There are reports suggesting that food insecurity could worsen in Nigeria in 2024
The federal government must adopt multiple measures to fight food insecurity in Nigeria, an expert in agriculture has said.
The expert, Agwu Ekwe, spoke in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES in Enugu on Monday.
Food security in Nigeria
Food security is attained when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Nigeria is expected to have about 26.5 million people grapple with high levels of food insecurity in 2024, a report by the Cadre Harmonisé said.
The Cadre Harmonisé, an initiative focused on food and nutrition analysis, conducts studies biannually (in March and October) across 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
But Mr Ekwe, a professor of agricultural extension at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, said the federal government can prevent the looming disaster if it focuses on strengthening "critical pillars" that support food security.
He listed what he called the "basic critical pillars" of food security as production, availability, distribution and use.
Solutions
Mr Ekwe said, that as a first step towards tackling food insecurity in the country, the government must strengthen the production of food by assisting farmers with drivers of production such as land, labour and capital.
The expert added that as part of supporting food productivity, the government should also help farmers with farming inputs to encourage large-scale agriculture.
"Government can subsidise fertilisers, for instance, or subsidise agrochemicals (for farmers). These are the things that facilitate food production," he said.
According to him, to strengthen distribution and use, the government should focus on the provision of roads to make transportation of available farm produce possible.
"Sometimes, farmers can produce, (but) they cannot convey them to the market because they don't have the means to do that. So, even though farm produce is available, they cannot be moved to where they can be used," he said.
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Mr Ekwe further said that the farmers can also be trained on how to process farm produce in different forms so that families can benefit in the event of increased food availability.
"Cassava, for instance, can be put to so many uses. You have the starch aspect. You can turn it into tapioca, garri and so on," he said.
Major threat to food insecurity
Mr Ekwe noted that insecurity is a major issue affecting food security in Nigeria.
He said insecurity affects all "critical pillars" of food security.
"If the government provides all they (farmers) need to plant and cultivate, and then they are unable to go and harvest, they will go and pay some terrorists to go to their farm.
"I know some areas in the north where farmers cannot go and harvest their crop due to fear," he said, adding that those who attempted to do so got kidnapped.
"It (insecurity) is a critical element that affects the issue of food security in the country. In fact, it is the major one as of late which was not even present in the past."
He said tackling insecurity across Nigeria is central to solving food insecurity in the country.
