‘Nigeria Loses $30m Annually To Pests’

Not less than 30 million dollars is being lost annually to cowpea pests across the country in the past ten years.

The revelation was made by Professor of Entomology and Crop Science in the University of Port Harcourt, Prof Ndowa Lale at the 68th Inaugural Lecture of the institution.

Aside cowpea, the university don also revealed that 10 percent of the annual production of millet estimated at over four million dollars was lost as a result of the activity of store product pests.

The pest expert averred that their losses are responsible for the huge food deficit in the country on annual basis.

“Now with increased production only God knows how much we are going to lose more,” he said.

Prof. Lale said there was urgent need for the country to evolve strategies capable of combating these pests in order to ensure food security in the country.

He lamented that despite the presence of special institutions like the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI) pests have continued to deplete the country’s food resources and therefore solicited for more research.

Prof. Lale said the menace of pests would continue if the current poor funding suffered by the agriculture sector would continue.

 “In Rivers State, this year’s budget is as low as N2 billion, I think that is a huge joke and displays the level of unseriousness with which we treat  agriculture.”

Prof Lale submitted that the dream of having food security would continue to be a mirage, while calling on the government to revive Agriculture Development Programme (ADP) for efficiency.

Chinyere Agwu