Acute Food Shortage Looms For 26m Nigerians By August 2024 – FAO Report
Nigerians, numbering over 26.5 million including Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) may be plunged into acute food insecurity between June and August 2024. The Cadre Harmonise (CH) report has shown.
The report which was launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, in Abuja on Friday, showed that the post-effect of petrol subsidy removal had its toll on food prices, which impacted household capacity to sustain acceptable food consumption patterns.
The report, which covered 26 states and the federal capital territory, also showed a reduced harvest and household stock, resulting from flash floods that led to displacement and loss of cultivated crop fields and ‘ready to harvest crops’.
“Going into the lean season (June to August 2024) households may experience slight to moderate deterioration in food consumption which may plunge several states into the crisis phase.
“The unacceptable thresholds of food consumption may have resulted from a significant spike in staple food prices following increases in fuel prices, inflation and high cost of food production,” it stated.
Commenting on the report, Dominique Koffi Kouacou, FAO representative Ad-interim in Nigeria, noted that the outcome of the report was impacted by several shocks, ranging from persistent insecurity, (like Insurgency, banditry, natural resource-based conflicts), high cost of food and agricultural inputs due to high inflation and other economic factors and severe dry spells in some states immediately after the onset of rains.
