Combating Nigeria’s Rising Hunger Crisis

In the 2022 Global Hunger Index, Nigeria ranked 103rd out of 121 countries. With a score of 27.3, Nigeria has a level of hunger that is grim, Gilbert Ekugbe writes

Without mincing words, the rising level of hunger in Nigeria is self-induced due to economic managers’ inability to position Nigeria’s agricultural sector as the mainstay of the nation’s economy as it was in the 60s. Nigeria’s agricultural sector has been going from bad to worse since the discovery of crude oil. The sector has continued to record slow growth and low investments as a result of government’s inconsistent policies and of course, the rising level of insecurity in the North Eastern part of the country.

Stakeholders in the industry have lost their voices lamenting about the neglect of the nation’s food sector even as the sector continues to prove its ability to transform the economic narrative of Nigeria.

Two months ago, the World Food Programme (WFP) tagged Nigeria and 19 other countries as “hunger hotspots” a label that leaves much to be desired despite Nigeria’s ability to be a food basket on the continent.

Floods have continued to ravage farmlands across the nation raising fears of farmers that Nigeria may experience food shortages later in the year and into first quarter of 2023.

A call to action

More than ever before, it is high time for all the brilliant policies of the government aimed at transforming the nation’s agricultural sector leave the shelves of Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) for effective implementation. More often than not, these policies are always laudable when formulated, but fail to pass the implementation test. Farmers are still wailing for more support, food prices still skyrocketing as the impact of these policies are yet to be felt.

In a telephone chat with THISDAY, the National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) Kabir Ibrahim, said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development must up its ante in implementing these policies to salvage the ailing sector. He advised that instead of developing a new agriculture policy, the Ministry should have consolidated the defunct Agricultural Promotion Policy (APP), which he said was not fully implemented by the then Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono.

“The Federal and State government should work together. There must be better synergy than what obtains now. All stakeholders must be speaking with one voice and the implementation of the new policy should be a joint thing between all stakeholders and all interventions in the agric space should be synchronised that is to say that you cannot have the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) doing one thing and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture doing another and because of the flood and insecurity in the food system, the Nigeria ln farmers should be incentivised to farm right round the year as you can see the flood has washed everything,” he said.

Prioritising investment in CSA

Again, efforts must be placed on achieving much with little especially at a time the world is grappling with food crisis. Climate smart agriculture has been proven by developed economies as one of the surest way to go to boost food production. The federal government must as a matter of urgency promote and support policies aimed at attracting both local and foreign investors to invest in climate smart agriculture.

According to World Bank, Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is an integrated approach to managing landscapes—cropland, livestock, forests and fisheries–that address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change.

The bank added that investment in CSA would bring about increased productivity giving farmers the platform to produce more and better food to improve nutrition security and boost incomes, especially of 75 per cent of the world’s poor who live in rural areas and mainly rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. World Bank also said CSA will reduce vulnerability to drought, pests, diseases and other climate-related risks and shocks; and improve capacity to adapt and grow in the face of longer-term stresses like shortened seasons and erratic weather patterns.

“While built on existing knowledge, technologies, and principles of sustainable agriculture, CSA is distinct in several ways. First, it has an explicit focus on addressing climate change. Second, CSA systematically considers the synergies and tradeoffs that exist between productivity, adaptation and mitigation. Finally, CSA aims to capture new funding opportunities to close the deficit in agriculture investment” the multilateral institution added.

Active youth farming population

The urgent need to make the sector attractive to the Nigerian youths cannot be over emphasised. The average age of farmers in the country is a major setback to the country’s quest to boost food production as the sector is badly hindered by aging farmers, which has seen crop output decline in recent years according to experts. In Nigeria, the average age of farmers in the sector is 60 years and this implies that the sector is yet unattractive to Nigeria’s young population.

In a chat with THISDAY recently, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Lagos State, Abisola Olusanya, said the lack of youth participation in agriculture is due to the nation’s inability to celebrate youths and individuals that have done well in the agricultural sector.

She also stated that other factors responsible for lack of youth participation in agriculture is lack of access to funding, technical skills, training, capacity building and the perceived unprofitability around agriculture.

Olusanya also stated the need for the country to change the perception towards agriculture before deploying agriculture technology, noting that changing the image of the food sector would go a long way to attract youths into the sector, hence the need for economic managers to formulate right policies to drive investment into agriculture technology space.

Security apparatus upgrade

Meanwhile, farming has continued to be subdued in the North-east as the spate of banditry and kidnapping is still on the rise. Experts said the federal government must intentionally seek ways to improve its security architecture in the North-east region.

Farmers, they added, must be assured of their safety before going back to their farms.

“If the situation has not taught the federal government anything, the skyrocketing prices of food, which makes feeding almost impossible for the common man on the street is something to be worried about as more Nigerians continue to fall into the hunger net. The insecurity can be addressed by deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI), beefing up armed forces in the region, equipping vigilante groups, forging strong alliances with international communities and the likes. Insecurity in the North-east is fast plunging the nation into an acute food crisis.

“There are many foreign investors that would like to invest in the nation’s agricultural sector, but are hindered by the high level of insecurity little wonder why agriculture investment dropped to $59.17 million in the first half of 2022 representing the lowest in five years as insecurity remains a top concern for both local players and foreigners eyeing the agricultural sector, “said a stop player in the sector.

Stakeholders’ Recommendation

Agric stakeholders have at different fora and workshops advocated for increased investment into the nation’s food space such as deploying massive investment in mechanised farming, ensuring improved seedlings, supporting research institutes to develop climate resilient crops and improved quality of farm inputs. According to them, Nigeria must invest in areas where it has competitive and comparative advantage to take the nation out of doldrums especially at a time when the world is rapidly moving away from hydrocarbon resources which remains Nigeria’s primary source of foreign exchange revenue plug.

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) at a security meets business forum lamented on the high level of insecurity in the North East, noting that the situation is having a profound impact on food production.

The former president of the Chamber, Mrs. Toki Mabogunje, recommended that for the government to achieve better results in tackling insecurity, a key turning point should be to understand the causes of insecurity as well as to investigate the sources of social disorder and instability. She stated the need for collective and integrative security architecture by the federal, state, and local governments in Nigeria, saying that this arrangement should produce a strong and coordinated presence at village, community, local, state, and federal levels with the responsibility of providing sensitive security information for security agencies in their areas of operation.

“This will assist in identifying criminals, their sponsors, and hideouts in the country. We urge the government to sustain the needed funding for defence operations to equip the military with advanced weaponry and intelligence infrastructure. These should be supported by heavy deployment of modern military intelligence technologies,” she said.

AFAN urged the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mohammad Abubakar, to work closely with key agricultural sector players to transform the nation’s agric sector, noting that this was one of the surest ways to revive the sector while also achieving food security.

AFAN also tasked the federal government through the Minister of Agriculture to have a consolidated Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP) for 2021-2024 taking into consideration the input of agriculture stakeholders to make comments, observations and recommendations.