President Bola Tinubu during his speech on the country’s 64th Independence Day anniversary celebration admitted that insecurity in the North East and other regions has been impacting on food production as farmers refuse to return to their farms.

Situation reports show that bandits have taken over the farms with very few farmers being allowed after paying ransome. had reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to restoring peace in Nigeria’s troubled northern region, enabling displaced farmers to return to their farmlands and increase food production.

“We expect to see a leap in food production and a downward spiral in food costs. I promise you, we shall not falter on this,” Tinubu declared during his 2024 Anniversary Broadcast on Nigeria’s 64th Independence Day.

Tinubu expressed confidence in his administration’s progress in combating terrorism and banditry, aiming to eliminate threats from banditry, kidnapping, and violent extremism. He highlighted the elimination of over 300 Boko Haram members and bandit commanders by Nigerian troops.

“We have restored peace to hundreds of communities in the North and thousands of our people have been able to return home. It is an unfinished business, which our security agencies are committed to ending as quickly as possible,” Tinubu emphasised.

Production

Following the poor state of the economy and dwindling food production, a pan-Yoruba organisation, Afenifere, called on the Federal Government to intensify efforts in improving key sectors such as security, agriculture, education, and the economy.

Afenifere leader, Chief Reuben Famuyide Fasoranti, made this known in a statement and delivered by National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, in a message congratulating Nigerians on the 64th anniversary of the nation’s independence.

Afenifere commended Nigerians for their resilience, expressing hope that the country’s situation would improve soon. “The Federal Government, under President Bola Tinubu, must enhance its work in security, agriculture, education, and the economy.

“Efforts must also be directed at improving existing infrastructure while creating more,” the message read.

Middlemen

The country’s agric sector has been confronted with lots of inherent challenges in the last one year mostly in the area of food availability.

Just recently, the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) disclosed that the country’s 80 per cent naira devaluation to the dollar was encouraging middlemen from neighbouring countries into Nigerian markets to buy-off food produce from local farmers.

The National Chairman of AFAN, Arc. Kabir Ibrahim, in an interview with New Telegraph, said food scarcity and rising costs of foods would continue as produce moves out en-mass through Nigerian borders.

According to him, it is unfortunate that Nigeria is surrounded by over 100 million Francophone country citizens who have been targeting Nigerian produce taking advantage of the country’s naira devaluation to stockpile foodstuff and move them outside Nigeria.

Dry season

In a bid to actualise the attainment of food production in the country, the President Bola Tinubu-led administration kick-started dry season farming to complement food production.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, had stated that dry season farming offered Nigeria a unique opportunity to harness its untapped potential and diversify her food production capabilities.

According to him, this particular programme is being funded by African Development Bank (AfDB), and state governments have also begun to key into the exercise.

He said: “We have the experience in Jigawa State with massive support for their farmers, and amongst other states in the country too. “And now, the Federal Government is also keying into it, because of its importance to food security in the country.

So, it’s a programme that is targeting wheat, maize, rice and cassava. “So these are the four crops for the 2023/ 2024 dry season farming in the country.

We also have sorghum, soybeans for the wet season. So for those crops we have identified for the dry season, is a budget support from the AfDB.

Collaboration

In response to the declaration of emergency on food and water by President Tinubu in line with the food security pillar of the renewed hope agenda, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security disclosed that the ministry was promoting collaborations across the board with all stakeholders on food security.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Kyari, had stated in an interview with New Telegraph in Lagos, that the move was to bring about the necessary transformation in the food system required for the immediate and longterm interventions.

To underscore the importance of collaboration, Kyari pointed out that areas such as finance, transport, energy, security, and water were vital for agriculture to thrive, but require the intervention of other MDAs in finance, petroleum, water, and security sectors. aid: “Likewise, to bring about trans

Nigeria is still struggling and striving at this time of its independence to attain food security with massive hunger, hardship, poverty and improvishment still ravaging the entire citizens

ormative change we need private sector participation in the areas of investment, innovation, promotion of models that can ensure sustainability while government provides the enabling environment.

“As an immediate response, we have called for partnerships across the board and repurposed various interventions to help ramp up the production of staple commodities, starting with wheat in the dry season, dovetailing into rice and maize, and then to cassava and soybeans in the rainy season. These staple crops also support livestock and fisheries feed production.

Flooding

One of the biggest threats to Nigeria’s food security has been the adverse impacts of floods on farmlands, which have resulted to massive disruptions of food production in the country.

Specifically, in what has become one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent memory, at least 170 people have been killed, and more than 200,000 others displaced in northern Nigeria due to weeks of relentless flooding, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

NEMA spokesperson, Manzo Ezekiel, in an interview with CNN, highlighted the severity of the situation, noting that the northern region had been the hardest hit by floods.

However, he warned that other parts of the country remained at risk as torrential rains continue and water levels in the Niger and Benue rivers rise.

He said: “The pattern of flooding in Nigeria is such that it usually happens on the northern side before moving to the central and the southern parts… because the water flows downwards,” Ezekiel explained.

“In the coming days, the central parts will soon witness similar floods, and even downwards to the southern parts.”

While floods are common in Nigeria during the rainy season, this year’s events have been unprecedented, affecting areas that have not traditionally been prone to such disasters.

“The situation is such that some places that were not previously known to be prone to floods are experiencing floods this time because of climate change,” Ezekiel told CNN.

Environmental experts have pointed to poor drainage infrastructure as a contributing factor to the country’s recurring flood problems. The flooding has drawn comparisons to the catastrophic events of 2022, when over 600 people were killed, making it the deadliest flood in over a decade.

Last year’s disaster was largely attributed to unusually heavy rainfall and the overflow of the Lagdo dam in Cameroon.

Land irrigation

The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has made significant strides in supporting Nigeria’s agricultural sector by irrigating over 24,000 hectares of farmland in 2023.

This achievement was highlighted in the recently released 2023 REA Capital Project Report. The Federal Government’s initiative to cultivate 500,000 hectares of irrigable land for dry-season farming, announced last year, underscores the nation’s commitment to enhancing food security.

The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utse, reiterated this commitment during the launch of the 2023/24 dry-season farming program by the Benin Owena River Basin Development Authority in November.

With rising concerns over food security, the United Nations has projected that the number of people facing hunger in Nigeria could rise to 82 million by 2030.

Contributing to this challenge, food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation reached 40.8 per cent in July 2024, accounting for 51.8 per cent of the overall headline inflation on a year-on-year basis.

Experts attribute the soaring food prices to a combination of factors, including insecurity, climate change, and naira devaluation. Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, had highlighted Nigeria as the country with the second-highest food insecurity rate in the world.

He stated this in an interview with media practitioner Lara Adekoro. Gates addressed the severe challenges of nutrition facing Nigeria and the broader African continent, attributing much of the crisis to the impacts of climate change.

Summit

Nigeria is set to host key stakeholders from the Economic Community of West African States to discuss ways to address the security challenges hindering farming and agricultural production across the region.

The Director-General of the ECOWAS Food and Cultural Festival, Felix Ihonre, revealed this during an interview with journal – ists on the sidelines of the Preparatory/Interministerial Meeting for the festival in Abuja.

Indeed, the ECOWAS Food and Cultural Festival is scheduled to take place in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, from October 6 to 11, 2024.

Ihonre stated that the festival would bring together key players from the food security and security sectors to propose solutions to the challenges affecting farming and agricultural production in Nigeria and other West African countries.

“Nigeria, as the host of the ECOWAS Food and Cultural Festival, which will be held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, from 6th to 11th October 2024, stands to benefit significantly in areas such as tourism, sustainable development, cultural integration, poverty alleviation, youth employment, and women in agriculture,” he said.

The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) also urged government at all levels to engage in more interventions in feed production for local farmers, especially with maize and soya to turn around the fortune of the country’s poultry industry.

The chairman of PAN in Lagos, Mojeed Iyiola, who made this plea in Lagos, said that proper attention was needed to be prioritised on grain availability this year in the country’s poultry industry to save local farmers of their poultry businesses in the country.

Last line

It’s not a good signal that Nigeria is still struggling and striving at this time of its independence to attain food security with massive hunger, hardship, poverty and improvishment still ravaging the en tire citizens.

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