23rd April 2024
The new report that about 26.5 million Nigerians will be food-insecure this year should make the government to initiate and implement urgent policies to boost food production across the country. One of such reports from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reveals that children are the most vulnerable to food insecurity. According to UNICEF, over 17 million Nigerians in 2023 were confirmed to be food-insecure, with 5-year-olds at great risk of mortality attributed to malnutrition.
Although the vulnerable children vary across geopolitical zones, rural and urban settings, the report says they are more in states in the North-East and North-West zones. The states are Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Zamfara, Katsina and Sokoto. The food insecurity has been worsened by the current rising food prices despite the recent rebound of the naira against major foreign currencies. Unfortunately, the ‘stronger’ naira has failed to reduce soaring prices of food items.
The government should address the remote and immediate causes of food insecurity. Failure to urgently do so might lead to dire consequences. Considering the nation’s increasing population, efforts to boost food production must receive priority attention. To be food-insecure means having insufficient food to generate a calorie requirement of about 2200-2300 calories per day for adult females and 2900 -3000 calories per day for adult males. Children require a lower calorie intake to maintain adequate health condition.
According to the World Bank and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), a country like Nigeria that is highly dependent on food imports is bound to experience a spike in food inflation, which currently is at all-time high of 40 per cent for the month of March. No doubt, the general insecurity across the country has contributed to the nation’s food insecurity. The recent NBS household survey of expenditures shows that the cost of achieving the required calorie level per annum is over N150,000. Based on the survey, about 40 per cent of the Nigerian population is identified as food-secure.
Unlike better-off households, who can afford a wider range of foods, the poor have very few substitutes for staples, which make up nearly two-thirds of their daily diet. Data from the World Food Programme (WFP) for 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), show that the share of those in stressed food security situation with minimally adequate food consumption is less than 30 per cent of the population.
Let the government prioritise agricultural sector through massive investments. While agriculture used to contribute about 23 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), this has reduced considerably due to insecurity and farmers/herders clashes. The consequence is the present increase in the prices of essential food items. The federal government’s plan to cultivate 500,000 hectares of land across the country to boost food production is laudable. For the government to be able to adequately feed Nigerians, the efforts to reduce food prices must go beyond the current enforcement of price control. There must be genuine efforts to make food affordable. State governments should give incentives to farmers for them to produce enough food.
The government should strive to reach the level of food security already attained by Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. Let it keep inflation rate at single-digit, and crop yields of at least 6.5 tons per hectare of land, as well as food imports share as low as 10 per cent. With high yields, Nigeria’s food security is guaranteed. However, our crop yield is currently very low because of scarcity of fertilisers, inadequate rainfall and climate change.
To boost domestic food production, government must adopt agricultural promotional policies. For example, in 2008, the federal government launched the Root and Tuber Expansion Programme(RTEP), which was designed to increase the production of root and tuber crops such as cassava, garri, yam, potato and others. Its other goals included the improvement of the living conditions, income, food security and nutritional health of the poorest smallholder farmers. It was targeted at small-scale farmers with less than two hectares of land. Since it succeeded in boosting food production, the present administration should replicate it.
Also, reducing food imports and encouraging exports will boost food production. Available statistics from the CBN and NBS show that Nigeria spent about N7.8 trillion on food imports in the last six years. Of this amount, N1.9trillion was spent in 2022, and N2trillion in 2021. The amount spent on imported food products accounted for 7.29 per cent of the total imports. Nigeria imported N1.2trillion worth of agricultural products in 2020, and N959 billion in 2019, accounting for 5.66 per cent of total imports. It was N857billion and N886.8billion in 2018 and 2017, respectively.
Sadly, we have not done so well in the export of agricultural products. For instance, Nigeria exported N598billion worth of agricultural products in 2022, N504.9billion in 2021, N321billion in 2020, N302.3billion and N170.4billion in 2019 and 2018, respectively. The huge food import has contributed to the depletion of our external reserves, currently put at $32billion. Therefore, the government should spur private sector investment in food production by subsidising the cost of seeds herbicides, pesticides, fertilisers and agro-machinery.
SOURCE:THE SUN