Insecurity-driven food Crisis: Rescuing the fabrics of agriculture
Among other fabrics of the Nigerian entity affected by the scourge of insecurity, the economy has been hardly hit. The blows of the storm have seen sectors, as agriculture which owes central place to livelihood, subsumed to the waves of disarray. It is saddening that a fledgling sector, which by the necessity of growth demands nothing but full concentration of uninterruptible profile of coordination, been trapped under the web of scorching terror of insecurity.
The intensity of terrorist and bandit attacks on farm settlements have recorded soar narratives which have left farmers fleeing their settlements for sake of their lives. The tough narratives have led to the displacement of farmers in troubling magnitude, a condition that has recorded colossal losses from the desertion of settlements. The deficits which the turbulence have left, have brought the Country at the heels of food crisis.
Bearing reflection on the subject of the woes of insecurity to the agriculture sector, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar, on Tuesday, the 26th, July 2022, said the potentials of the agriculture sector have been threatened by the wave of insurgence and conflicts in the North-East, Middle Belt and other parts of the Country in recent times. Acknowledging that agriculture is at the centre of the Nigerian economy providing the main source of livelihood for the majority, the Minister who spoke during the 4th Women Enterprise Alliance (WENA) conference, themed, ‘Rethinking Paradigm Shift in Agriculture and Initiatives to Enhance Food Security’, in Abuja, said “It is no doubt that we are faced by a myriad of challenges in the Country of which the most is insecurity which has been a setback for our farmers and small scale businesses, let me assure you that the government is putting all necessary measures to curtail this insurgency which will further promote more productivity. Agriculture is at the centre of the Nigerian economy providing the main source of livelihood for the majority of Nigerians. The farming sector employs about 36 per cent of total employment and for small scale farmers, women are the majority of this group.”
The impacts of the scourge of insecurity have not, in any way, been mild on agriculture. While agriculture as a sector of the economy is not the only affected one, yet its centrality of bearing relevance to basic necessity for livelihood, (provision of food), speaks of the depth of its grip to the entire society. The deficits which the insecurity-borne desertion and destruction of farm settlements across the Country have created, have brought the nation into an unsavoury condition of food crisis, a situation that threatens survival in the Country.
The impacts of food crisis is particularly beyond economic expression. Its depth of impacts are those that practically shakes the entire fabrics of the society. The socio-political impacts are not such that appear mild in their reflections. Such narratives are finding their deep expression rightly in the Country.
The scourge of rising cases of criminalities, worsening insecurity profiles, and the proliferation of fraudulent acts and illegitimate ventures at different degrees, all reflecting insecurity in various dimensions of its faces, are reflective of the impacts of food crisis. The end reflections of same have been metabiotic in nature, brewing clusters of deforming forces which have been making narratives of living conditions in the Country soar and unbearable.
The government, most emphatically the Federal, on whose shoulders the preserve of security functions of the Federation lies, must become lively to the constitutional role laid on its shoulders. The continuous incessant reign of terror is discomfitting peaceful coexistence in the Country. From the economy to the socio-cultural, to the political fabrics of the Country, the scourge of insecurity is making life unbearable for many. The necessity before the Government to exterminate the web of terror in the Country is non negotiable. The too lasting disposition of docility has brought the Country to a state where terror operations have grown to a network of established entity, now threatening the existence of the polity as a whole. Moves by terrorist networks to topple constituted authority have been evident from the recent targets of terror groups, which in the last few days have recorded calculated targets to the seat of power in the Country, recording not only attacks on key institutions, but also threats of invasions to attack even the President. Recent attacks at the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, reflect the Country is now in a danger zone.
To sustain the Country, the agriculture sector which produces food, the nucleus of basic necessities, occupies a principal position. Securing the fabrics of agriculture is non negotiable to sustain the society and it’s population. Special attention must urgently, without further hesitation, be paid to creating pragmatic security architecture with robust coverage to secure the fabrics of agriculture in the Country. Robust security measures for localities, where farming settlements largely dwell, has become non negotiable for sustenance. The centralisation of security on the central government has shown its inefficiency to provide such coverage. The time to move the conversation over decentralisation of security architecture in the Country has become a necessity that must be taken beyond discourse to factual implementation. Recent security threats have justified the need for such decentralised system. All stakeholders must work concertedly, while the Federal Government on its part should consider the burden it is finding too heavy to bear, and correspondingly drive the process with harmonious coordination among all stakeholders for pragmatic move towards redeeming the Federation from the woes of terrorism, threatening sustenance and continuous existence of the polity.
