Nigeria lost 855,629mt of crops to flooding in 2024, says FAO

• Obi laments soaring food prices, says hunger now household crisis
• ‘Tinubu committed to Nigerians’ right to food’
• Ex-minister urges President to reconsider policies

Data from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), showed that Nigeria lost an estimated 855,629 metric tonnes of food to flooding during this year’s wet season farming.

The loss, FAO said, could have fed 8.5 million people for six months. This is just as the March 2024 Cadre Harmonisé (CH) projected that 31.8 million people in the country were at risk of acute food insecurity.

In a post on his X account to mark World Food Day (WFD), former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, lamented the rising cost of living in Nigeria, stating that “severe hunger has become part of many households” across the country.

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen Aliyu Abdullahi, yesterday, announced that President Bola Tinubu was implementing policies to guarantee Nigerians’ right to food.

But Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Nduese Essien, called on the President to reconsider some of his policies, warning of possible anarchy due to the growing wave of hunger and discontent among citizens.

Assistant FAO Representative for Nigeria, Dr Salisu Mohammed, disclosed, at a briefing to commemorate the WFD, pointed out that although farmers produce more than enough food to feed the global population, around 733 million people go hungry mainly because of conflicts, weather shocks, inequalities and economic downturns.

Nigeria, he pointed out, faces similar challenges as the rest of the world, including climate-related crises, drought and floods, economic situation and insecurity.

The United Nations body, however, warned that Nigeria might face such adversities if urgent solutions were not applied by the government and other stakeholders.

Abdullahi stated that one in 11 people globally and one in five people in Africa are hungry, while about 2.33 billion people globally faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2023, and over 2.8 billion people were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2022.

He pointed out that FAO had warned that if the trends continued, about 582 million people would be chronically undernourished by 2030 with half of them in Africa.

OBI, who was Labour Party (LP)’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, noted that Nigeria had been ranked among the 20 most food-insecure nations in the world.

He said, “This global observance is particularly significant to us in Nigeria, where food prices are rising daily, and basic food items are becoming unaffordable to most people. Severe hunger has now become an unfortunate member of many households in Nigeria, the once giant of Africa that boasts the most arable land on the continent.

“Nigeria’s struggle with a food crisis and hunger is disheartening, especially considering the vast, fertile land we possess as a nation. In the past, I had lamented that the majority of Nigerian households spent most of their income on food, leaving none for savings or other essential needs. Today, it is eve n more distressing to note that many Nigerian households can no longer afford basic sustenance with their income.”

The former governor expressed particular concern over the World Bank’s recent Food Security Update, which compared Nigeria’s worsening food security crisis to that of war-torn countries like Yemen.

ABDULLAHI, while addressing journalists as part of the activities to mark WFD in Abuja, noted that the continued conflicts and displacement, economic shocks and instability, inflation and rising food prices had a devastating impact on the global food supply.

According to him, several efforts have been made by the Tinubu administration to address food shortages.

One of the efforts, he explained, is the release of 102,000 metric tonnes of maize, millet and garri, among other food commodities from the National Food Reserve to Nigerians.

ESSIEN stressed that most of the government’s economic policies only aggravated poverty and inflation, leaving millions of Nigerians struggling to survive.

In a statement he issued, yesterday, in Abuja, the former minister also criticised the hasty removal of fuel subsidy and other economic policies of the Tinubu administration, which were inflicting unprecedented suffering on the populace.

He urged the Federal Government to rethink its approach and strike a balance between reducing the fiscal deficit and ensuring citizens do not plunge deeper into poverty.

While emphasising the need for fiscal discipline and cutting of governance cost, Essien warned:
“The level of suffering across the country is unprecedented, except perhaps during the Nigerian civil war. Families are struggling to meet basic needs. The policies, while perhaps well-intentioned, are exacerbating poverty, increasing inflation, and hurting the most vulnerable among us.

“Our leaders cannot continue to fritter the commonwealth recklessly and ask the people to make sacrifices. If urgent action is not taken to stem the hunger, poverty and discontent in the country, we risk losing the patience of the people, and that could result in dire consequences.”