The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has lamented the current high level of food insecurity and the low performance of the food and agro industry in Nigeria.
The NSE at an engineering week of its Umuahia branch described the industry’s performance as below average and called for a policy that will boost the food and industrial sector.

They noted that such a policy will enable the industry to generate massive employment opportunities, increase the availability of processed foods and services for the growing population and conserve foreign exchange by reducing food importation.

The theme of the Engineering Week was ” Food Security in Nigeria: The Role of Engineers,” with food security defined as the availability and accessibility of food in adequate quantity and quality to every household in a nation.

Apparently holding that engineers were being relegated, a member of the House of Representatives for Osisioma, Obingwa and Ugwunagbo in Abia state, Engineer Solomon Adaelu, told his colleagues that he will effect a reversal by proposing a bill aimed at uplifting, smoothening and facilitating the profession and its practice.

Similarly, an engineer and lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, Dr Ogbogu Nelson Odinaka, urged his colleagues to get involved in active politics rather than looking up to other professionals to champion their causes.

A Lecturer at the Department of Agricultural and Bio-resources Engineering of the Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) in Abia state, Dr Joseph Adama, in his paper titled, ” The Scorecard of Food and Agro Industries in Nigeria and The Way forward” listed some of the causes of the low performance of food and agro industries.

These include heavy importation of inputs, scarcity and high cost of agro raw materials, poor funding, infrastructure challenges, manpower shortage, competition with imported products, poor implementation of government policies including government policies and programmes that are related to food and agro industries.According to him, the solution and the way forward lies in effecting what he called, ethical reorientation, developing communication and extension system and mechanising agriculture.

He further said: “A well developed and implemented agricultural mechanisation policy will modernise our agricultural production and processing systems and ensure regular supply of raw materials not only for food and agro industrial sector but other sectors. The surplus raw materials will be exported and the proceeds used to import machinery that have not been develop locally and which are needed in the food and agro industry , pay workers salary, fund research, development etc.”

In the keynote paper, “Food Security in Nigeria: The Role of Engineers,” Professor Victor Ndirika, also of the same department at MOUAU, posited that lack of knowledge by Nigerian farmer remained a serious problem in Nigerian agriculture.He argued that food insecurity in Nigeria has lingered for long due to poor mechanisation of food production, processing, storage and distribution processes.

Positing that much food had been lost in the primitive process of food production and storage, he said: “if the nation is to escape famine and reduce poverty, crop production must not only be boosted but the political will by government should there.”He continued, “Any vision towards solving the challenges of food security in Nigeria cannot be fully achieved without utilising and maximising the great potentials of engineers in Nigeria.”

According to him, engineers are in the forefront of providing solutions to the problems of food insecurity in Nigeria through mechanisation by the introduction of machineries to boost agricultural and food production.He however added, but we have not been able to produce food to our land’s capacity in Nigeria due to the limitation of human power in food production, processing and storage”.”

He was optimistic that given enough backing (financial, material and moral support from the government), engineers have the capacity to mechanise the production, processing, storage and distribution of food across the country.Another engineer, Izuchukwu Onwughara, in his paper, “The Role of The Engineers In Combating Food Insecurity Due To Soil Degradation And Erosion In South-East Nigeria,” tasked his colleagues to partake in the ongoing research into causes of soil erosion, degradation, impact of chemical fertilizers, soil improvement, replenishment, conservation and reclamation.

He said: “Let engineers take the lead in deploying integrated engineering solutions, including a combination of rigid and flexible components with bioremediation to restore erosion ravished lands, to the menace of soil degradation and erosion. South-East engineers as a matter of urgency should take the lead in deploying world best practices and technology to convert the mountains of refuse across this region into wealth.”