World Food Day: Federal Govt Worries As 19.4m People Face Food Insecurity

The lingering negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate extremes and the ongoing floods have worsened food insecurity and put over 19 million Nigerians at risk of hunger and malnutrition.

According to an analysis carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, approximately 19.4 million people face food insecurity in 21 states and Federal Capital Territory.

FAO also estimates that about two million children are currently suffering  from severe acute mal nutrition.

Minister of agriculture and rural development, Dr Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, at a briefing to mark this year’s World Food Day in Abuja yesterday, expressed worry at the worsening food insecurity occasioned by climate change, floods, shortfall from Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

He said those challenges had exacerbated the situation and resulted in the slow movement of raw materials, especially fertilizer.

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The minister noted that the federal government was looking internally for alternative ways of making raw materials available for increased food production.

He said, “Nigeria is doing everything humanly possible to make sure that the people expected to be hungry will not go hungry and that is why we do have grains in our strategic grains reserve that we keep 100,000 metric tonnes.

“If you remember during Covid-19, Mr President ordered the release of 70,000 metric tonnes which have helped; so this is how countries get ready to avoid famine or any catastrophic hunger that might hit.

“So we are also looking at alternative ways of getting raw material instead of buying from Ukraine or Russia. So now we are looking for other places, and also Mr  President has directed that we look internally and we are scouting and we have found we have a deposit of potash which is one of the precursors of producing fertiliser.

“So a lot of  strategies are being put into action to make sure Nigerians do not go hungry. We know we have issues of insecurity, production has dropped… we don’t have a shortage of food in Nigeria at this point and we want to make sure there is no shortage but, yes, prices have risen”, the minister added.

Addressing journalists, FAO country representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Fred Kofero, said Nigeria must do more – and now – to reverse the trend of hunger and malnutrition with the global “Four Betters” which provide a pathway through which countries can transform agrifood systems, by implementing sustainable and holistic solutions that consider development in the long term, inclusive economic growth, and greater resilience.

Kofero said, “We need to harness the power of solidarity and collective action to undertake sustainable production and consumption of healthy diets, address the problem of post-harvest losses, and increase efficiency in the use of natural resources.