My attention was drawn to the aforementioned piece of opinion written by one Adefolarin A. Olamilekan, published in the Daily Trust newspaper of June 23, 2021, in which he delved too deeply into the major drivers of the current food prices upsurge.
I agree with writer that the situation in the country, including herders-farmers conflicts, banditry, kidnapping, Boko Haram brutal invasions and modern global capitalism are causes.
But I wish to add that the rise in food prices is also associated with land degradation and desertification accompanied by frightening rapid population growth, land borders closure and increase in import duty tariff, by the Nigeria Customs Service.
Ravaging desertification in some parts of the country is said to have consumed more than 50 per cent of cultivable land in the 15 states of Northern Nigeria. According to a report published in the journal Ecology and the Natural Environment, more than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s land is affected by desertification.
Agriculturists have said 35 per cent of land that was cultivable 50 years ago is now turned into desert in 15 of the 19 states in the North. In addition, it is said that the output from the same land of the past three or four decades has fallen. This scary menace has to do with the soil infertility bred by illegal logging or global warming which turn arable land into desert.
Therefore, I call on the federal and state governments to make every effort to improve sources of power to serve as an alternative to firewood for local energy. It is vital to migrate to using electric stoves as an alternative.
The current bothersome incessant food prices upsurge can only be ended when the drivers of desertification are addressed.
Mustapha Baba Azare, Alkali Musa Street, Bauchi State
