2
DAIlY TRUsr
25
Wednesday, October 31 , 2012
AGBICULlliBE
interview
FG should proffer solution to food secu rity Dr. Simon Penda is the Head, Department of Agribusiness, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi and the institution's Prog ramme leader in charge of strategy and govern ance of food security. In this interv iew, Penda cou nters the view that the recent fiood may be a blessing in disguise on food production. Instead, the lectu rer predicted food shortage next year, unless the governm en t lives up to its responsibility to ensure food security. Excerpts;
• Dr. Simon Penda From Hope Abah. Makurdi Howdo you~thedfed of the rfl:en l fl ood in the co unt ry and the fcar tlla llt ma y Ind 10 food huecurhyf Let me emphasize here that al mos t eve:ry nate: ohhls counlry b affected by Ihe" nood and like" you rightly said. it is deVll$lallng. Ilbink in rrccnt limes. this is the worst nooding we have had in this country 10 the level that it has attracted the interest of the presidc-nC)'. You an Imagine the e(fKL It is ~ually dt'VUtaling on agriculture and food SC'Curity. Food security en tails that food mmt be: available; il musl be acca.s:ible and it must be taken in the right nutrilional quanlity. Most of the IMms haVe" been "''lShed away. ThaI means production outfit is affected therefore, it hu an effect on the availability of food and because production ootput is affected ad\.'CrKly, the market supply will be very low while the demand is still high. It therefore means thai Ihe prices of agricultural commodities will cc:rlainly go up. The:refo~, food will not be accessible and because il will nOI be accc:ssiblc. It will abo aff«1 the agro indwtries that put quality or transform the quality. This will also affect the level of inlake in the right rorm. Therefore. all
the pillars of food s«urity arc ad\'erse:lyaffected Benue is the food basket or
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So, what is th~ way forwardf This is 50 pertinent thaI we must be realistic.. This cannot
and C"V'Cn the animals. So. what is government domg about it~ Definitdy. the Lagdo Dam would havt' been constructed with .some agreement with the Nigerian governmcni. This is the tll1lC for thoR who arc 'IC'~ in inlernalioo;J.] laws to go and dig inlO th~ lreatles and proffer a solution to an injury incurred by a party by th~ innuence of a neIghbour who is shanng a common body of water. lllen. we can now slarl addreMlOg the solution We have to thrnk about building buffer dams 10 trap this water and convert tM water so trapped 10 irrigale crops and this will be converting what could have been a disaster 10 a bcnefiL SQme people 51y the nood is • blCS5ing in disguise bccau.$C it lefl huge deposits o f manure o n the land. 00 )'ou hold th at opinion? I don't u ndersland their sc:nsc: of thinking. But remember that the flood has done a lot of damage 10 the surface soil. It hI!! washed Ihe surface soil and has now decreased the level of nutricnlsof Ihis soil. And let me tdl you. pan of govnnmcnt5tratcgy LO revive
Food security entails that food must be available; it must be accessible and it must be taken in the right nutritional quantity
the naLion, now lhal Oood has ~'aShed :away fa rmlands in the sta te, do r ou th ink th~ enUrt nation isarfected r If you arc lalking in lerms of the Slandlng of Scnue as the bread basket of Nigeria. well. it still holds daim 10 that because you know, Benue is the largcst producerof.soya beao in Nigeria. Benue is rated among the highest. in facl. the third largest producer of rice in Nigeria. Benue is the lugesl producer of cassava in Nigeria. And it holds stakes 10 major crops C"V'Cn Beniseed. and lree crops. Of course, you know our slanding In yam production. So, if we sa)' Lhai Benue is adversely affected by the noodlng In lerms of food production. we may be right to infer thai the whole coon l ry 15 actually affected in lermsurrlloo production.
conUnuC'; it must not be allowed to conlinu~ at all. You an imagll1e by yourself if you have nOI seen iI. just l ak~ a drh'C' along Gboko Road In Maku rdi and go th rough the river side; all the: settlements along the river banu are Iff«tcd, you an imagine what Juu happened to Iknue State. Then, you an now imagi ne: what has happened tn thewholecounlT}'. There must be asolulion and this solutio n has 10 be sln1tegic; It has 10 be planned. We have inrormation that this flooding b worsened by the relcase of waler from the ugdo Dam in Cameroon. Nobody nu come out to question why the Cameroonians have Jdca.scd ....ater 10 flood Nigerian communities. Mosl of the commuTlilics along Ihe banks ate nooded; we art t:llking about food hut what about the housing
this soil should be to replenish the lost nutrknts occasioned by this disastrous flood. So. I don't understand when somebody says because you have. nood, there will be abundant rood supplr. The crops thenuclvcs require a minimall~'CI of water. It Is nOI I hIt they are submr~ed completely. then. it nowbecomcs a benefit to iu growth. The level of flooding that ~ have scm is cerhinly inju rious to the growth of plant and can never be interpreled to be a blessing in terms ofbumpcr harvest. Is the nood enough evidence offood shortage in the coun try? Let's nol scare them but ddi nilely, there will be I serious dislortion in food supply and Ihat will aUK a dangrrous fractu re in commodity prices.. Therefore. food commodltlcs cerlainl)' will beveryeJ:pensi~ BUllfplanning
Is anything 10 go hy. Ihis is the lime to release grams fmm the stratrglC gr.ul1S rc.serve In (lrder to slabilize markC1 pnccs of mal<'f agncultural commoclitlcs lfwr dOIl't have enough in thcSII1lIC)l;l' gr.111S reserve and rrmrnrher Iht' policy is lhat r:ach ~tate should be able to contnbute 10.000 melnc Inns of grains III the ~Irntcglc grain~ reserVe" so that il can he released under dJrecll\'e of the Prc<-idc-nt ofthc Federal RepublK ofNlgena t(') Nigerians in limes of emergendes and times of n«d 1.5 is the case now, and even 1.5 a mechanism to stabilize agrrcultural commodities. This situation fils into normal for the president to order grams 10 be relt'1l5Cd from the strategiC grairu rescrvcto mm it available to Ihe people and then. 10 stabiliu maml price. R«e ntl y. the Federal Ministry of En\' ironment 51id mort statc:s, including Benue. arc likely to witness more n ooding. Whal would you advise the slale govcrnm enl 10 do 50 tha i the slale d ocs no t experience what il has elfperienced in the pas t few wec:uagainf LeI me give }"Ou a message 10 Ihose who gi'<'e these words. They should be talking more on how 10 proffer a solution nther than bringing in stories that will scare people every day. Let them Iell us what government is doing to avert Ihe !"t'-occurnnce of this magnilude of disaster in the ruture. If they know Ihat the slales are likely to experience worse disl.5ters. what arc thq domg 10 averl thai) ThaI IS more important. Governmenl should Iry to ameliorate the ~ufferinSJ or the affected persons. We have seen Ihat the nooding has occurred majorly on areas that are on flooded roules; m Olher words. WlIIlerwa)'5. G~rnment Igenu should now be arcful where to anocale land 10 people ror residential purposes. You don't allocate land to people on waterwaY' and people who settle on water WilY' should be discouraged. People should not settle on flooded artas. Those who have settled and have now become victim) of the nood should be rc:scttled elsewhere. GoVC"mment should rcseule them elsewhere and then know what to do on snch land,..