Empowering Farmers to Avert Looming Acute Hunger

In 10 years from now, the number of hungry Nigerians could increase significantly due to food inflation. Gilbert Ekugbe stresses the need for economic managers to empower farmers or risk a higher percentage of the population face acute food insecurity in no distant time

Nigeria needs no crystal ball to reveal how severe its hunger levels would rise if no immediate attention is paid to avert the looming crisis of food scarcity in the country.

According to recent reports, approximately 17.7 million Nigerians are currently hungry, and this number may increase to 25 million if urgent action is not taken. Moreover, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has reported that around 26.5 million Nigerians are at risk of hunger in 2024, with individuals in the FCT, Sokoto, Borno, and Zamfara States being most at risk as these figures highlight the urgent need to address food insecurity in Nigeria.

Also, according to the World Bank’s latest edition of the Africa Pulse report, a biannual survey of African economies, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe are the sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries that recorded the fastest rise in food inflation in February this year. 

Not disregarding the efforts of the present administration’s drive to attain food security, but a lot more is still required for Nigeria to be self-sufficient in food production. With Nigeria’s population to rise to 263 million by 2030, hence, the urgent need to redouble its capacity to produce food is definitely not out of place. As it stands, the country still relies on food imports to meet to some of its food needs. Reports have it that Nigeria spends over $10 billion annually to meet its food and agricultural production shortfalls (mostly wheat, rice, poultry, fish, food services, and consumer-oriented foods). 

Food production in Nigeria

As it stands, insecurity in food producing States has greatly contributed to the skyrocketing prices of food items in the country as many farmers have abandoned their farms due to the spate of banditry and kidnapping especially in the Northern part of the country. The situation got so worrying that farmers had to pay the bandits and kidnappers to gain access to their farms until the present administration intervened with heavy military presence in the area under siege. 

Security is a critical concern for Nigerian farmers, with increasing armed attacks and kidnappings posing significant risks to their lives and livelihoods.

 In 2022 alone, more than 350 farmers were kidnapped or killed, leading to the abandonment or reduction of operations in many farms.

The insecurity has also forced hundreds of farmers to drop out of supervised networks, affecting agricultural productivity and food supply

Banditry is exacerbating food insecurity in the country by disrupting food availability and access. Armed banditry in states like Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Benue, and Niger is hindering economic activities, leading to rising costs of food and essential commodities, compounding the challenges faced by vulnerable populations. The high level of insecurity not only affects food production but also creates barriers to food distribution, exacerbating the already dire food security situation in the country.

Nigeria is also not immune to the climate change and the aftermath effects of COVID 19. Most Nigerian farmers are dependent on rain fed agriculture and as a result, have seen their productivity level plummet especially for farmers who still depend on hoes and cutlasses.

Prior to the pandemic, Nigeria’s agricultural sector was already affected by challenges such as drought and flooding due to climate change even as the pandemic has disrupted food production systems, leading to food shortages and high food prices.

Government Efforts

Recently, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, reaffirmed the present administration’s renewed hope to attain food security. To boost food production, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with John Deere to establish a tractor plant in Nigeria, with the aim of producing a minimum of 2,000 tractors per year for five years, saying that the agreement is part of the government’s efforts to create a conducive environment for farmers to access tractors for farming activities and raise yield and food security.

According to him, agricultural mechanisation remained a key part of the agricultural reforms under President Bola Tinubu, who has committed to ensuring that the age-long challenges of mechanisation due to the lack of machinery is resolved.

Abubakar reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to improve food and nutrition security through mechanisation, adding that the tractors would be accessible, available, and affordable for small, large-scale, and cooperative farmers across the country. 

He also revealed that the federal government had procured 58,500 tonnes of milled rice from Rice Millers Association of Nigeria for stabilisation of the market force.

To reduce the impact of climate change on small farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) have also strengthened their partnership to boost agricultural production in their bids to mitigate the impact of climate variability on farmers’ livelihoods in the country.

He pointed out that the collaboration between the Ministry and NiMet underscores the importance of interagency cooperation in addressing challenges related to agricultural production and food security.

Support for farmers

Recently, one of the leading Pan-African commodities players, AFEX revealed that more than 80 per cent of Nigerian farmers still existed around and below the poverty line on the back of rising climate change effects on the continent among other factors.

The company revealed in its report that rural poverty in Nigeria is more widespread in 2023 compared to baseline measurement in 2020. It added that Climate change effects have become increasingly relevant in Africa, with farmers facing record impacts on their activities.

It said, “Smallholder farmers face numerous challenges that hinder their productivity, profitability, and participation in agricultural value chains. These challenges include limited access to finance, markets, technology, and information, as well as climate change vulnerability. The federal government must make it a point of duty to provide cheap funds for local farmers. The cost of input is rising amid low purchasing power of farmers to afford farm inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides and seeds.” 

Local farmers require access to quality inputs like seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides to enhance productivity and income.

Apart from providing cheap funds for farmers, investing in rural infrastructure development, including better road networks, irrigation schemes, and reliable power supplies, can improve the efficient transportation and storage of agricultural inputs.

Recently, the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) announced a $7.3m fertilizer funding to the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism (AFFM) aimed at overhauling African agriculture into a productive, competitive and sustainable sector. This goes to show the emphasis global agriculture bodies lay on the important role of fertiliser in attaining food security. Economic managers must latch on to this opportunity to equip Nigerian farmers with quality and affordable fertilizers to boost farmers’ productivity. Nigeria has been touted to be a net exporter of food on the continent and even the world at large, but clearly lacks the wherewithal to make this happen. 

Stakeholders recommendation

Speaking, the National President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Mr. Kabir Ibrahim, called on the present administration to prioritise investments in safeguarding the lives of farmers who are being forced at gunpoint to pay a certain amount of money before they could gain access to their farmlands, stating that Nigeria’s aspiration to attain food security would remain a wild goose chase until insecurity in food producing states of the country is addressed by the federal government.

He pointed out that for Nigeria to feed its growing population and play its role as the giant of Africa by providing food to so many countries in its immediate neighborhood and as well remain a veritable market to all of Africa through its role as the most important player in AfCFTA, it should address issues like embarking on mass education of smallholder farmers and potential agriprenuers on the need to produce food all-year-round by embracing science, technology and innovation, climate smart agricultural production, sustainable value addition, distribution, marketing etc, among others.

The Chief Executive Officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises, Muda Yusuf, stated the urgent need for Nigeria to as a matter of urgency invest in mechanised farming, lamenting that Nigeria with a population size of about 200 million people still depends on hoes and cutlasses to meet its food demands.

“There is a problem of security and there is also nothing on the horizon to show that the issue will be addressed anytime soon even as the problem seems to be getting worse. If we do not fix security, how are we going to get people farming and if people are not farming how do they produce and if they are not producing how will the price come down. So the outlook from the point of insecurity and logistics, inadequate application of technology to agriculture, the problems are still there,” he lamented.