allAfrica.com: Nigeria: World Food Day and Country's Food Security (Page 1 of 1)

The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), one of the United Nations agencies, has set aside October 16 of every year as World Food Day.

The essence is to create awareness on the importance of food production and problems associated with it thereby enhancing global consciousness towards hunger, malnutrition and poverty.

The theme for this year's World Food Day, Right to Food, connotes the right of every person to adequate nutritional food. It is imperative, therefore, to explain some of the identified problems of Nigeria's agriculture which government needs to address with a view to guaranteeing the right to food and food security.

It is sad to note that agriculture sector, which government needs to give adequate attention, is grossly under funded in the annual budgets.

The Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Sayyadi Abba Ruma, justified this fact when the Governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji, visited him in Abuja recently, saying agriculture sector needs to be given 10 percent and above of the total annual budget if any meaningful development is to take place. Equally, Senate Committee Chairman on Agriculture, Tawar Umbi Wada, also admits the need to give more financial commitment to agriculture. During the committee's inauguration in Abuja recently, Wada said the Senate would soon come up with a legal framework to mandate financial institutions to set aside part of their funds to support agriculture.

The fact remains that country's Food Security Programme would remain a mirage until the agriculture sector is sufficiently funded in line with the UN recommendations.

Again, as experts believe, there has to be commitment on the part of policy makers, those implementing policies, and of course the beneficiaries. There is also the need for change of attitude. The need, therefore, to do away with over dependence and selfishness, and to imbibe the culture of self reliance and hard work is necessary.

The country's methods of farming are still local, and today the effort to ensure food security could not yield any result without improving the sector to FAO standard. Modern farming the world over today is mechanized. And a mechanized farming, which involves the use of modern farm implements and machines, could not be achieved without government intervention.

The Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Alhaji Sayyadi Abba Ruma, is aware of the fact that our farmers lack the modern knowledge of farming. He said, for example, the tractor population in Nigeria is between 25 and 30, 000 in a ratio of 1,700 farmers to one tractor which is below the FAO standard. The minister, therefore indicated government's interest to have a tractor assembly plant in the country, when he received the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria in his office.

Thus, the Food Security programme could only be a success, if modern farm implements are provided to farmers at affordable rate. The Federal Government should expedite action in establishing at least one tractor assembly plant as rightly observed by the minister. The United States attains a break through in food security mainly due mechanization largely facilitated by tractor companies such as Jonh Deere Tractors.

Distribution of fertilizer to farmers should henceforth be done in good time and based on the demand of farmers. People, who don't have business with fertilizer, should not be allowed to prevent the product from reaching the rural farmers at subsidized rate. Ruma had identified the late procurement and supply of fertilizer to farmers as a serious problem, and had shown the readiness of the government towards addressing the problem..

Nigerian farmers need to be supported through the provision of soft loans with a view to enhancing their output. This could be achieved not only through the agricultural banks, but through other commercial banks. Government also has to device new land tenure measures for a farmer tohave a certificate for his farm and could use such certificate as collateral to obtain loans from any bank.

Private individual should be encouraged to partake in commercial agriculture through the provision of adequate lands for large scale farming. This is in view of the fact that most of the local farmers in Nigeria do not have enough lands, but small farms they have inherited from their forefathers.

Another problem, which has been identified by many, including the Minister of State for Agriculture and Water Resources, Alhaji Adamu Maina Waziri, is the decline in extension services. Waziri told Karen Brooks, a General Manager at the World Bank, that extension service is one area the government is going to pay serious attention to with a view to rebuilding and strengthening it. He said extension services will go along in assisting the farmers through the provision of technical know-how. Brooks had earlier indicated interest of the World Bank to assist Nigeria in developing agriculture.

Animal, fish and poultry farming in the country that have since declined needs to be brought back to limelight. Permanent Secretary at the ministry, MS A. Pepple in a welcome address at the workshop on implementing the agricultural policy support facility in Abuja, noted that certain critical areas of policy intervention that could ensure food security have been identified amongst which are integrated livestock and fisheries development. Government has to support research institutions and its agencies such as the National Veterinary Council to come with solutions to any disease that may inhibit the animal farming.

The supply of improved varieties of seeds and new breads of farm animals to farmers for the purposes of producing more is necessary. The efforts made by the Federal Government in 2003 for releasing N1billion for the multiplication of the NERICA new rice variety had immensely alleviated the sufferings of the rice farmers in getting the improved seeds for multiplication. However, the NERICA variety which has adapted the soil and climatic conditions in Nigeria should be procured more for distribution to the local farmers who are still in need of it.

The production of cash crop such as cotton, cocoa, oil palm and rubber has declined partly as a result of the menace of pest and diseases and partly due to lack of commitment on the part of government towards assisting the local farmers. Farmers need to be supplied with pesticides and insecticides to at affordable prices.

There is also the need to create favorable atmosphere for private bodies to establish processing companies that will be able to buy and turn these cash crops into useful by- products.

The FAO estimated that more than 800 million people world wide are deprived of nutritionally adequate food while the British Charity Oxfam reported that 800 million people go to bed hungry every night. These statistics should serve as a wake up call for the policy makers in the agriculture sector to come up with lasting solutions to food problems. The right to food is the right to feed oneself in dignity, rather than the right to be fed as rightly pointed out by the minister of state.

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