Tackling Food Shortage In Nigeria

It is increasingly evident that Nigeria has become a largest importer of food in the world.  The number of imported food items in Nigerian markets today will cause any well-meaning Nigerian to worry about the future of this nation.  Nigeria is regarded as food basked of Africa but disappointly, the so called food basket cannot even feed itself talk more of Africa.  All kinds of food from all over the world find their  way into Nigeria.  We import wheat, sugar, fish, milk, vegetables, fruits, rice and other food items which could  be abundantly product locally.
I was at a shop a few days ago to buy rice and was amazed at the variety of imported rice from different countries of the world on display-India, China, Pakistan, Thiland Italy, Indonesia and others.
The major country whose rice was conspicuously absent was Nigeria yet, we consume over 2.5 million tones of rice yearly.
In 2012, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina announced that conscientious efforts were being made under the Agricultural Transformation Action Plan (ATAP) to reduce rice importation to zero by this year, 2013.
He said, “the country imports today 500,000 tonnes of brown rice which is imported into the country from other countries.
“Now our plan is by 2013 to reduce that down to zero, which means that 500,000 metric tones of rice would be produced by Nigeria”.
It’s barely one month to the end of 2013 and we are yet to see the realization of that plan.  Neither have we seen the positive result of the N10 billion rice intervention fund which was said to be intended to build about 17 rice miles in the country.  Instead, the country has become the dumping ground of all types of rice both the high quality and low quality ones. Even the recent federal government’s policy stopping rice importation into the country through the boarder but through the ports in order to control its importation has made little or no difference.
Indeed it is very sad that despite all we have been told about government’s efforts towards improving agriculture in Nigeria, the country still cannot feed its citizens.
This is a clear departure from the reality of Nigeria in the 1960s when agriculture provided the main source of employment, income and foreign exchange earnings for the nation.
Until the discovery of oil in Nigeria in 1958, agriculture was the country’s mainstay of the economy with different regions boasting of different cash crops like groundnut, cocoa, rubber, palm oil produce and many more.
Today, with the expanse land and over 160 million people, Nigeria cannot feed its citizens not to talk of exporting to other lands.
Some stakeholders in the agricultural sector have argued that with over 79 million hectares of arable land, diversified ecological conditions, abundant water resources and adequate rainfall, there is no reason for Nigerians to be hungry or jobless.  They posit that the increasing social vices, rise in crime rates and security challenges are results of poor attention to agriculture.
A major disturbing development is the dwindling population of farmers in the country, as farming has become largely unattractive to the youth because of certain socio-economic considerations and the archaic system of farming still in use.
We cannot possibly expect a graduate to go back to the village to farm, carry hoe and cutlass and start digging.  But you give him a tractor and other modern farming equipments, he will be more willing to go into farming.
It is therefore imperative that different levels of government should institute pragmatic plans to make farming more appealing, particularly to the youth, as part of their efforts to transform agricultural and boost food production in Nigeria.
Government should encourage farming by providing modern farming  implements to farmers to boost their production.  A situation where most farmers still rely on crude farming implements is most discouraging.
Farmers who are willing to expand their farms often complain of lack of support from banks. Unless this problem is solved and provision of soft loans to farmers is made possible, our dream of having a thriving agricultural sector may just be a mirage.
Provision of power, accessible roads and good transport system is also paramount.  Many farm products perish in villages due to non-availability of access roads and transport system to bring them to the cities for the consumers.  Yet there are no storage facilities for them to store these products.
Some people have also argued that proper enforcement of the ban on importation of certain farm produce and production of high quality local ones will reduce the crave for imported goods.
There is indeed need for federal, state and local governments, as well as individuals and entrepreneurs to show more commitment to agriculture if we must the current status of Nigeria as the largest importer of food in the world must change and if we must avert the looming food crisis.
For there to be adequate food in the country individuals, cooperative societies clubs and others should invest in agriculture.  This will not only assure adequate food supply in the country, but will also create jobs for our unemployed youths, make our society peaceful and secured.

Calista Ezeaku