Nigeria’s dream of achieving food security is currently threatened by insecurity, flooding and the climate crisis.
Banditry, kidnapping and clashes between farmers and herders are at the forefront of Nigeria’s food insecurity crisis, which has halved food production in recent years.
The agricultural sector is under pressure with rising numbers of deaths among the farming population, particularly in Benue, Nasarawa, Kaduna and other south-western states.
According to the data, from 2020 to the first quarter of 2024, more than 1,356 farmers lost their lives to bandit attacks on their farm premises. Several other farms have been set on fire or destroyed by ranchers who openly allow cattle to graze unsupervised on their ranches.
In Benue State alone, 19 local governments were deliberately attacked by bandits between January 2023 and February 2024, killing and maiming 690 farmers in the state.
“Nigeria has seen the largest increase in the number of people facing high levels of severe food insecurity due to record inflation and conflict in the north,” the World Bank said in a recent report.
The World Bank notes that Nigeria's food insecurity levels in the first quarter of 2024 are worse than in 2023.
Also read: FG pledges new efforts to fight food inflation through increased production
Supporting a World Bank report that the number of malnourished children and women in Africa’s largest country increased significantly in 2024, especially in the north, the United Nations World Food Program estimates that 4.4 million people in northeastern Nigeria will be under-fed. It is assumed that he is suffering from anxiety.
This is not far-fetched as many food belt states in the South-West, North-East and North-Central major food-producing states have fallen victim to bandit attacks in the past five years.
Food inflation in Nigeria has slowed for two consecutive months (July and August) due to high base effects and seasonal effects of the food harvest season, but remains elevated at 37.52% compared to pre-inflation levels I am doing it.
Similarly, Nigeria’s agricultural sector faced significant challenges from devastating floods that devastated vulnerable communities in September, raising concerns of food insecurity in rural areas.
Heavy rains, combined with poor drainage systems and rising river levels, have caused some of the worst flooding in years, causing food insecurity.
Many farms were encroached upon in the process. This has led to escalating food inflation, which is highly dependent on the quantity and quality of food production.
Climate change also poses major risks to farmers who are frustrated by severe droughts and insufficient rainfall, making these conditions costly and unaffordable for many people on the poverty index. It becomes.
One farmer told Business Day that he had to rely on irrigation for the first few months of the year as the lack of rainfall posed a major threat to the survival of the plants.
“Climate change is a big issue in the agricultural sector. Farmers have become dependent on costly irrigation because the rains are not falling like they used to,” said FarmCAS team leader Chidinma Eze, who previously said in an interview.
According to experts, these conditions are severely straining the food supply crisis, pushing food prices beyond the reach of the average Nigerian who earns a minimum wage of N70,000, of which about 65 % is spent on food, a situation the United Nations describes as “. Not acceptable. ”
