TACKLING THE PROBLEM OF FOOD INSECURITY
Security agencies should do more to secure the countryside
The official theme for today’s World Food Day 2025 is “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future.” It underscores the importance of global collaboration between all critical stakeholders to build a peaceful, sustainable, and food-secure future. With the fear of malnutrition for millions of children (and mothers) who are deprived of a healthy and productive life, the situation is already dire in Nigeria. We therefore urge authorities, at all levels, to work towards alleviating the problem of hunger in the country.
Last November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published a report titled, ‘Nigeria General Household Survey (Wave 5)’ which revealed that approximately two out of three households indicated being unable to eat healthy, nutritious or preferred foods because of lack of money. Similarly, 63.8 per cent of households ate only a few kinds of food due to lack of money, 62.4 per cent were worried about not having enough food to eat, and 60.5 per cent ate less than they thought they should. Between Waves 4 and 5 surveys (conducted three years apart), the proportion of households that reported being worried about not having enough food to eat because of lack of money increased significantly, from 36.9 per cent to 62.4 per cent. Between then and now, the only change is perhaps that the situation has got worse.
For years, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) have warned repeatedly that millions of Nigerians are at the risk of hunger as prices of foodstuff skyrocket. Recent data compiled by an international e-commerce organisation also revealed that the average Nigerian household spends about 60 per cent of its income on food, one of the highest in the world. In contrast, residents of the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore spend less than 10 per cent. Yet, at a period when millions of citizens are living with hunger, there is also widespread waste of scarce resources by public officials.
Meanwhile, insecurity in many of the rural communities has made it practically difficult for farmers to engage in agricultural production optimally, thus affecting productivity and largely causing market disruptions with attendant food price shocks. Staples such as beans and tomatoes have seen astronomical surge in prices, just like onions, and cassava flour. Some states with high food prices are ironically major food-producing belt in peace times. Sokoto, for instance, is a major producer of beans, cowpea, groundnut, garlic, wheat, sugarcane, pepper, onions, and tomatoes, while groundnut, sorghum, sesame seed, maize, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and pepper are produced extensively in Plateau State.
Available projections from Cadre Harmonisé, an initiative focused on food and nutrition analysis, indicate a high level of desperation, especially in the Northwest. “People have been forced to adopt negative coping mechanisms such as survival sex and child labour to stay alive” noted the head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Nigeria, Trond Jensen. “Over the past year, dozens of farmers have lost their lives, and others have been abducted or injured while eking out a living outside the security perimeters of Borno’s garrison towns due to limited farming lands and few or no livelihood options.”
First celebrated in 1979, World Food Day takes place annually on October 16 to promote awareness of hunger and map out strategies for achieving food security, especially in countries like Nigeria where most of the citizens are vulnerable. This year’s celebration coincides with the 80th anniversary of the founding of the FAO which has called for global collaboration “in creating a peaceful, sustainable, prosperous, and food-secure future.” Since food is needed for survival and well-being, there is an urgent need for urgent intervention to avert a human catastrophe in the country.
