New Telegraph

UN report confirms Nigeria’s food security challenge

Report from the stable of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) showing Nigeria among countries that could be facing acute hunger and starvation is appalling, considering how much the country has been committed to agriculture in the past few years. TAIWO HASSAN reports

Indeed, the country’s agricultural architecture has been terribly hit by security challenges as many farmers can no longer go to their farms for fear of attacks by insurgents, kidnappers and Fulani herdsmen. In addition, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)’s report for headline inflation rate of 17.33 per cent for February, driven by worsening cost of foodstuffs further attested to tougher times ahead with regard to food security. The whole situation has also been compounded by the adverse impact of COVID-19, which outbreak occurred in 2020.

National storage reserve

Speaking with New Telegraph recently, the National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim, raised the alarm that the country had only 25,000 metric tonnes of food in her reserve for Nigerians to feed on, tracing it to insecurity, rising food inflation and COVID-19. The farmers warned that the 25,000 metric tonnes of food would not be enough to sustain the Nigerian populace in the short term, alerting that food shortage was looming unless the Federal Government gives farmers the necessary incentives to begin an all-year round farming. He explained that the rising commodity prices in recent times was a bad signal for the country’s quest to attain food sufficiency at this period. According to him, insecurity, COVID-19 and #EndSARS protests are reasons for the rising costs in food items in the country.

United Nations’ report

However, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) have warned in a new report that acute hunger may occur in over 20 countries in the coming months, with nothern Nigeria, Yemen and South Sudan topping the list with populations facing catastrophic levels of acute hunger and starvation. The report, an outlook from March to July 2021 and titled “Hunger Hotspots,” said a majority of the affected countries mentioned in the report were 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 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.”

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 shortage. In Yemen, continued violence and economic decline, as well as severe disruptions to the humanitarian response, are likely to persist over the coming months. Over 16 million Yemenis are likely to face high levels of acute food insecurity by June 2021, the report added. In northern Nigeria, projections for the June to August lean season showed that the number of people facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity could likely double to over 1.2 million.

The drivers

Conflict, coronavirus disease (COVID-19), economic blows, extreme climate weather and locust outbreaks were among the key drivers of acute food insecurity. Conflict or other forms of armed violence are likely to increase in parts of Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, central Sahel, Ethiopia, northern Nigeria, northern Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan and the Sudan. In several African countries such as the Sudan, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Liberia, elevated levels of currency depreciation and food inflation continued to reduce people’s purchasing power, the report stated. Coupled with climate shocks that adversely affected agricultural production and a likely reduction in domestic food supply, food inflation may worsen in the coming months, the report warned.

Action needed

The report called for shortterm actions in each hunger hotspots, including scaling up food and nutrition assistance, distributing drought-tolerant seeds, treating and vaccinating livestock, rolling out cash-forwork schemes, rehabilitating water-harvesting structures and increasing income opportunities for vulnerable communities. WFP Executive Director, David Beasley, said: “We are seeing a catastrophe unfold before our very eyes. Famine — driven by conflict, and fuelled by climate shocks and the COVID-19 hunger pandemic — is knocking on the door for millions of families.” He added that the fighting had to stop and that $5.5 billion needed in donation for 2021.

Last line

From the look of things, guaranteeing food security is becoming elusive in Nigeria, unless proactive measures are taken by government and agric stakeholders to reverse the tide.

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