Nigeria’s food crisis amidst economic downturn

Under utilisation of Nigeria’s agricultural potentials has left lamentations with resonating echoes of dirge. The mere consideration of such conditions as food scarcity and the associated crises are expression of nothing but paradox. The rhetoric remains why the Country with the enormity of human and depth of natural resources would be grappling with appalling conditions of food crisis. It is saddening that while Nigeria should confidently be boosting of a virile agriculture based economy driven by depth of agro-allied exports, she is still grappling with acute shortages of food production – far below the needs of her population.

It is, by all means, evident that the neglect of agriculture over the years which is largely informed by the cheap turn of attention to oil and the associated dominant concentration on its proceeds, have begun to tell its effects on the Country. The vagaries of oil prices have so far brought the Country to a state where instability has become a deforming shut on the economy’s heel. Sliding into recession with sporadic fall in global oil prices have become a character of the Nigerian economy most recently. It is now evident that the Nigerian economy with its mono-based oil driven status is so conditioned to the vagaries of global oil prices, and as such, exposed to the forces of negatives in the trends.

As the waves of global oil prices have come to hit huge blow on the economy recently, the senses of the government appear to have been struck to awake to the reality of the dangers inherent in reposing all eggs in the basket of oil with the neglect of other sectors, particularly on agriculture where the Country has potentials of comparative advantages. As the need to resuscitate the economy by diversifying the revenue base becomes more demanding, the pronounced significance of taking recourse to agriculture has become centralised. This is indisputable considering the depth of human and natural advantages at the disposal of the Country.

However, it remains apparent that years of neglect have left huge gaps which call for depths of investment with strategic policy instruments backed with seasoned implementation structures to bridge the wide gap of raising agriculture as one pillar standing firmly among the bases upon which the economy rests.

It is however indisputable that the challenges the sector is presently ridden with, have over the years become so deep seated and far weightier than the ongoing investments channeled into it. Over time, issues of flooding, poor infrastructures, preponderance of crude implements in the production value chain, among others, are long seated challenges frustrating stakeholders in the sector. The poor state of government driven investment to develop mechanisation for large scale productivity in the Country, has made mechanised agriculture an unpurchased luxury in the Country.

Issues of environmental hazards and natural disasters, such as floods, drought, erosion, among others, are challenges which have always been with the sector in the Country. Poor infrastructures for the chain of agricultural production along the lines of cultivation, harvests, transportation and storage, have been a major challenge. Huge gaps within the profile of these configurations have made agriculture to remain at the edge of traditional profile of productivity, as the profile of  mechanised culture remains very infantile in the Country. Larger percentage of farmers in the Country still fall within the categorisation of traditional practice with challenges of the crudeness and tedious processes of local implements and poor storage facilities.

The records of heaps of losses suffered by farmers owing to poor storage facilities in the Country have been noted to be responsible for one of the largest source of wastage in the profile of post-harvest losses. On Wednesday, the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, in his lamentation over the inadequacy of storage facilities for farm products in the Country, noted that the gaps is responsible for the loss of about 60 per cent of farm produce before consumption. The Minister who spoke in Benin City, Edo State, at the 7th Biennial Retreat of Weppa Wanno Pyramid Club of Nigeria with the theme: ‘Security Challenges in our Communities: the Way Forward,’ was quoted:  “I have taken my stand that we should not copy Americans, who are racing to space because they have conquered hunger. They have taken care of basic infrastructure. If we copy them, we will miss our way. We have to go back to the basics. To me, that basis is rural development, ensuring that we create the environment to encourage value-adding industries, and build those value changes. We should ensure that we have storage facilities; processing facilities that would reduce, if not eliminate, post-harvest losses which is currently put at 50 to 60 percent depending on what type of commodities.

“So, every 10,000 tonnes of food we produced, we lose 6,000, it doesn’t get to the market and for me, I don’t think that increasing the number of acreages is the solution because if you increase the number of acreages to produce more, you are also invariably, geometrically increasing the percentage of post-harvest losses.”

While the deficits of storage and processing facilities among other deficiencies in the production value chain remain pronounced, it is saddening that newer challenges are posing stronger threats to the sector. Recently, the ravages of insecurity have become so potent that threats against farmers and their settlements have rendered many farmers displaced, and their settlements deserted.

Farmers in Obiaruku, Umutu, and other communities in Ukwuani Local Government Area, Delta State, were again on Tuesday displaced by armed herdsmen. The herdsmen were, in this case, reported to have taken very sordid dimension in their escapades as they reportedly root out cassava, yam, corn and other crops cultivated by farmers to feed their cattle. The invasion was reported to have recorded mischievous escapades of the herdsmen, who killed some of their victims and raped women of the farm communities. The ugly invasion has resulted to the farmers deserting their farmlands for fear of losing their lives.

Coupled with deficits in infrastructures such as poor transportation and irrigation system, the clogs of circumstances constituted against the agriculture sector have been deterring to stakeholders. With insecurity joining the clogs, the circumstances have graduated to produce a wobble condition where investment in agriculture in the Country is becoming farther from entrepreneurs’ sight. This holds bearing to the depth of risks which destabilising circumstances, which ought not to be the case, pose. As it has become necessary for young people to get strongly involved in agriculture to boost the productivity of the sector, it is indisputable that the clogs of circumstances the sector is entangled with, are deterrents against the possibilities of the necessity.

The need for the Government to become lively to the necessity of addressing the challenges bewildering the sector is paramount. Turning deliberate attention towards executing projects which bear relevance to boosting productivity in the sector is paramount. Investing heavily to close infrastructure deficits remains sine qua non. It is pertinent for the Government to deliberately focus project execution for infrastructure development on areas bearing relevance to agricultural value chain, particularly to ease the clogs of shortfalls affecting the chain of farm to market connectivity – a defect which has over time constitued a major source of loss deterring farmers.

It is pertinent for the Government, particularly the Federal Government and the component units, to look into developing coordinated parameters to build a system that pragmatically respond to the need to transform the chain of the agricultural sector in the Country to the height of mechanised profile, characterised with depth of productivity and devoid of wastage. It has become evident that the ravages of food crisis and the circumstances of a monoculture economy have made situations unsavoury in the Country. It has become of necessity therefore, for forceful and strategic measures to be deployed to addressing the web of prevailing wobbling circumstances.