New Telegraph

Insecurity, poor access to fertilisers herald food crisis

The first quarter of 2021 in Nigeria’s agric sector was marred by insecurity following unresolved farmers/herders’ conflicts, which has put Nigeria’s food security at risk. TAIWO HASSAN reports

Unexpectedly, many agric stakeholders are still apprehensive over current happenings in the country’s agric sector despite the commitment and dedication of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. In fact, a look back at the agric policies rolled out by the current administration show that the country would have attained food security for its populace. However, the number one challenge hindering the actualisation has been the security crisis, which has plundered the growth of the sector with the country’s agric architecture in ground zero.

Survey

In the Q1’21, there was a report released by Zinariya Consults revealing that 2,539 persons were killed and 254 kidnapped in farmers and herders conflicts in the last three years across the country. The report also revealed that between 2001 and 2018, no fewer than 60,000 deaths were recorded, over 300,000 persons abandoned their homes and 1,868 fatalities were recorded between the months of January and September 2018 in the Benue Valley made up of Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Nassarawa, Adamawa and Kaduna states. The report, ‘Trends and Dynamics of Conflict Between Farmers and Pastoralists in Nigeria’s Benue Valley,’ comprises of findings and recommendations from a research funded by Own Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and Global Rights Partners for Justice. According to the report, the farmer-herders crisis led to an economic loss to the tune of N400 billion in Benue State alone, resulting from the destruction of properties such as houses, livestock, farms and farm produce across the affected communities. Assistant Research Associate, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resoultion, Dr. Joeseph Ochogwu, who presented the report to newsmen in Abuja, noted that the killings and displacement of communities, which have increased in recent years, were primarily fuelled by land use and access to water sources as a result of climate change and other factors. F

AO’s report

Also, in the Q1’21, there was a report released by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) warning that acute hunger may rise in over 20 countries in the coming months, with northern Nigeria, Yemen and South Sudan topping the list. The report, an outlook from March to July 2021 and titled Hunger Hotspots, said, a majority of the affected countries mentioned in the report are in Africa, including Burkina Faso,Somalia, Central African Republic, Niger, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Mali and El Salvador, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Mozambique. The other countries where acute hunger is set to worsen include Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, , Haiti, Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Honduras, Mozambique. FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, said: “The magnitude of suffering is alarming. It is incumbent upon all of us to act now and to act fast to save lives, safeguard livelihoods and prevent the worst situation.” On the hunger hotspots, the report noted that South Sudan, Yemen and northern Nigeria remained at the highest risk of acute food insecurity. Over seven million people across South Sudan are likely to face acute food insecurity, the report said.

Nigeria’s wheat challenges

In addition, issues and challenges confronting Nigeria’s wheat sector also came to the front burners in the Q1’21 with wheat stakeholders charting a new path to wheat production in Nigeria. Speaking on the development, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Sabo Nanono, disclosed that Nigeria in the last four years spent about N2.2 trillion importing wheat. With this, the quest to attaining self-sufficiency in local wheat production is still a mirage as flour millers resort to continued importation of wheat into the country. At the National Wheat Farmers Field Day held in Kano recently, the agribusiness conglomerate revealed that over 30,000 farmers had been trained and equipped through a joint effort of one of its strategic business units, Crown Flour Mill (CFM), Flour Miller’s Association of Nigeria (FMAN) and the Federal Government, in a bid to deepen the national agricultural extension scheme, especially in the wheat segment. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)’s report for headline inflation rate of 17.33 per cent for February driven by worsening rising cost of foodstuffs is further signalling tough times ahead for safety of Nigeria’s food security. Similarly, the adverse impact of COVID-19, which outbreak occurred in 2020, culminating to a second wave, is yet to abate.

Fertliser challenges

The first quarter of the year also witnessed the Nigerian farmers, under the umbrella of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) raising the alarm over current development in the country’s fertiliser industry. Indeed, AFAN had petitioned the Federal Government through the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PTI) to urgently intervene in the skyrocketing prices of fertiliser in order to avoid further worsening prices of food stuffs in the markets during the raining season. The National President of AFAN, Arc. Kabir Ibrahim, in an interview with New Telegraph, said that the timing was ripe for PFI to intervene in the country’s fertiliser situation by releasing the flagship sale of 20:10:10 at N5500, which was sold in the last four years and N5000 last year due to COVID-19 so as to bring some respite to the farmers and to the national food aystem. He explained that Nigeria was already experiencing skyrocketing prices of food crops, serious food inflation and this coupled with the skyrocketing prices of fertilisers. The AFAN president noted that the situation of food availability and affordability would exacerbate in the country if the fertiliser prices are not managed properly by government.

Avian influenza outbreak

Also in the quarter under review, the threat of Avian influenza outbreak was one of the key happenings in the country’s agric sector. However, following the outbreak in Niger State and more states on the edge, AFAN, the umbrella body of all farmers in the country, warned that Nigeria’s economy could lose about N100 billion in revenue this year and N2 trillion in poultry investments to the deaths of millions of birds. Ibrahim, in an interview with New Telegraph, said that the outbreak of flu, coupled with the shortage and scarcity of maize (grains) amid the exorbitant feed cost is expected to bring further collapse of the poultry industry as the country’s poultry sector could lose N2 trillion contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) and N33 trillion worth of livestock sector. The AFAN president noted that the poultry industry was already in crisis over animal feeds since the outbreak of COVID-19 last year just as the outbreak of the AI would worsen financial crisis for the the poultry industry and Nigeria’s livestock sector in general.

IFAD investment

Besides, the Federal Government disclosed in Q1’21 that the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) appropriated portfolio is now over $360 million for agricultural development programmes in Nigeria. Nanono made this known while inaugurating a standing committee of IFAD activities in Abuja recently, saying that the fund investment was in tandem with the agricultural priorities and mandate of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to promote an all inclusive agic value chains. The agric minister said that collaboration and partnership arising from international development/ donor cooperation had yielded positive results in the development of Nigeria’s agricultural sector. He explained that the funds would directly target over 250,000 vulnerable smallholder farmers in rural communities across the country.

EU’s dry bean ban

Also shaping the Q1’21 event was the report that Nigeria was losing about $362.5 million annually to the ban of dry beans exportation. Ideally, this may not be unconnected with the inability of Nigerian farmers to export commodity to Europe where it has been banned. The European Union (EU) had further extended the ban to June 2022. With this, agric stakeholders’ intention to export beans outside the shores of Nigeria has been dashed. Indeed, the $362.5 million annual revenue loss in one way is generally denying the country of foreign exchange inflow into the economy.

Last line

Happenings in Nigeria’s agric sector in Q121 have demonstrated that the country is heading towards food crisis, if there cannot be earnest and permanent solution to the volatile security situation in the country.

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