commenting on the SBM report, a retired director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor, described the development as “dangerous for Nigeria’s economy” and other spheres of life, including food security.
He urged the government to declare a state of emergency on insecurity through proper funding and training of security agencies as well as collaboration with other foreign interests and groups.
Food security is achieved when all people have economic, social, and physical access to nutritious, safe, and sufficient food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs at all times. But this is not the case for over 133 million Nigerians who are multi-dimensionally poor.
Policy documents and experts’ perspectives reviewed by Weekend Trust showed multiple factors responsible for this worsening scenario and how relevant stakeholders can jointly address them.
Beyond insecurity, subsidy removal
Impacts of climate change have resulted in alarming rates of flooding, drought, changes in rainfall patterns, heavy rainstorms, and depletion of soil nutrients, causing severe risks to food security.
In its 2023 report titled ‘Climate change impacts on food security and nutritional incomes in Nigeria: Challenges and Policy Options,’ the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) lamented a systemic decline in food security in Nigeria.
It noted that the number of malnourished Nigerians had skyrocketed since 2012, exceeding 26 million as of 2021. The report also stated that the number of food insecure Nigerians had increased steadily from 20 million in 2014 to 39 million in 2021, attributing it to the adverse effects of climate change on agricultural produce.
“The percentage of arable land equipped for irrigation has been less than 1 per cent. However, it remained at 1 per cent between 2008–2010 and 2017–2019. This shows the limited attention accorded to climate change and food security issues in Nigeria,” the report added.
It advised the government and other stakeholders to promote alternative farming practices, such as recharging shrinking water bodies, to empower farmers who could not afford irrigation facilities. If this is done, it will not only increase agricultural productivity but also reduce the prices of food, the report stated.
“Agricultural methods or smart food systems less vulnerable and resistant to climate change should be adopted to promote food security and sustainable nutritional outcomes. Research should be tailored towards developing animal and crop varieties with short maturity periods that can be minimally affected by reduced rainfall and extreme temperature.
“The propagation of drought-resistant grasses is required in areas affected by drought. This will go a long way to decline the tide of pastoral north-south migration patterns witnessed over the years in Nigeria and reduce the farmers-herdsmen threat to the peace and security of farmers in the Middle Belt and other regions of the country,” it added.
Corroborating NESG’s report, Andrew Woghiren, Founder and Managing Director, Sustainable Insights Limited, observed that water, energy and food are crucial to resolving the hunger crisis in Nigeria and Africa at large.
“Energy is the principal limiting factor in enhancing agricultural production. Policies that balance the drought-proofing of rain-fed agriculture and irrigation development are needed,” he told Weekend Trust.
The Agriculture Manager, Nestle CWAR, Mr Alidu Amadu, said there was a need to advance regenerative agriculture to attain food sufficiency by adopting modern technologies and embracing best practices in farming to increase crop yields.
Call to action
Earlier this week at a press briefing in Abuja, Extension Africa, a leading agricultural organisation, stressed the role of modern agribusiness extension services in fostering sustainable agriculture.
The organisation’s Managing Director and Co-founder, Tajudeen Yahaya, warned that low food production and high prices would persist if adequate attention was not given to agricultural extension services, which offer technical advice to farmers and give them the necessary inputs and services to support their agricultural production.
Yahaya lamented the severe shortage of extension service officers, who are critical in guiding farmers and stakeholders across various value chains with the best farming practices to improve productivity. He added that public-private partnerships are crucial in addressing these challenges.
“The challenges we always have with the public extension system are threefold. First, we have only one agent for every 10,000 farmers, making it nearly impossible for such an officer to effectively reach all farmers. Secondly, many of our extension workers, employed back in the 1990s, are retiring, which means that the current ratio might worsen to one agent for 20,000 farmers in the next five years if nothing is done,” Yahaya stated.
During a programme organised by the Lagos State Muslims Community recently, an agricultural expert, Mr Ibrahim Olayeni, advised residents of the state to embrace urban farming and promote agricultural practices to enhance food production.
“Urban farming involved taking advantage of every little space and resource to grow crops. Some of its benefits include increased food production and provision of job opportunities. Crops such as tomatoes, pepper, carrots, onions, okra, cabbage, lettuce and yam can be cultivated under urban farming,” he said.
What govt is doing
At the joint review meeting on the implementation of the food systems in Nigeria where FAO released its report, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Dr Emeka Obi, said the objective of the meeting was to discuss the status of the implementation and for the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to give updates on their activities to achieve food transformation in Nigeria.
Obi, in a statement by the Director, Press and Public Relations in the ministry, Julie Osagie-Jacobs, expressed confidence that the collective efforts of the development partners would continually lead to innovative solutions to strengthening the food systems.
Also, the federal government said it had stepped up moves to foster a global partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to bolster food security and boost agricultural productivity in the country.
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, disclosed this in Abuja while receiving a high-level WFP delegation led by its newly appointed Regional Director, Mr Chris Nikoi, adding that the partnership was in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Tinubu-led administration.
“The engagement further provided an opportunity for the WFP delegation to highlight the numerous opportunities for partnership and also expressed their readiness to support Nigeria’s agricultural sector through collaborative ventures.
“Key among these initiatives are service delivery programmes focused on the provision of fertilizers and seeds, which are essential for enhancing farming output and ensuring food security,” the minister said in a statement, assuring the delegation that the ministry would take the necessary steps to facilitate the implementation of the proposed initiatives.
On Thursday, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Mr Tunji Bello, gave a one-month moratorium to traders and market associations involved in fixing exploitative prices of goods and services to crash them.
He said the move was to address the growing trend of unreasonable pricing of consumer goods and services and the unwholesome practice of market associations.
But experts observed that the government needed to look beyond such enforcement action by addressing the underlying problems like insecurity, high fuel costs, and multiple taxes pushing up food inflation.
“Although the federal government has a point on cartels fixing prices, the only way, however, for prices to come down is to address the issues causing such. For instance, the high cost of transport occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy has not been addressed, and the CNG buses to be rolled out to cushion the effects are not here yet.
“Secondly, insecurity has made farming difficult for farmers, and thirdly the government has been imposing one form of tax and another. Therefore, nothing can happen in terms of food prices if the government can’t address the critical issues,” a development expert, Kunle Daramola, said.
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