CALEB ONWE 
Food security is one phrase that has gained a lot of prominence and strategic mentioning in both economic and political lexicon of Nigeria. However, government at all levels, including relevant stakeholders have, over the years, been grappling with various agricultural policies that are targeted at achieving food security without success. CALEB ONWE reports
Experts in the country’s agriculture and food production have doubt that the agric policies being articulated by governments at all levels, will ever yield the desired results because of their insensitiveness towards policy summersaults.
In short, they said that going by the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security’s definition of food security, Nigeria is still daydreaming and has not shown enough political will to meet urgent expectations in food production by all standards. According to the United Nations, for any country to be seen to have achieved food security, its populace ought to “have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life.”
FAO’s recent report While the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has over time claimed that food security has been achieved in Nigeria, recent events and independent evaluation by global organisations have exposed such claims as a high-tech woven intrigue, deceit and endless cover-up of the present administration’s towards Nigerian agric development.
Fresh indication emerging from the periodic reports of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations revealed that about 13.8 million Nigerians may face acute food shortage by the second quarter of 2021. The same report revealed that despite the efforts of government and other stakeholders in the agric sector, about 9.8 million people in the country are already in serious food crisis.
This periodic report arising from the Cadre Harmonise analysis funded by FAO and other agencies, disclosed that about 16 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were badly hit by the food crisis.
FAO vehemently warned that if no drastic measures are put in place to mitigate the food crisis, the number of people who could face hunger crisis in Nigeria within few months from now would increase to 14 million. The report reveals that about 9.8 million people in Nigeria are expected to be in a hunger crisis or worse between October and December 2020, and if immediate measures are not taken to mitigate the situation, about 13.8 million people will be facing acute food shortage crisis between June and August 2021.
The number could grow to about 14 million if measures are not taken in time to avert the hunger crisis. Sixteen states across the country, including the Federal Capital Territory, show that more Nigerians in northern states are pushed to acute food shortage crisis mainly due to floods, climate change effects and the ongoing decade-long armed insurgency.
The report further quoted FAO Representative in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Fred Kafeero, who said the food crisis was worsened by the COVID- 19-induced lockdown and other preventive restrictions, which could be responsible for the low food production, access to markets. Kafeero also noted that during the pandemic lockdown, farmers had no access to farm inputs that would have enhanced productivity.
He added: “This is compounded by the insecurity in some parts of the country, crop, pests and diseases infestation among others. “Several households are still currently experiencing difficulties in assessing their basic food and non-food needs due to disrupted livelihoods resulting into reduced household income sources. It is good to see government and other stakeholders are joining hands to take actions to mitigate these effects.”
FG’s borrowed 5,000mt of grain from ECOWAS
Agric stakeholders have also said that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s claim on food security is the highest deceit of the century. According to them, the country cannot be food secured when government loaned 5,000 metric tonnes of grain from the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) to boost its food reserve. To them, it was a rude shock to hear from the Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Baba Shehuri, that Nigeria loaned about 5,000 metric tonnes of assorted grains from the ECOWAS. Shehuri spoke in Kano when he received another 3.399 metric tonnes worth of cereals as humanitarian assistance from same ECOWAS.
The minister disclosed that “the government of Federal Republic of Nigeria loaned 5,000MT of assorted grains from ECOWAS stock which was agreed to be paid back on grain for grain basis.” He unwittingly blamed COVID -19 for Nigeria’s failure to have returned the grains to ECOWAS according to the agreement reached. He explained that modalities had been put in place to replace the ECOWAS stock before the advent of COVID-19.
That notwithstanding, I can assure you that the stock will be replaced in due course. More confirmation that Nigeria was vulnerable to food crisis also came from the ECOWAS Commissioner for Agriculture, Water Resources & Environment, Sangare Sekou. Sekou said: “In compliance with the management rules adopted by the Member States, food from the Regional Food Security Reserve alongside with national governments efforts, countries with larger populations that are most stricken by food insecurity are ones chosen to receive food donation.”
He also added that ECOWAS decided to make food donations to Nigeria, like smaller countries like Burkina Faso, the Republic of Niger and Mali because the country has humanitarian crisis and most vulnerable populations living in Northern region.
Flooding
Also, following a report emerged that heavy flooding destroyed farmlands and crops in Kebbi, Zamfara, Bauchi, Sokoto, Niger, Rivers, Kwara states and other parts of the country, have further strengthened agricultural analysts’ forecast that Nigeria was in for the worst, with inevitable food crisis. Kebbi State, known for its comparative advantage in rice production, allegedly lost about 500,000 hectares of farm produce estimated at over N5 billion. Both international and local agriculture agencies have expressed worries, saying that the flood portends grave dangers for the food security policies.
Mopping of grain for palliative
The President of Small-scale Women Farmers’ in Nigeria (SWOFON), Mrs. Mary AFAN, had also reportedly raised another concern, noting that the meager crops left for rural farmers and families to survive with, were mopped up as palliatives, which eventually didn’t get to those who deserved it. She lamented: “Look, when they were giving out palliatives, they came to mop up food from communities. We removed all our crops and sold them out, so that they could share it as palliatives to people in the city and expected that during the rainy season, government would give out palliatives to farmers to increase production, knowing well that we have removed our food from the reserve to sell out, but we didn’t get anything. “And if there is any year that we have had high cost of inputs like fertilizers, seeds and herbicide, it is this year.” She further expressed worries that the rural people would be hit by acute food shortage, because government was not taking any tangible steps to encourage farmers to produce more foods. “We don’t have the resources, why it is that government that has the wherewithal does not want to give the farmers the support to increase production,” she added.
Last line
Agric analysts have unequivocally urged government to heed the timely warning coming from FAO and other stakeholders and take proactive action to arrest the anxiety. According to them, making policies that are never implemented after wasting huge budgeted funds is counter-productive and cannot mitigate the growing food crisis in the country.
