On-farm security is critical to Nigeria’s food production and food security, Chairman House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security, Hon. Chike Okafor has warned.
Specifically, the lawmaker wants the federal and state governments to deal decisively with gangs and bandits terrorizing farmers across the country to enable farmers return to their farmlands.
Okafor made the call during an interview with journalists on the second day of the 3-Day national Summit on Nutrition and Food Security, organised by his committee with support from development partners.
The National Summit on Nutrition and Food Security has as its theme “Curbing Malnutrition and Food Insecurity Through Effective Synergies.”
The lawmaker said in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of Wednesday’s event, that attacks on farms and farming communities over the years has seen formerly productive farmers fleeing their lands and abandoning food production.
He observed that there is a linkage between abandoned farms, rising food costs, malnutrition and hunger.
Okafor therefore called on the Federal Government and States to prioritise the protection of famers and their cultivated land for displaced and dejected farmers as well as newcomers in the agricultural sector to return to farming.
He said: “Right now, what government needs to focus on is the provision of security in the farmlands. What is making food look like it is scarce is the situation where farmers in the North-East, North-West, the North-Central and even some parts of the south are either killed or they are attacked with their farms burnt. So, the immediate thing government needs to do right now, is to ensure that Nigeria is much more secure”
The Country Director for the Global Alliance For Improved Nutrition, Dr. Michael Ojo identified climate change, the high-level insecurity as well as the fact that Nigeria’s population growth outstrips its food production, as some of the issues causing malnutrition.
He said: “Malnutrition is a big problem for the country. But it is not a new problem. I think there is a lot more focus on this, partly because it is an increasing problem and the reasons for this are multiple. We produce a lot of food, but we are growing faster than we produce food. So, there is a lot of pressure on the amount of food available to us. Unfortunately, in recent years, production capacity has reduced because of insecurity and other factors such as climate change.
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“Also, it is one thing to produce food and it is another thing to produce food that is nutritious, so when we talk about malnutrition, we talk about it also in the context of food and nutrition insecurity. So, we are trying to deal with a double-headed problem. This is why this initiative by the House Committee on Nutrition and Food Security is good. What we have is not a problem for the Federal Government, it is a problem for the three tiers of government. The Federal Government can make policy, but where the real action is at the states and Local Governments, this is where the real action is.”
Replying to a question on the sustainable solutions for producing adequate quantity of food to drive down hunger and malnutrition, Ojo, opined that some of the solutions can be quickly implemented, while also ensuring that long term solutions are factored in by government.
“There are multiple problems and multiple solutions. We must come together to make the solutions work. People say, ‘the farmers are not working’, ‘they don’t apply the right ways of farming,’ currently, lots of our farming is rain dependent. Most farms are not irrigated. But these are parts of the problems and there are lots of opportunities. For example, we can give access to women who are a big part of the farming population, to be able to access land to produce on a small-level scale,” he added.
Speaking to journalists at the event after her presentation on, ‘Strengthening Nutrition in Nigeria Through the N774 Initiative: The Prospects’, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Health and Focal Person on Nutrition in the office of the Vice-President, Uju Rochas Anwukah, said the Tinubu Administration is tackling hunger and malnutrition by collaborating with government at the sub-national level and other key stakeholders.
She said: “Yes, the situation is grim, but with every challenge, there is always a solution. Malnutrition is a problem the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has decided to take on heads on. The National Council on Nutrition, chaired by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, has recently endorsed a flagship programme, the Nutrition 774 Initiative.
“The initiative is a framework which is looking to pulling all the key actors together, at a multi-sectoral level, to improve financing and accountability, to be able to tackle malnutrition. There has been a lot of work over the years, but what this initiative does as a framework is to make key actors to be able to work together, rather than working in silos.”
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