Abuja:  Nigeria is vulnerable to food crisis like any other country in the world, Dr Kanayo Nwanze, the President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), an agency of the UN, has warned.

Nwanze gave the warning on Sunday in Abuja

“Nigeria is one of the five countries that is vulnerable to food crisis like any other country in the world.

“The reason for this is very simple. If you end up importing over 50 per cent of what you consumed to a country, then you are subject to international vagaries of prices, weather and what have you and with climate change.

“You see, if a country is highly dependant on food imports, there is no way it can  assure the means of feeding its people.

“Because, even if you have the money and there is severe crisis like drought, they will want to feed the population first,” he said.

The IFAD president explained that the drought that ravaged some parts of Russia last year made the government to ban wheat exports.

He also recalled that the flood that submerged large areas of Pakistan last year, affected rice production in that country.

“Now, if a country like Nigeria is dependent on food import, then certainly, it risks being a victim of any food crisis,’’ he stressed.

Nwanze said, however, that Nigeria could avoid such crisis if the government built on the resilience of its people, especially the poor rural farmers by investing in agricultural systems.

He also underscored the need for investment that catered to the needs of the rural people, noting that they were always worst-hit in times of food crisis.

“We can build resilience of our people by investing in our agricultural systems but particularly the poor rural people; they are the ones that are most hit when you have food crisis and food price crisis.

“When you have vagaries of weather, due to climate change, they are the ones that are affected.

“So what we should be doing is basically what IFAD does; is to build community resilience; the ability to produce crops, to produce livestock, to have better storage facilities so that when the rains fail, they are able to sustain their livelihoods.

“The rains will fail; climate change is going to continue to worsen; the weather condition are going to get worst.

“There are going to be more floods; there are going to be more droughts, and so there is going to be more shortages of food, but if we prepare ourselves we can certainly avoid a food crisis.”

Nwanze noted that Nigeria, particularly needed to build the resilience of the rural population, who the major food producers in the country.

He said that such approach to agricultural development would enable the rural populace to sustain themselves and go beyond subsistence and make farming a profitable business. (NAN)