The President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria(AFAN), Architect Kabir Ibrahim, has stressed the urgent need for action to address the critical “threat factors” affecting the nation’s food availability.
Speaking on the topic “Nigeria’s Food System: Challenges and Opportunities in the Attainment of Food Security” at the 22nd Daily Trust Dialogue, the AFAN President highlighted the numerous obstacles undermining Nigeria’s food security, including macroeconomic instability, insecurity, currency volatility, climate change, low mechanization, and poor post-harvest management.
According to him, Nigeria has suffered from severe insecurity in the food production areas of the North East, North Central, and North West for more than a decade.
Ibrahim stressed, “This, along with other challenges such as COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine war, and other global disruptions, has weakened the global food system and, by extension, Nigeria’s food system.”
Ibrahim also noted that global warming, caused by excessive greenhouse gas emissions such as methane and carbon dioxide, has led to extreme weather events like flooding and droughts.
Speaking on the impact of climate change, he noted that in previous years, flooding incidents in Nigeria occurred at 10-year intervals. However, over the last four years, they have become annual events.
Ibrahim emphasized inflation and the adverse effects of the naira’s devaluation over the past 18 months, which has exacerbated food prices and impacted farmers’ productivity.
He added that the weak penetration of tractors and other farm machinery, coupled with the high cost of inputs such as agrochemicals and fertilizers, has impeded productivity. These factors, along with post-harvest losses, limit food availability and affordability, worsening food insecurity.
The AFAN President also stated that inadequate power supply hampers food processing, cold storage, and value addition, resulting in significant post-harvest losses. He stressed that illegal taxation along highways further inflates food costs, contributing to food inflation and reducing affordability, as these factors directly affect food security.
He proposed several solutions, including non-kinetic approaches to addressing insecurity. He suggested that insecurity may require disruptive methodologies, such as defoliating forests or bulldozing them in some cases. While this may not sit well with climate change activists, it could be a necessary measure.
Ibrahim also called for the provision of adequate, affordable, and sustainable food distribution systems, as well as support for smallholder farmers with hand-held equipment and for large-scale farmers with high-capacity tractors and machinery.
He further advocated for investment in high-quality seeds, agrochemicals, and processing equipment, and the strengthening of the naira to enhance Nigeria’s competitiveness in international trade.
“Addressing these threat factors is essential to improving food security and ensuring no Nigerian goes hungry,” Ibrahim added.
