Omoh Gabriel, Henry Umoru, Lukat Binniyat And Babatunde Jimoh
5 May 2008
Lagos — In the early 19th Century, Abraham Maslow, an industrial psychologygist, came up with the theory of Physiological Needs of Man and top on the list was the desire for food as the first basic need. According to him, after a man has satisfied his need for food, he begins to crave for clothing, and then for shelter. Thus, in Maslow's theory, the three basic needs are food, clothing and shelter.
Hunger
This theory has been the motivation behind man's industry in his journey through life. But Thomas Malthus, in the same period, alerted the world of the danger of populating the world without check. In his classical economics thesis, he avowed that while population is growing at geometric rate, food supply was growing at arithmetic progression.
This, he said, would lead to hunger if man kind does not put measures in place to check population growth. This thought was, however, overtaken by technological progress which brought about commercial farming. But Malthus' theory, if not universally applicable, stare mankind in the face. Today, it is no longer just Maslow's theory of Physiological Needs or Malthus' theory of Population Explosion that is mankind's problem, but also the desire of man to protect the environment. The West in attempt to reduce its dependance on the continued rising price of products from hydrocarbon, has diverted lands originally used for crops to feed mankind, to crops to feed automobiles - cars.
As a result, a new face of hunger is staring the world at large in the face. A perfect storm of food scarcity, global warming, rocketing oil prices and the world population explosion, is plunging humanity into the biggest crisis of the 21st Century by pushing up food prices and spreading hunger and poverty from rural areas into cities.
Rising populations, strong demand from developing countries, increased cultivation of crops for bio-fuels and increasing floods and droughts, have sent food prices soaring across the globe.
Apparently frightened by the current food crisis in the world and in the country, the Federal Government at the time of writing this report, said plans have been concluded to find a lasting solution to food crisis, just as it said that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua should not be held responsible for the problem.
According to the government, what Nigeria was currently facing was a global development and that the Nigerian government has risen to the challenge as proactive measures have been taken to salvage the situation. Nigeria has never had food security. It has, as usual, been importing rice, beans and other food items. Because the sources of supplies of these importation are in food crisis, it has a spill over effect on Nigeria.
Speaking with journalists weekend in Abuja, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Engr. Charles Ugwuh who noted that the food crisis which started with sudden increase in the price of wheat, however, spread to other parts of the world and resulted to food riots in several developing countries, such as Haiti, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, and Senegal.
The Federal Government in panic said: "There is arrangement to release at appropriate intervals, grains from strategic reserve, in order to meet expected shortfall and reduce the prices of staples in the country. Also, the campaign to sensitise Nigerians on the looming dangers of food shortage and advise them to conserve food, is in the pipeline. But the question is if grains are released from the strategic reserve, how does the government hope to replenish its stock?
"Whatever may be the cause of the global food crisis, its impact on Nigeria is real. Already, the price of wheat flour and rice both of which are now staple food in Nigeria, have gone up. No responsible government will sit down and fold its arms in the face of this looming danger.
"It is in this context that Mr. President set up the ministerial committee under the chairmanship of Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan to proffer solution to the escalating prices of wheat and wheat flour," he said.(see center spread interview)
FG not insensitive to increase in food prices - Ruma The Federal Government also said that it is not insensitive to the rising prices of food in Nigeria. Dr Abba Ruma, the Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources said government had put in place both short and long-term measures to bring about improvement in food security situation in the country. He said President Umaru Yar'Adua responded positively to the issue of food scarcity in the short-term by ordering the release of food stock from the National Food Reserve to the public at a subsidised rate.
The minister said under the long-term measure, government has mapped out 16 different strategies to meet food security challenges for a period of four years. He said the long-term strategy will lead to total departure from the culture of waste observed in the past, and would focus on wealth generation and service delivery. Ruma said part of the long-term strategy was the promotion of large scale commercial agriculture of between 500 and 3,000 hectares.
The project, he added, would have direct tie to the small scale farmers with a target of 10,000 hectares for a period of four years.
According to him, the strategy will lead to the emergence of specialised cooperative societies
that would re-engineer the agriculture sector. The minister said the exercise would rekindle youth participation in agriculture and deliver food on the table of the ordinary Nigerians.
He said the strategy would accelerate the establishment of a special intervention fund with a
take-off grant of more than N200 billion over a period of four years. Ruma said the strategy would also engender the development of agricultural land mapping programme and self-sufficiency strategies for food crops. "It will increase storage capacity by completing the 25 ongoing silos project and construction of 60 specialised warehouses," he added.
The minister further said that part of the strategy was to ensure that fertilisers were produced in the country. He said the fertiliser manufacturing company in Port Harcourt was expected to release more than 700,000 tonnes of urea before the end of the year.
He said the strategy would also lead to the rehabilitation of degraded irrigation infrastructure under the River Basin and Rural Development Authorities, to ensure all-season farming, among
others.
He named the challenges facing agriculture in the country to include high cost of production, low quality of farm inputs and weak agricultural extension services. According to him, they also include general market failure and the lack of properly structured commodity markets. Ruma said agriculture in Nigeria was mainly rain fed, adding that the sector had not taken full advantage of its more than 2.5 million hectares of irrigation potential.
He noted that the sector recorded high post-harvest losses of 50 per cent for vegetables and fruits, 30 per cent for tubers and roots and 20 per cent for grains.
Investigation showed that the amount needed by the Federal Government to achieve food security for a four-year period is N950.28 billion.
A breakdown of the figure shows that N159.5 billion will be needed for the rehabilitation of irrigation facilities of the 12 River Basin Development Authorities. The sum of N413.2 billion will also be required for increased production of selected crops over the four- year period. The estimated cost of some private partners' participation in the initiative was put at N356.24 billion.
NATIONAL Union of Food, Beverages, and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE), has advised the government at all levels to refocus their attentions to agriculture and save the nation from imminent famine arising from the current global food crisis, warning that faced with hunger and starvation, the masses of this country would revolt.
General Secretary of NUFBTE, Comrade Idowu Yussuf, told Financial Vanguard that it is only a programme of massive mechanized farming across the land and a well thought out programme designed to lure the youths back to the rural areas that could save the nation from the impending food crisis calamity.
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