FCT, 20 states may face food crisis – Report

The 1st quarter 2022 Cadre Harmonisé (CH) report has projected that about 19.4 million people including 416,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in 20 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) may face food crisis between June and August this year.

The report also stated that about 14.4 million people including 385,000 IDPs in 20 states and the FCT were already in a food crisis situation, which may last till May 2022.

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Cadre Harmonisé (CH) analysis is a unified tool for analysing acute food and nutrition insecurity, across 17 Sahel and West African states including Nigeria.

In Nigeria, it is jointly put together by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), and other relevant stakeholders.

The report covered 21 states: Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross-River, Edo, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Lagos, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara and the FCT.

The report points to insecurity, especially in the North East, inflation rate, soaring food commodity prices and reduction in household income due to long-term effects of COVID-19 pandemic as the key drivers of food crisis.

At the presentation of the report yesterday in Abuja, the representative of FAO in Nigeria and to the Economic Community of the West African States (ECOWAS), Mr Fred Kafeero, said there was the need for overhauling of the national food systems transformation to realise the 2030 Agenda.

Kafeero, represented by Professor Salisu Mohammed, called on the government to incorporate CH analysis results in national planning, including the designing and implementation of national food systems transformation action plans.

On his part, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Ernest Umakhihe, said the CH analysis became necessary in order to understand the issues driving food and nutrition insecurity across the country.