Despite the reported sustained drop in inflation rate and food prices across the country, there is no respite for millions of households as the average cost of essential staples such as rice, beans, yam, garri, tomatoes, flour and maize remain high. Also, the drop in the prices of food items has not reflected on the cost of living index. The reasons adduced for the continued rise in food prices range from the high cost of transportation, inability of farmers to have access to their farms due to insecurity, and foreign exchange fluctuations.
The rising food prices may put millions of Nigerians at risk of food and nutrition insecurity this year. According to the latest report from the Food and Agricultural Organisation(FAO), at least 30 million Nigerians will be hard hit between June and August this year, and about 33 million people projected to be food insecure by the end of 2025. The food insecure prediction is alarming. It is driven by the current economic hardship, coupled with inflation, impacts of climate change, flooding, persistent insurgency, kidnapping/banditry in the North-East and North-West zones of the country that have affected households’ capacity to cope with the shocks.
The FAO report also says that high food prices and limited access to clean water have been identified as other challenges affecting food insecurity and malnutrition in Nigeria and other countries. The report signed by FAO country Representative in Nigeria, Kouacon Dominique Koffy, also disclosed some disturbing trends that government should keep track of. Nationally, the number of people experiencing Emergency levels (Phase 4), of food insecurity is expected to rise significantly this year.
Approximately 5.4 million children and 800,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are estimated to be at risk of acute malnutrition in many North-East states like Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, as well as in some states in the North-West region such as Sokoto, Katsina, and Zamfara. In these states, a total of 1.8 million children could face severe acute malnutrition that will require adequate government’s intervention.
Therefore, the Federal Government should rise to the challenge and address the looming food shortage. This coming food scarcity is not good news for the eradication of hunger in the country as recommended by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Government must reduce the present huge import bill, and increase export of goods. According to a recent Quarterly statistics of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), food imports in the last one year reached an all-time high of N30trillion.
This is in spite of the fact that Nigeria has the second largest arable land in Africa after Egypt. Some years ago, the Federal Government claimed that it had acquired 500,000 hectares of land across the country to increase food production. The government had also mapped out some food intervention programmes to reduce the dependence on food imports, but the programmes are yet to reduce the prices of food items in the country.
Beside the huge amount spent on food imports in the last one year, statistics show that Nigeria has recorded a food trade deficit in excess of N4trillion between 2018 and 2022. A breakdown of the foreign exchange, totaling N3trillion for food imports released by the CBN for 2023, showed that $245.7 million was disbursed in January, 2023, $163.6millio in February, $240.9million in April, while the sum of $238.3million and $206million was spent in May and June 2023, respectively. Also, in July 2023, the CBN said $58million was disbursed for food imports, $93.5million in August, $119.9million in September, $132.4million in October, $235.9million and $120.2million in November and December.
It is instructive that Nigeria and Brazil have signed a $1.1billionn Memoranda of Understanding(MoU) called Green Imperative Project(GIP) to boost food production and enhance private-sector investment in Nigeria. Nigerians are looking forward to seeing the dividends of the agreement soon. The looming food shortage will lead to hunger and poverty. It will also lead to more crimes and insecurity in the country. It is sad that Nigeria cannot grow enough food to feed its citizens.
Although Nigeria has resorted to massive food imports to address the food shortage, such a stop-gap measure is not sustainable for a longer period. Nigeria has over 84 million hectares of arable land for agriculture, making it Africa’s largest market. It is also ranked 11th globally in arable land. Yet, successive governments have not leveraged on this natural endowment to ensure food security. This implies that domestic food production has largely lagged behind consumption. It is time for government to invest more in mechanised agriculture and reduce food insecurity.
