World Food Day: Why Nigeria is yet to achieve food security

• Many citizens are hungry — Experts
• All is well – Agric minister

As Nigeria joins the world to mark the World Food Day today, stakeholders in the food sector have decried the rising number of Nigerians being ravaged by hunger. A development many experts attribute to inadequate production of food items and poor purchasing power of majority of Nigerians.

Their position is coming even as the country’s Minister of Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed Sabo Nanono, insists that there is no hunger of any form in the land compared to what is obtainable in other countries.

Already, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is calling on the authourities to pay close attention to what it called rising cases of malnutrition in the country, just as stakeholders in the food sector give reasons why the country is yet to attain self-sufficiency in food production.

The World Food Day is a global event that draws the attention of the international community to commit more resources to achieve zero hunger and malnutrition.

The day is celebrated globally on October 16th to mark the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in 1945.

In a press conference to mark the day, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Mohammed Sabo Nanono, said “I think we are producing enough now to feed ourselves and I think there is no hunger in Nigeria. If you say some inconveniences, yes. When people talk about hunger in this country, I just laugh because they don’t know hunger. You need to go to other countries to see the hunger in its bare form”.

According to the minister, the problem with some of the grains is even where to sell, adding that “when the borders were closed initially, a lot of people were uneasy but the farmers are smiling because they get better prices for their rice.”

However, experts including the FAO and the local farmers have a contrary view, insisting that the country needs to do more to address hunger and malnutrition.

Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in Nigeria, Mr Suffyan Koroma, said Nigeria needs to pay close attention to rising cases of malnutrition.

He believes Nigeria needs to produce enough healthy food to deal with the rising incidents of malnutrition in the country, especially in the northern region, adding that “eradicating hunger is FAO’s top priority.”

Many Nigerians are hungry because they live in poverty

Mr. Toyin Ajibade, a food security expert has said many Nigerians are hungry because many of them are living in poverty and can hardly afford to buy food items in the market. He said many Nigerians live in extreme poverty.

Ajibade cited last year’s report by the World Poverty Clock that Nigeria has overtaken India as the country with the most extreme poor people in the world.

He quoted the report as saying that around 86.9 million Nigerians now live in extreme poverty, ‘‘which represents nearly 50% of its estimated 180 million population’’. The figure has since increased.

Mr Ajibade noted that though it is always difficult to measure accurately the level of poverty in any society, all indicators and practical observation of Nigerians indicate that many Nigerians are living in poverty.

Alhaji Kabiru Ibrahim, the National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), had during a recent interview with journalists, reminded the nation that food security is more than just having food, saying that for a nation to claim that it has achieved food security, the citizens are supposed to eat what they want and the food should have the right nutritional value.

“There are many factors that will help in achieving this. One is the purchasing power, the purchasing power of many Nigerians is very poor. I am not sure we are there yet,’’ he said.

Also, the leader of the country’s potato farmers, Chief Dan Okafor, believes that the country must do more in the area of agricultural financing to achieve more food production, saying majority of the people are hungry.

A cross session of Nigerians, who spoke with Daily Trust on the World Food Day, decried the rising cost of food items in the country, which  according to them is causing hunger.

Mr. Sunday Idahor, a resident of Dutse-Alhaji, said ‘‘it is now difficult for people to eat three meals per day’’, adding that some families in his neighbourhood sometime go to sleep without food.

Mrs Khadijat Aremu pleaded with the government to find immediate solution to what she called high prices of food commodities.

‘’Believe me; many people are living in hunger. Those in government may believe it or reject it, the fact is that people are hungry and something must be done to address that,’’ she said.

Nigeria’s efforts to food sufficiency

In the last few years, the government came up with several programmes, which they said were geared towards achieving self-sufficiency in most of the grains and dairy and vegetable (tomato) which the country spends huge foreign reserves on.

Some of the programmes are; the CBN’s Anchor Borrower Policy for selected grain farmers to obtain loan for farm inputs, the concerted efforts to reduce the bank interest loan to less than 10 per cent and the national fertiliser policy which pegs the price of a bag of fertiliser at N5,500 across the country.

While significant achievements were recorded in grains like rice, maize, sorghum and millet, the country is nowhere in wheat.

Production level vs national demand

For rice, there are conflicting figures of production whereas the US Department of Agriculture, World Markets and Trade report puts the production level at 3.7 million tonnes of rice annually, some government officials put the figures at 15 million tonnes.

But the National President of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) Alhaji Aminu Goronyo said the consumption level is 7.9 million metric tonnes and the production level has increased to 5.8 million metric tonnes. This means there is short fall of about two million metric tonnes.

On the other hand, the Maize Association of Nigeria (MAAN) said, with the government intervention through the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, maize yields increased from eight million metric tonnes in 2015 to 20 million metric tonnes in the 2018/2019 wet season.

However, the national demand, according to the statistics from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is about 15 million metric tonnes annually.

But experts say until that production momentum is sustained, a growing population poses more challenge for the demand of maize, which has many value chain uses.

For the tuber crops like cassava (production level was 58,775 metric tonnes in 2018) and yam (about 38,000 metric tonnes).

 Other crops doing badly

According to the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria,  2018 Agriculture Performance Survey (2018 Wet Season in Nigeria) showed that crops like millets; the total product in 2018 was 1, 879 metric tonnes. Also in the report, Sorghum production was on the decline from the total estimated production area of 5,048 hectares to less than 5,000 with output also declining by 4.5%.

Others like groundnut, wheat have also been on the decline. For wheat, the national demand is 4.1 million metric tonnes, but the country currently produces less than 600,000 metric tonnes and market issues are further widening the gap between production and demand, Daily Trust gathered.

Dairy sector in crisis

“With a cattle population of 20,231,598 for a national human population of nearly 200 million, Nigeria needs to do more in the area of policy to improve in the cattle sector, which has served as a major source of animal protein for the citizenry,” NAERLS 2018 Agricultural Performance Survey reported.

Dr Celetine Ayok, a milk production expert and Alhaji MD Abubakar, MD/CEO L&Z Integrated Farms, Kano, at a dairy confab in Abuja, a few months ago, said Nigeria was yet to have a policy that would enable the industry thrive in order to achieve self-sufficiency in milk production.

 Major impediments to self-sufficiency

The President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji  Ibrahim Kabiru, said there are many hurdles along the road to self-sufficiency in food production in the country.

He identified illegal importation and access to credit facilities as the main reasons farmers cannot produce enough to satisfy the country’s food requirements.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, the farmers’ leader also said most government interventions usually end up with ‘political farmers’ instead of the real farmers, adding that there is no way such can guarantee self- sufficiency in food production.

Also speaking, a food security expert, Mr. Toyin Ajibade, identified insecurity as one of the major obstacles hindering the country’s efforts at attaining food security.

He identified Zamfara, Katsina, Borno, Niger, Benue and some other northern states as some of the agrarian states that are facing security challenges.

In some of these states, he said bandits not only steal farm produce but either kidnap the farmers on farm or kill them outrightly.

‘‘So, most of these farmers are afraid to go to their farms and this is affecting the country’s effort at food sufficiency,’’ he said.

The National President of Potato Farmers Association of Nigeria, Chief Dan Okafor, said majority of Nigerians would continue to experience hunger if concerted efforts are not made by the relevant stakeholders to check insurgency, kidnapping, produce theft as well as farmers/herders clashes.

‘‘These are the major security challenges facing farmers on daily basis. Let me tell you, many farmers can no longer go to their farms for fear of attacks, so how can the nation attain self-sufficiency in that kind of situation,’’ he asked.

Chief Okafor also faulted the nation’s budgetary system, adding that the annual allocation to agriculture is either too small or not released in full.

He frowned at the absence of quality seeds for farmers, saying what is being given to farmers are mere grains and not seeds, which according to him,  hinder the nation’s efforts at food security.

Chief Okafor, who is also the Vice chairman of AFAN, also cited climate change as one of the reasons the country is finding it difficult to attain food security.

‘‘Many countries are working hard to address the impact of climate change on their food production but the reverse seems to be the case in Nigeria, so tell me how do we attain food sufficiency,’’ he said.

Chief Okafor also spoke of the ‘‘neglect of value addition to the agric produce’’, saying the country is getting it wrong in the area of processing, packaging and preservation.

Dr Salihu Ahmed Gusau, who has worked in the agricultural sector for over 40 years, outlined a number of problems facing the country’s self-sufficiency drive.

“Number one issue has to do with funding….if there are sufficient funds; we should be able to cultivate all the potential agric areas in Nigeria. We have over 80 million hectares in Nigeria, unfortunately, up to date, we are not utilising up to 40 million and the main issue is funding in the sense that Agric inputs are not available because farmers don’t have the capital. Banks are not lending because you realize that the farmer does not have the collateral to give, and the actual people doing the farming are those people who don’t have the money. All these big farmers that have 300 hectares, most of them don’t rely on that, and because they have money, they put the money there but the farm practice is not there,” he said.

Absence of functional strategic reserve system

According to Dr Salihu Ahmed Gusau, the nation does not have a functional strategic reserve system that allows the government to mop surplus and release it later when there is a shortfall in supply, adding that the silos are basically empty.

“We have completely abandoned our strategic reserves. Our strategic reserves are not serving the purpose for which they are there. For example, every year you have tomato shortage because we don’t have a reserve and the moment it starts raining, these things will be scarce in the market and they will be very expensive,’’ he said.

He added; ‘‘if the government had reserves everywhere, the moment prices start rising, it will release the commodity into the market and that will crash the price’’.

Other experts named rising cost of production across the country, poor infrastructure for value addition such as power, road and rail networks and multiple taxation as some of the problems facing production.

The way forward

Dr Aliyu Samaila, an agric expert said the country must pay attention to mechanization, which can aid farming and address post-harvest losses.

‘‘Banks should also give loans to farmers to support farming. Another aspect is that our agric production is just one major season (rainy season). Dry season facilities are few and need to be upgraded’’, he said.

Dr Salihu Ahmed Gusau, who is a retired federal director, stressed that government agricultural policies were long overdue for review and must involve real farmers who are actually doing the farming.

He also thinks that extension services must be rejuvenated.

AFAN President, Kabiru Ibrahim said, ‘‘what the present administration is trying to address such as curbing illegal importation as well as guarantee farmers’ access to loan at the interest rate less than 10 percent will address some of the challenges.

A researcher, Prof. Kevin Amaefule, called for reduction in the cost of animal feeds to sustain livestock, poultry production and ensure food security in the country.

Amaefule, a Professor of Animal Nutrition and Biochemistry at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike made the call in an interview in Umuahia. The professor said this was necessary to shortage of feeds and ingredients that would sustain production.