• Access To Food Is Our Fundamental Human Right – Onyaga
• If This Trend Continues, There’ll Be Chaos In The Country – Dikwa
• Solutions To Food Price Crisis Challenges Are Not Monetary But Structural – Adesina
• The Main Challenge For Food And Hunger Solution In Nigeria Is Mechanisation

Despite Federal Government’s ‘interventions’, Nigerians will need to brace up for more weeks of hunger and high cost of food items.

Berating government for its inconsistent policies, which stakeholders in agric sector have described as lacking focus, the Founder, Izanu Africa, Mrs Comfort Onyaga, said goverrnment’s policies aimed at tackling the crisis have failed to address the issue.

“If the government is not ready to address these problems, there is no point intervening at all,” she said.

Also expressing shock that interventions by government have not impacted the people, the Chief Executive Officer, Green Saharan Farms, Jos, Plateau State, Suleiman Dikwa, warned that there may be chaos in the country if this continues.

Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives held a debate on Agriculture and Food Security, which attracted the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Minister of State of Agriculture and Food Security, Minister of Blue Economy, Comptroller-General of Customs, Director-General of NEMAHA, the Country Representative of Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Managing-Director of NIRSAL, Managing Director of Bank of Agriculture, and Chief Executive Officer of the Agriculture Development Programme (ADP).

The engagement between the lawmakers, with the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Benjamin Kalu, presiding, is seen as a response to hunger protests in parts of the country recently.

The development is coming on the heels of United Nations reports, which estimates that 25 million Nigerians — or about 15 per cent of the total population — are food insecure.

The third in a series of sectoral debates, in line with the legislative agenda of the Speaker, Rt. Hon Abass Tajudeen-led 10th Assembly, it came barely a month after Speaker Abass promised to put in place measures aimed at ensuring availability of essential food items at affordable rates to Nigerians.

It is against this background that the lawmakers took turns to raise issues surrounding the farmers herders clashes, incentives available to farmers to boost food production, availability of capital incentives, revitalisation of dams, supply of fertilisers, the rationale behind the seizure of agricultural produce within the country’s territory, distribution of palliatives, and the menace of disgruntled security officials that extort money from trailers conveying food items within the length and breadth of the country among others.

Mr Esset Mark Udo, representing Uyo Federal Constituency of Akwa Ibom State wondered why there are delays in the distribution of food items meant to be shared to vulnerable Nigerians in line with the directive of President Tinubu.

The chairman House committee on Custom, Mr Leke Abejide, who also lent his voice on the issue, tasked the Minister to ensure the utilisation of dams built when the late President Shehu Shagari held sway in the second republic.

Kalu directed the Minister to ensure cultivation of 500,000 hectares of land based on the directive from President Tinubu.

The Abia-born lawmaker stressed the need to reposition the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and Bank of Industry (BOI) to offer capital incentives to farmers as part of ongoing effort to boost food production in the polity.

The Deputy Speaker who decried the loss of over $70 million yearly owing to Illegal fishing activities harped on the need for the BOI to offer incentives to small scale farmers to boost poultry and fish production in the country.

In his presentation, the Minister, Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, stated that Nigerians are currently facing tough times but President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has begun to tackle the problem by declaring a state of emergency on agriculture.

He commended President Tinubu for the robust plans for ensuring food security for Nigerians, stressing the role insecurity has played in causing food insecurity due to the problems between farmers and herdsmen/bandits that has raged past administrations.

The minister also stressed the negative impact of such factors as the COVID-19 pandemic; flooding activities, as well as the Naira redesign policy of the Central Bank on food production by agriculturalists.

He particularly referred to the 2023 Supplementary Budget, which provided a N200bn palliative package, mainly for grains, seeds, agricultural inputs and equipment for farmers to reinforce President Tinubu resolve to address the challenge in the country.

“This momentum has been sustained in the 2024 Budget, which has significantly improved budgetary allocations to all critical sectors of the economy, especially defense, healthcare, education and infrastructure,” he said.

“In 2023, the President declared a state of emergency on food security, focusing on improving both availability and affordability. Some immediate measures approved the release of fertilisers and grains to farmers and households, particularly given the fallouts from the removal of fuel subsidies.

“Others include boosting the national strategic food reserve and introducing a price stabilisation mechanism, especially for critical food items. And just a few days ago, President Tinubu also constituted a special presidential committee headed by the Chief of Staff to take immediate steps to arrest the worsening food situation.”

Kyari stated that the ministry has put in place some policies to ensure the availability and affordability of food provisions, adding that the President has also directed the mitigation of the hardship of Nigerians and the ministry has in response carved out long-term, mid-term, as well as short term solutions such as the launching of the dry season farming to make farming an all year activity.

On his part, the Comptroller–General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, said the role of the Nigerian Customs in ensuring food security in Nigeria can be seen in its functions under the renewed hope programme of President Tinubu.

Adeniyi stated that through a mix of policies and framework, the Customs have ensured its contribution to battling food insecurity, saying that levies have been either removed or reduced for appliances and machinery imported into Nigeria for agricultural development.

On Monday, after weeks of foot-dragging, Kyari announced that distribution of grains would begin nationwide during the week, but The Guardian checks revealed that the said grains were yet to reach their destinations as at the weekend.

“We shall commence the distribution of 42,000 metric tons of grains, as approved by Mr. President, across the 36 states of the federation as one of the programmes to be rolled out this week,” he had said.

“We are working in hand with NEMA and the DSS to ensure that the grains get to the right people in the right packages and quantities. Furthermore, 58,000 metric tons of milled rice from mega rice millers will also be released into the market for stabilisation.”

Also, just last week, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) – the interest fixing arm of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), raised the already-high anchor rate by the 400 basis points to a multi-decade high of 22.5 per cent.

The apex bank has also been involved in aggressive bond auction since the beginning of the year in a separate attempt to improve money supply to ease pressure on naira and prices.

But all these interventions, according to experts, have made little or no impact in addressing the food price crisis, adding more pains to plight of already-distraught Nigerians.

According to Onyaga: “The country has a lot of intervention programmes currently going on, but most of them are driven by organisations and institutions that are working in the Silos. Until they come together with collective efforts to address the food security challenge in the land, it’s just going to be like a wild wind chase.

“Without the implementation of the Maputo Declaration agreement – mandating to ensure that 10 per cent is allocated in the yearly budget for agriculture, there isn’t going to be any significant change or improvements in the food system.

“With the current food prices, the approach the government has taken to address the food problem is not the way to go, it’s not sustainable. Let’s take the cash transfer initiative – the intervention within the food system as an example, if a bag of rice costs more than the amount being disbursed to vulnerable groups, to what extend do you think that the fund will be able to cater to their needs, knowing that these are families that have children who are in school, children to feed?”

She said food security is not only about food access, noting that there are four pillars to food security – availability, access, utilisation and stability, saying these pillars cannot be undermined in addressing the problem. “If the government is not ready to address these problems, building on these pillars or using the pillars as a framework, there is no point intervening at all. If the people don’t have access to quality of food that’ll give them the dietary requirements for their daily survival, you’ll rather put them in the danger of falling sick because they don’t have the required nutrients, hence malnutrition will become the order of the day.

“If the government does not increase its budgetary allocations for agric, and if those budgets are not well utilised and even the loan received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the World Bank, the country will not record any progress.”

Onyaga regretted that the country is not any way near to the end of food crisis, saying till now, Nigeria still rely on rain fed agriculture for cultivation of food, “it’s only within few value chain that you have farmers cultivating food and it cannot be one-sided, Nigeria needs protein not calories, so we need to be able to put in place infrastructure that will become an enabler for farmers –smallholder farmers and large scale commercial farmers to be able to provide sufficient foods to feed the people.

“Access to food is our fundamental human right, if the government is not able to guarantee access to quality food that meets the dietary requirements of every individual, they have not started. Nigeria should go back to the target of the SDGs 2 and look at these targets critically, look at the pillars of food security critically and design an intervention that will ensure that people can access quality and affordable food.

Dikwa said: “You can’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome. I want us to take a look at purchasing power, while in the West and other countries, wages and salaries are chasing inflation from the UK to the United States, Nigerian governments at all levels have budgeted and expended for their comforts, they always ask us to be patient while they rush to meet their transportation, food and accommodation at tax payers’ expense.

“So where are the leaders willing to sacrifice? I see chaos like we have never seen if this trend continues. Let’s not ignore the skirmishes here and there, for the first time Nigerians are protesting hunger, not wages or human rights or policies, but because people cannot afford to feed.

“If we don’t take revolutionary approaches by the leaders, the masses will do it and it’s not the best time to lower our gaze and strip ourselves, the leaders of our privileges and sacrifice for the benefit of all. Leaders should not only be heard but to be seen to sacrifice for the common good.”

He regretted that the country is not in any way moving closer to the end of the food crisis than before. “Production is not the first issue, increasing production will increase waste, the numbers have been bandied about, rise in production of XYZ product, but food prices have consistently gone up for the last two decade, whereas exports have increased food security.

“We need to go back to drawing board and in the short term government needs to do a direct intervention by making food available beyond the so-called 40,000 tons or so to be released by government or direct cash payment.”

Continuing, Dikwa said: “Let’s compare the world food programme intention to feed about 1.6 million Nigerians this year, which translates to about 80,000 tons. If each beneficiary is given a 50kg bag of grain and Nigeria response to a problem of this magnitude, which has built up over the years because we refuse to do the right thing.

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina also faulted the CBN’s move on the raising of the anchor rate. He said the only solution is scaling food production.

Adesina, who spoke in Lagos, said the efforts fall short of what the country must do to tame rising food prices and ease the misery the recent sharp fall in the value of naira and associated rising inflation has caused Nigerians.

“You don’t necessarily deal with food inflation with your standard microeconomic policy of target money supply. You deal with it by producing food. I think it is important to deal with that. The major driver of the sharp price rise is cost-push factors, including security. Solutions to the challenges are not monetary but structural,” he said.

The Chief Executive Officer, Renee Golden Multiventures, Lagos, Adenike Apeji, who also noted that the country is not in any way close to the solution to the food price crisis, disclosed that the main challenge for food and hunger solution in Nigeria is mechanisation.

“Actually, we have not been practicing agriculture. Agriculture basically is powered by mechanisation and the right processes, like agronomic processes, we see that there is a gap in that. Smallholder farmers have been doing basically a little here and a little there. They are not being empowered appropriately; we can see that there is a big gap.

“Again, let’s look at food glut, after post-harvest challenge, it is another challenge faced by farmers. All these can only be improved when we are powered by mechanization, which makes us to practice agriculture. So, if we have not begun to speak into that area, it might be difficult for us to get it right.

“So, what is the process and the plan for us to look at to cultivate more? One of the major problems is security, what have we done to improve on that all these are critical areas? There’s need for a proper plan,” she said.

Apeji lamented that mechanisation in Nigeria is just about 10 per cent, compared to other developed nations which are on about 90 to 95 per cent, “how do we intend to feed that population, with this level of mechanisation, we need to tackle the challenge from where the main issue is.

“We are still in the realm of putting round peg in a square hole, one of the things I think we need to take serious in Nigeria, is not just bringing policies, we need to ensure that we have proper strategy in place for implementation and implementation basically is just knowing what to do and doing them accurately.”