FAO prediction on imminent food crisis in Nigeria attracts divergent reactions

FAO’s prediction that Nigeria, Morocco and Bangladesh face imminent food crisis has attracted divergent reactions from stakeholders in the nation’s agricultural sector. The report, posted on the UN agency’s website, stated that the world food situation was in dire straits.

It indicated that the global average price of foodstuffs such as maize, rice, sugar, wheat, meat and diary products soared by 25 per cent in the international basket in 2010, compared to the December 2009 levels. It also warned that if the situation was not urgently addressed, it could induce one of the worst food riots the world had ever witnessed.

“It could also engender geo-political tensions like the type that rocked Mexico and Indonesia in 2008, fuel global inflation and increase hunger amongst the planet’s poorest people,” the FAO report stated. Concerned about the adverse consequences of food insecurity to the socio-political and economic well being of Nigerians

Reacting to the report, the Minister of Agriculture, Prof Sheikh Abdullah, said in Abuja that the Federal Government would not panic over such a report and criticised the authors for not seeking his opinion as Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture.

“Nobody sought my opinion; neither did anybody speak with the Minister of State for Agriculture or any of the stakeholders in the agricultural sector before coming out with the report,” he said. According to him, such reports are often based on assumption and insufficient analysis.

However, he said the current administration was aware of the global food crisis and that efforts were ongoing to reposition the nation’s agricultural value chain for sustainable development. He noted that post harvest losses, among other factors, hampered government efforts toward the attainment of food security and food sufficiency in Nigeria. However, he said the Federal Government was already implementing several programmes aimed at promoting best practices in agricultural development.

He said that the ongoing National Programme for Agriculture and Food Security provided the road map for the implementation all agricultural government-assisted agricultural programmes.

He identified them as including the Commercial Agriculture Development Programme (CADP), FADAMA III, NERICA Rice Project and the IFAD-assisted Community-Based Natural Resource Management Development Programme (CBNRMP), Community-Based Agricultural and Rural Development Programme (CBARDP) and the Rural Finance Institutions Building Programme (RUFIN).

According to the minister, the nation’s food storage capacity is also being boosted from its present 300,000 tonnes to three million tonnes with the ongoing construction of new silos.

“Apart from the silos projects, the ministry has also established 17 integrated large-scale rice processing mills in 12 states. More than 174,000 tonnes of assorted grains have been purchased from 2009 to date under the “Guaranteed Minimum Price Scheme (GMPS) even as N8.76 billion was expended on the mopping up of some food commodities such as millet, paddy rice, maize, garri and sorghum,” he said. In Kano, Prof Ahmed Falaki, an agricultural researcher, disagreed with the FAO prediction

All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) Delta State chapter, expressed concern that the rate at which Nigerian youths were shunning agriculture could trigger food crisis in the country. Our youths are leaving the farms in droves,’’ he said, and stressed the need for the Federal Government to have a definite agricultural policy direction.

Osai, a former Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Delta, also stressed the need for each state to have its own road map for the development of agriculture.

Chief Owere Imasogie, a member, Governing Board, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) in Benin, Edo State, dismissed the report, saying that Nigeria cannot face food shortages, claiming that food production level was high. Mrs Stella Ogu, a commercial farmer in Edo, urged the government to “religiously” implement its agricultural policies.