Farmers: Nigeria Challenged By Insecurity, Food Security Threat
Nigerian farmers under the umbrella of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) have disclosed that currently, Nigeria is on the brink of disintegration due to insecurity threatening the country’s food system in spite of the series of investments to get daily life back to normal.
The National President of AFAN, Kabir Ibrahim, an Architect, in a chat with New Telegraph, explained that Nigeria is sitting on a keg of powder that in no distant future would explode over the way the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is addressing the ongoing insecurity in the country, which has already paralyzed the country’s agricultural architecture with severity of looming food shortage, austerity, lingering poverty gradually becoming the order of the day since many local farmers can’t still go to their farms for planting and harvesting.
In particular, the AFAN national president pointed out that poor politics, inequity and parochialism brought about Boko Haram, Cattle rustling and later banditry, as well as kidnapping which has worsened security risks in the country with the profound trajectories being felt in the country’s agricultural space.
He noted that the global COVID-19 pandemic, which is still ravaging the globe, has brought about a lot of hardship to everyone and this exacerbated the already difficult economic situation in the country.
Ibrahim said: “Nigeria went into recession twice but it is miraculously experiencing economic growth according to the NBS’s Q2, 2021 report but an issue exceedingly difficult to fathom judging from the skyrocketing cost of everyday life.”
He continued: “Looking at all the investments in agriculture by the CBN, NALDA, the FMARD and several donor organizations, private companies and entrepreneurs, we do need to appraise the food system to see where we are and why as well as find out what we need to do in order to attain food sufficiency, first of all, before finding a lasting solution to the crushing insecurity threatening to destroy the nation.”
The renowned farmer added: “There have been many security conferences, very high security expenditure, changes in the management of the nation security architecture. Yet, the insecurity persists.”
Speaking on the protracted insecurity in Nigeria, the farmers’ association’s national president said: “It started like pockets of simple agitations by various groups seeking the right to issue demands mainly around the Niger Delta and becoming more articulate with the emergence of democracy in the Third Republic.
