ANY country that fails to feed itself cannot truly be a sovereign nation. This is because food security is fundamental globally. To say that Nigerians are hungry and cannot afford basic food items is stating the obvious. The situation is getting worse with its attendant social ills as evident in the recent wave of attacks and looting of warehouses where food items were stored. Worse still, Nigeria depends largely on importation to meet its food consumption demands. This is a paradox to the vast and fertile lands the country is blessed with across its length and breath.

IN the 1960s, Nigeria was self-sufficient in both food and cash crops for local consumption and exports which made us to earn foreign exchange in crops like cocoa, coffee, groundnut, rubber, timber, palm oil, etc. It is on record that countries like Malaysia and Indonesia came to our country in the 1960s and 1970s to pick our palm fruit for possible replication in their countries. Today, the tide has changed and they are now net exporters of palm oil globally. It is a shame that Nigeria is now a net importer of palm oil from these countries. Statistics revealed that Nigeria reportedly spent over $10 billion dollars on food importation last year to meet its food and agricultural shortfalls, mostly on wheat, rice, poultry, fish and others.

THE crude oil malady has done calculable damage to agricultural practices in Nigeria. Despite our huge earnings from oil exports, we utilize the proceeds on consumption rather than on production. To reverse the ugly trend, Nigeria and Nigerians must have the capacity to feed themselves and stop importing food.Nigeria is blessed with natural endowments but paradoxically, we are facing starvation. It is high time we diversified our economy by embracing farming. Instead of distributing food items to citizens in form of palliatives, government should, in the interim, come up with practical food security initiatives or palliatives for farmers in the form of concrete aids. As a matter of fact, government should declare a state of emergency on food crisis to address the situation.

THE HOPE reminds the president of his promise during his inauguration on May 29, 2023, that agricultural hubs would be created throughout the nation to increase production and engage in value-added processing. He emphasised that the livestock sector would be introduced to best modern practices and steps taken to minimise the perennial conflict over land and water resources in this sector. The president also promised that rural incomes should be secured by commodity exchange boards guaranteeing minimal prices for certain crops and animal products. Through these actions, the president said, food shall be made more abundant yet less costly and that farmers shall earn more while the average Nigerian pays less. We therefore, call on the president to walk his talk and translate these promises into concrete actions.

NOW that we are approaching the planting season, we urge the federal and state governments to  grant soft loans, implements, tools, irrigation support, and other aids to farmers to secure the immediate future as acute food shortage looms if farming is not given all the seriousness it deserves. Nigeria must think beyond farming with hoe and cutlass in this modern age. Therefore, state and local governments must encourage and partner with private entrepreneurs to emplace modern farms focusing on their areas of comparative advantage. We particularly urge state governments in the south to take a cue from their northern counterparts who usually make agricultural subsidies to their people while farmers in the south continue to be disadvantaged owing to the complacency of their governments.

IN the interim, individuals should embrace farming at the very micro level depending on their capacity and capabilities. Nothing stops every household to do mini farm in their backyards and or use sacks where there is no space for soil. They can grow vegetables, yam, potatoes, livestock and fishery in their compounds thereby reducing the demand for these items in the open market. We also urge private and public schools to return to school farming as was the practice in the 1970s and 1980s when primary and secondary schools produced food to meet the consumption of their boarding students as well as their immediate communities.

FURTHERMORE, we challenge the academics in our universities and research institutes to come up with ways of improving agriculture in the country, especially in the area of production, processing and storage. It is a pity that in spite of having agriculture based schools, colleges and universities across the country coupled with the fact that most conventional universities, polytechnics and colleges of education have faculty of agriculture, the sector is still lying prostrate. The time to change our attitude is now.