Attaining Food Sufficiency In Nigeria

By all means, food is the most basic need of man, as no person or animal can survive without food.

The truism aptly underscores the rising concern about tackling hunger and food-related forms of deprivation across the world.

The fear of hunger and its consequences have compelled governments to initiate and manage feasible food production programmes, while making efforts to expand their citizens’ access to food.

In Nigeria, the three tiers of government have been striving to promote food production in the dire need to feed the increasing population and avert a food crisis.

In spite of the government’s efforts, among others, observers note that some hapless Nigerians are still starving, as some people still go to bed on empty stomachs.

Michael Suleiman, a civil servant in Abuja, says that hunger is still afflicting several Nigerians because of some factors, including cash crunch problems.

“Hunger is like a monstrous masquerade that delights in beating poor people with the ‘starvation’ cane; terrifying its victims who often go to sleep with empty stomachs,’’ he says.

Suleiman, a father of five, however, says that he was very happy when the Federal Government recently released 45,000 tonnes of assorted grains, including rice, and sorghum, for sale to the public.

He says that the measure, although palliative, would force down the prices of some foodstuffs, while giving appreciable succour to poor people who are already groaning under the yoke of spiralling food prices.

Suleiman’s sentiments tend to reflect the views of many observers who lament that the food prices are becoming increasingly prohibitive by the day.

The development is quite worrisome to Hajia Nafisat Mohammed, a housewife, who quips that the “fear of the market is the beginning of wisdom’’.

Mohammed, however, believes that the government’s release of grains for public sales will go a long way in alleviating the effects of the soaring prices of foodstuffs.

Experts note that the government usually releases grains from its strategic reserves whenever there is the need to avert a looming food crisis.

However, the Federal Government and several non-governmental organisations have always been expressing their determination to find lasting solutions to food scarcity through short, medium and long-term measures to boost the country’s food security programme.

Efforts in that direction include organising seminars and workshops, providing agricultural extension services and agricultural inputs such as fertilisers and agro-allied chemicals for farmers to enhance crop yields.

However, Tina Hassan, an agricultural expert, says that climate change issues have now become part of the predominant focus of most discussions not only in Nigeria but also across the world because of their effects on the survival of individuals and countries.

She, nonetheless, insists that the amount of rainfall in Nigeria in spite of the climate change effects can still engender bumper harvests.

Another expert, George Fadodun, says that Nigeria has abundant human and natural resources, including arable lands and crop varieties, to initiate and sustain pragmatic food security programmes.

He says that a major problem remains the disparity between agricultural policies and agricultural projects or programmes, leading to discrepancies in policy implementation.

“All of these slow down the fulfilment of the country’s food security programmes,’’ he says.

Fadodun calls on the three tiers of government to commit more resources to the full and pragmatic implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the National Programme for Food Security (NPFS).

However, Dr Fatima Ibrahim, an agricultural economist, urges the government to pay tangible attention to the concerns of smallholder farmers in the implementation of the NPFS, while initiating agrarian reforms that would give emphasis to the needs of small-scale farmers.

She also wants the government to initiate a policy that would enable disadvantaged sections of the society to have greater access to lands.

Ibrahim says that the recommended land redistribution programme should be in favour of women and other marginalised groups such as small-scale farmers, fishermen, pastoralists, agricultural workers and off-farm rural communities, among others.

She particularly says that credit schemes should be initiated to cater to the financial needs of farmers, particularly smallholder farmers and women, emphasising that this will go a long way in boosting food production in the country.

However, some groups are leading the campaign to promote food sufficiency in the country and ActionAid is one of such agencies.

ActionAid recently organised a forum with the theme: “The food situation in Nigeria: The way forward” in Abuja for stakeholders to discuss ways of checking hunger in the country.

The forum had participants drawn from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the Farmers Network, the National Planning Commission and food security agencies, among others.

After paper presentations and discussions, the participants reaffirmed the widely accepted notion that Nigeria, with over 140 million inhabitants, had the wherewithal to feed its citizens, adding that the country had good climatic conditions that would support food production throughout the year.

The forum in its recommendations called on the relevant authorities to promote a better synergy among government agencies in implementing the NPFS.

The participants stressed the need to sensitise farmers to the emerging challenges of climate change, while efforts should be made to pay equal wages to workers in the agricultural sector and enforce the minimum wage payable to the workers.

They canvassed the need for increased research and development activities by revitalising the National Agricultural Research System, while assisting farmers’ associations to realise their food production targets.

The participants urged donor agencies to increase their aid to agriculture programmes, particularly small-scale farming, while abolishing policy conditions that compromised Nigeria’s agriculture, self-sufficiency and food sovereignty.

Besides, they called on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to support and strengthen those organisations that were committed to the promotion of “the food rights and food sovereignty of the country’’.

The participants also urged the NGOs to participate in global campaigns to promote best agricultural practices and policies that would bolster the rights of poor people to food and livelihood.

These measures, they said, would have far-reaching effects in checking food crisis and hunger in the country, if faithfully implemented.

However, Dr Tunde Arosanyin, the Chairman of the Kogi State chapter of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), stresses that a lot has to be done in efforts to stem hunger in the country.

He insists that the Federal Government must necessarily embark on aggressive food production via mechanised farming, so as to make more food available in the country.

He also implores the federal, state and local governments to provide good roads, potable water, functional health facilities and electricity for people living in the rural areas, while making life more meaningful for the farmers.

Besides, Arosanyin urges the government to encourage young Nigerians to take up interest in agriculture and adopt farming as a profession.

All the same, experts insist that for the country to attain sufficiency in food production, the government, the people and all the stakeholders have complementary roles to play in the venture.

They urge Nigeria to take a cue from China which, in spite of its huge population, is able to feed its people and even export food to other countries.

Ahmed writes for NAN.

Dada Ahmed