FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 2011
INSIDE
• Cement price'll not rise in
2011 - Manufacturers
FAO's prediction:
Stakeholders allay fears of hunger ----~----¡-l
Despite gloomy predictions by the Food and Agricultural Organisation, stakeholders in the Nigerian agricultural sector appear unperturbed, writes LAYI ADELOYE, with agency reports DECENTLY, the Food and Agricultural Organisation, an arm United Nations, predicted that Nigeria, Morocco and Bangladesh faced imminent food crisis. The alarm definitely sent some jitters down the spine of some stakeholders in the Nigerian agricultural sector, while a section of the industry believed that it was a prediction that failed to take local peculiarities into
f"\of the
consideration.
The report, posted on the UN agency's website recently, said that the world food situation was in dire straits. It indicated that the global average price of foodstuffs, such as maize, rice, sugar, wheat, meat and diary pr<XIucts soared by 25 per cent in the international basket in 2010, compared to the December 2009 levels. It also warned that if the situation was not urgently addressed, it could induce one of the worst food riots the world had ever witnessed.
"It could also engender geo-political tensions like the type that rocked Mexico and Indonesia in 2008, fuel global inflation and increase hunger amongst the planet's poorest people," the FAO report stated. The concern over the adverse consequences of food insecurity to the socia-political and economic wellbeing of Nigerians underscored the media's attempt to establish the pOSition of Nigeria as regards the macabre prediction.
For instance, the News Agency of Nigeria had conducted a nationwide survey to seek the reactions of the various stakeholders
to the prediction. Reacting to the report, the Minister of Agriculture, Prof Sheikh Abdullah, said on Wednesday that the Federal Government would not panic over such a report. He later criticised the authors of the document for not seeking his opinion as Nigeria's Minister of Agriculture. . "Nobody sought my opinion; neither did anybody speak with the Minister of State for Agriculture or any of the stakeholders in the agricultural sector before coming out with the report," he said. According to him, such reports are often based on assumption and insufficient analysis. However, he said the current administration was aware of the
global food crisis and that efforts were ongOing to reposition the nation's agricultural value chain for sustainable development.
He noted that post harvest losses, among othedactors, had hampered the governm~nt's efforts towards the atiainment offood security and food sufficiency in Nigeria.
Nevertheless, he said the Federal Government was already implementing several programmes aimed at promoting best
practices in agricultural development. He cited the ongoing National Programme for Agriculture and Food Security, which provides the road map for the implementation of all government-assisted agricultural programmes, as one of such initiatives. He listed others to include the Commercial Agriculture
Development Programme, FADAMA III, NERICA Rice Project and the IFAD-assisted community-based Natural Resource Management Development Programme; community-based
"More than 174,000 tonnes of assorted grains have been purchased from 2009 to date under the "Guaranteed Minimum Price Scheme, even as N8. 76bn was expended on the mopping up of some food commodities such as millet, paddy rice, maize, garri and sorghum," he said. Abdullah said that the government was also working out
They contended that the UN body would be vindicated in its
harvest. A cross section of farmers and some stakeholders also rejected the report describing it as 'alarmist'
prediction if urgent steps were not taken by government to correct evident gaps and challenges in the nation's agricultural sector. For instance, the state Commissioner for Agriculture and
The Chairman, Fadama Farmers Association in the state, A1haji Umaru Tsara, described the report as "a false alarm". He was quoted by NAN as saying that farmers recorded surplus production in 2010 but were faced with the challenge of poor sales. "Last year, several farmers produced excess crops but did not have enough buyers for their surplus produce," he lamented. However, some stakeholders in the country's agricultural sector believed that the government's optimism may not be enough to stave off the consequences of the macabre prediction. But a crosssection of farmers said all that would be requested for the prediction
Natural Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Echiegu, was said to have acknowleged the fact that the coun try was still grappling with the problem of food sufficiency in spite of the availability of human and material agricultural potential. "We have failed to harness these potential and put them into effective use in the development of agriculture," he said. "The initiative helped to achieve the three million tonnes out.
not to come to pass in Nigeria would be for the government to be
decisive and show some political will.
For
instance, despite Tsara's optimism, he cautioned that in
He said, -';t..part from the silos projects, the ministry has also established 17 integrated large-scale rice proceSSing mills in 12 states.
negative aftermath.
Finance Institutions Building Programme as other key initiatives of the government.
According to the minister, the nation's food storage capacity is also being boosted from its present 300,000 tonnes to three million tonnes with the ongoing construction of new silos.
Government not to dismiss the report.
modalities to mop up excess produce from last year's bumper
spite of the surplus food crops produced in 2010, the association would take the FAD's prediction seriously. He said that he would mobilise his members to concentrate on the production of strategic food items such as wheat, beans and maize, instead of the usual Fadama crops such as onion, pappy, carbage, carrot and garden eggs. A farmer, Malam Habibu Makama, was also quoted by NAN as saying, "Nigeria and other developing countries have been a testing ground for such unethical reports that bring about a lot of
Agricultural and Rural Development Programme and the Rural
"Some unpatriotic and unsympathetic food producers and sellers in the county would take advantage of such reports to hoard the food items." But respondents in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, who commented on the FAO prediction, warned the Federal
Nigeria and other developing countries have been a testing ground for such unethical reports that bring about a lot of negative qftennath
of the targeted five million tonnes annual demand of rice needed
in the country and was on the verge of meeting the target when it was phased out by the succeeding administration," Echiegu lamented. The Chairman, Cassava Growers Association of Nlgeria,
Mr. Segun Adewunmi, in an interview with THE PUNCH, said ' the only way for Nigeria to escape food crisis was a decisive encouragement to farmers. Besides, he said key private inihatives and some government¡backed schemes, as demonstrated in the cassava crop planting, could ensure food sufficiency for Nigeria.
"Several agricultural policies had been formulated by successive governments in Nigeria, but the implementation is left in the hands
of politicians who disregard the input of the real farmers that the policies are meant for," Omeh said.
The Director-General, Nasarawa State Food and Marketing Development Company, A1haji Hudu lIiyasu. also rejected the report, saying the state alone could provide about 20 per cent of the nation's food needs.
Expressing surprise at the prediction of the UN agency, Iliyasu stressed the need for international organisations to visit the grassroots "where majority of our people live and see whether
there is hunger."
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