Food insecurity: Reducing man-made destabilising forces to the bearest minimum
Threats to the agriculture sector in Nigeria have grown most recently to brew socio-economic winds ravaging the societal fabrics of the Country. The perspective could be conceived in the light of the manifestations of the impacts which food insecurity has the potential to effect on any society. The scarcity of food in the Country has become deep-seated in recent time, with negative impacts posing confusing constraints debilitating to the societal architectures of the Country. The metabiotic dimension which the deepening profile of food scarcity assumes in the Nigerian society has brought expanded deformities which have continued to effect destabilising forces setting the society in shambles.
It is confusing that with the enormous agricultural potentials rightly at the disposal of the Country, the reality of food scarcity stares before her with acute impacts. The thought of the irreconcilable perception of ‘suffering amidst abundance’ is a paradox that puts saddening reflection to the heart of situation mullers. While the records of productivity profile of the agriculture sector in the Country has over the years never being so pleasing to the height of appreciable sufficiency, the incursion of strains which recently crept into the sector have constituted destabilising forces which have deeply made bad situation worse. While such forces as natural disasters including drought, flooding, and pestilence among others, have been known to be challenges which have been part of the strains challenging the sector, man-made frustrations are problems increasingly bewildering the sector recently. Although human neglects have left behind gaps as infrastructure deficits, other aggressive man-made onslaughts against the sector have become more debilitating.
One among these onslaughts is the menace of herders’ encroachment on farmlands around farming communities. The response to such onslaught has led to the phenomenon of the “farmers-herders crisis” which in recent time has become deep-seated. The crisis has been such which has resulted into colossal losses against farming communities. While farmers are known to usually frown at encroachment on their farms, reports have shown broadly that they mostly fall at the receiving end of initial and reactionary attacks. Such attacks have left numerous farmers displaced, following horrendous attacks on their settlements and communities; hence leading to expanse of farm lands across the Country deserted.
Recently, the onslaught against farming occupation has become more threatening with the degeneration of the aggressive forces into clogging formations of organised criminal composition of “banditry.” The menace is growing to assume troubling dimension with threats of deepening the strains in the sector. The turn of bandits to attacking farms and farmers has recently been joined to their operating escapades. Kidnapping farmers for ransom has now become another blend in the register list of victims of bandits in their kidnap-for-ransom misadventures. On Tuesday, report of the kidnap of four farmers in a farm location in Ekiti, by suspected gunmen came with intrigues with the demand for N50 million ransom to secure their release. Reports have shown that the farmers, were kidnapped on Monday evening in Ikosu Farm Settlement in Ikosu-Ekiti, Moba Local Government area. Although the farmers have secured their release at the time of this writing, it is disheartening to think that they were ever kidnapped in the first place.
The strains in the agriculture sector in the Country has been too long deep-seated to be worsened by new dimensions of strongly evolving insecurity threats. While herders’ onslaught has over the years ravaged the sector, the more troubling dimension of banditry recently, is a thorn on the flesh of farmers – the main stakeholders of the sector. The need for the Government to make concerted efforts towards reducing to the bearest minimum the manifestations of man-made onslaughts constituting disorganising strains in the sector, is imperative. As insecurity remains a destabilising force in this regard, the necessity to clampdown vehemently on all formations of insecurity threats, particularly the rising wings of banditry ravaging farming settlements and communities, becomes necessary. Hence, the need to make provisions for security architecture to tighten security around farming communities across the Country is sacrosanct. This is important to restore the sense of protection and tranquil atmosphere conducive for farmers to improve their productivity. This is essential to pragmatically attract investment which is a yearning for the sector and in turn, the economy at large.
The displacement of farming communities by insecurity forces has constituted metabiotic outcomes which have compounded to brew disturbances in the societal fabrics of the Country. The need to reduce all man-made forces brewing disturbing strains in the agriculture sector, which insecurity is one major wing, is sacrosanct to mitigate the ravaging effects of the impacts of acute food insecurity in the Country.
