New Telegraph

Farmers fret over imminent food shortage

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has raised the alarm over imminent scarcity of food nationwide. Hinging its fears on raging floods in some parts of the country, scarcity of maize, skyrocketing prices of staples and grains and COVID-19 lockdown, the association said they were all pointers to imminent food shortage across the country. AFAN National President, Arc Kabir Ibrahim, in a chat with New Telegraph, explained that current challenges facing the country’s agric sector portended a serious risk to the realisation of a bumper harvest in the country.

The AFAN president urged the Federal Government to look inward for sustainable agricultural strategies that will help the country avert food shortage. He chided the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) for delay in the commencement of this year’s farming season. For instance, Ibrahim explained that the 2020 activities with the most recent that took place in Owerri, Imo State, had kept the tempo of encouraging the farmers to put in their best high in order to boost food production in the country.

The 2020 flag-off is expected to kick-off from Dankama in Katsina State to Dutse in Jigawa State, Birnin Magaji in Kano State, Osogbo in Osun State, Ogbomosho in Oyo State, Nkwere in Imo State, Calabar in Cross River State. Ibrahim said: “The 2020 farming season appears to engender a bountiful harvest but the flash floods all over the nation portend a serious impediment to the realisation of a bumper harvest. He continued, “The several windows of support to the farming communities from the CBN and a host of other sources are germane and evidently impactful.

“The Ministry of Agriculture in its half-hearted and rather late efforts in 2020 flag off activities with the most recent one having taken place as late as 7th August 2020 in Owerri, Imo State has kept the tempo of encouraging the farmers to put in their best to bolster food production.

“As one traverses the nation from Dankama in Katsina State to Dutse In Jigawa State, Birnin Magaji in Kano State, Osogbo in Osun State, Ogbomosho in Oyo State, Nkwere in Imo State, Calabar in Cross River State etc. Speaking on threat by flood, the AFAN president said: “The flood in June up to early August all over the nation has washed away burgeoning crops and livestock enough to make the farmers apprehensive of imminent food shortage, though. “For those of us living in the fringes of the Sahara, our large ruminants are mere skeletons because animal feed is very costly and very hard to come by. Wheat offer price is going for close to N5000 per 50Kg. “The poultry industry is in distress because of the scarcity and prohibitive cost of the energy component of poultry feed.

“The skyrocketing prices of staples and grains such as maize selling for N18,000 per 100Kg scare the living day lights out of us. All these compounded by the COVID-19 still around us as much as when it impeded access to our farms during the complete lockdown portend a serious disaster to the food system.”

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