Food Crisis May Worsen, As Floods Take Over 115, 265 Hectares Farmlands In Nigeria

It is not yet Uhuru for Nigeria when it comes to resolving the rising food crisis in the country, as newly released data from the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC), says increasing flood levels have affected no less than 115, 265 hectares of farmlands In Nigeria.

A breakdown of the affected states revealed that Bauchi recorded the highest affected farmlands with 50, 343 hectares, Taraba with 22, 182 hectares, Jigawa with 9, 919 hectares, Niger with 9, 488 hectares, and Sokoto, 8, 676 hectares.

Other states affected by the flooding are Adamawa with 3, 392 hectares, Bayelsa 170 hectares, Borno 313 hectares, Ebonyi 100 hectares, Enugu 953 hectares, Gombe 1, 311 hectares, Kaduna 120 hectares, Kano 3, 072 hectares, Katsina 37 hectares, Kebbi 3, 382 hectares, Yobe with 223 hectares, and Zamfara with 1, 584 hectares.

The report on the 2024 flood by the centre also said 29 states of the federation, 154 local government areas, 611, 201 persons have been affected, 225, 169 persons displaced, 83, 457 households affected, 201 lives lost, and 2,119 injuries have been recorded so far during this year’s flooding.

The new flood data comes on the heels of recent food shortages in the country, and food inflation put at over 40 per cent by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Nigerians To Spend 54.9% Income On Food In Next Six Months
On Monday, a Central Bank of Nigeria’s survey said rising inflation rate will force Nigerian households to spend the largest amounts of their earnings on food in the next six months.

According to the CBN report, the poll was conducted from July 22 to 26, 2024, with a response rate of 99.7 per cent with its sample size drawn from the NBS master sample list of 1,665 households in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

The report, Household Expectation Survey published on its website, CBN said many Nigerians intend to cut down on items that are not essential now, in the next three and six months.

They, however, plan to spend 54.9 per cent of their income on food items in the next six months.

“Spending outlook for the next six months showed that consumers plan to spend a substantial amount of their income on the following items: food and other household Items (54.9 points), education (35.4 points), transportation (30.2 points), electricity (20.0 points) and medical expenses (12.2 points),” the poll shows.

On the flip, the respondents do not plan to spend a substantial amount of income on big-ticket items such as the purchase of a house, car and household appliances.

Also, Nigerians do not intend to spend on investment, such as acquiring landed properties or other forms of investments. They equally do not plan on saving their incomes.

“This reflects their family financial situation in the current month and reaffirms their stance that they will be drawing down on their savings or getting into debt,” the apex bank survey shows.

Looting Of Warehouses, Food Trucks In North-East
Food crisis in the country had pushed residents in the north, to engage in looting of warehouses and food trucks, a move which had caused a source of concern in the country.

Chairman, the North-East forum of the DSS, Babagana Bulama while speaking at the 15th conference of the North-East directors of the state services at Damaturu, Yobe State recently, said the rising prices of goods has motivated hoodlums to take advantage of the crisis to attack warehouses, and vehicles with goods, particularly foodstuff being transported from one state to the other.

He said; “This edition is taking place at a time when the insecurity of the nation bothers on criminality, especially the trace of Book Haram insurgency, banditry and kidnapping which have been on the forefront, now overtaken by social securities issues comprising of food crisis, to hoarding of foodstuff, hunger in the land, starvation and renewed threats of protests by organised labour groups such as the Nigerian Labour Congress, and others.

“Similarly, the rising prices of goods have motivated hoodlums to take advantage of the challenges to attack warehouses, and vehicles with goods, particularly food stuff being transported from one state to the other. The situation is also being exploited by economic saboteurs who are bent on destroying the economy. It is pertinent to mention that all this is happening barely a year after the 2023 general election.”

Army Deploys Officers To Protect Farmers In The North
The Nigerian Army said it has deployed troops in several northern states, to protect farmers.

A recent statement by the Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj. Gen. Edward Buba said the deployment was made particularly in the North West and the North Central states.

Govt Moves To Curb Crisis
The Federal Government in the wake of the galloping prices of essential commodities reeled out a raft of measures to address the challenge.

It recently suspended duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas through the country’s land and sea borders, for 150 days.

It also approved the procurement of 2,000 tractors, and 1,200 trailers and set up a committee to help proffering solutions to the food crisis rocking the nation.

Expect Bumper Harvest, Agric Minister Assures Nigerians
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Abubakar Kyari says the country is expecting a bumper harvest before year-end.

While speaking last month, Kyari said the Federal Government had measures in place to address the situation including ramping up farming which would increase food production.

“It [bumper harvest] is about October-November this year. That’s when we are going to have the harvest. We are expecting a bumper harvest baring any natural issues,” Kyari said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

“Well, I am just giving you the assurance that we will have a bumper harvest,” he said.

According to him, one of the reasons for the acute food shortage in the country at the moment is also linked to seasonal reasons.

“The season we have here is a critical issue we have in agriculture. This is what we call the lean season and this is between June-July and the next harvest,” the minister said.

Apart from this, Kyari attributed the food shortage to other issues such as reduced landmass, flooding, and others.

“The shrinkage of land mass for agric, flooding, habitation problems, and insecurity…An ageing farming population; younger people are not going into agriculture now,” he said.

Kyari said the government is further ramping up moves for mechanised farming with the distribution of fertilizers to farmers and efforts to purchase tractors.

“We have ordered. It’s not like chewing gum; you can’t buy it off the shelf. I went to Belarus and ordered 200 tractors and 9,000 other implements,” the minister said on the current affairs show.

“The basic implement for farming in Nigeria is a hoe, which is archaic and antique. That’s why we are talking mechanisation,” said Kyari.