Floods: No Need For Panic Over Food Insecurity, says Minister
… 500 Confirmed Dead, 45,000 Houses Destroyed, 70,000 Hectares of Farmlands Submerged Nationwide
… expect More River Flooding, NiMet Warns North Central, South-eastern States
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday said though Nigerians could express concerns over the devastating floods across the country, there should be no panic over threats to food security.
Speaking at a media briefing to mark the 2022 World Food Day celebration with theme: “Leave no one behind, better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and better Life,” he maintained that the federal government was doing everything humanly possible to ensure that Nigerians do not go hungry.
He said this was why the country has large quantities of grains stocked in the Strategic Grains Reserves, adding a lot of strategies were being put into action to ensure Nigerians don’t go hungry.
He said, “We don’t have a shortage of food in Nigeria at this point and we want to make sure there is no shortage. But yes, prices have risen…”
The minister’s assurances are coming about 24 hours after the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Oxfam highlighted continued threats to the country’s food security.
The minister said the government had also invested so much in the agricultural sector and created employment for Nigerians, insisting that President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty was still on course.
Commenting on the flooding situation, the minister said, “We should be concerned, I am not going to tell you there’s no reason to be concerned, but panic, no! Because if you panic, then you lose your sense of ability to put yourself together to produce solutions. So, don’t panic but be concerned; we know what to do to correct and do damage control and we are doing that in every respect. And the government is doing everything to ensure there is no hunger.”
Abubakar, however, said in the face of global crises and escalating threats, therefore, global solutions are needed more than ever to safeguard life and transform our agri-food systems.
The FAO is actively working towards the achievement of food security and nutrition and supporting the necessary transformation of agri-food systems in collaboration with other UN agencies and partners at international and national levels.
He also reaffirmed a renewed commitment between the federal government and FAO for continuous collaboration to strengthen the agricultural sector and enhance food and nutrition security while contributing to the eradication of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition in Nigeria.
The minister said, “As we mark the 2022 World Food Day, the world continues to grapple with multiple crises which include conflicts, displacement, economic shocks, escalating food prices, climate change, and so on.
“This has resulted in food scarcity and affected global food supply; all must come together to bring about the transformation that the world needs.”
According to him, “The day is like a reminder to eat mindfully and consider that millions of people are unable to afford one meal for themselves.
“It is important that we rededicate ourselves to this very important event and its purpose by drawing attention through global awareness, bold action, and innovation to enhance effectively the channels that make our food systems stronger and more equitable.”
However, in his remarks at the occasion, FAO Country Representative in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr. Fred Kafeero, said an analysis carried out at the beginning of the year showed that about 19.4 million Nigerians faced food insecurity in 21 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He said, “So as food insecurity worsens, so does the risk of malnutrition. It is estimated that about two million children suffer from severe acute malnutrition.
“We need to harness the power of solidarity and collective action to undertake sustainable production and consumption of healthy diet, address the problem of post-harvest losses, and increase efficiency in the use of natural resources…”
Oxfam Programme Manager, William Mafwalal, who was also at the briefing noted that over the past decade food crisis had been increasing across the West African subregion including in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and Mali.
He said between 2015 and 2022, the number of people in need of emergency food assistance nearly quadrupled, from 7 million to 27 million.
He said, “The solution to tackling hunger is not to increase production, which is proposed by many supporters of industrial agriculture, no matter the environmental costs. It is to ensure more equal distribution and to address demand-side factors which increase food prices and drive farmland use for purposes other than food production, such as unsustainable biofuel production.
“The answer to tackling hunger does not lie in global value chains. Instead, the focus should be on supporting local food production. As the war in Ukraine has shown, overreliance on global value chains has created massive vulnerabilities, as a high number of low-income countries rely on just a handful of large agricultural producer countries to feed their people.”
Expect More River Flooding, NiMet Warns North Central, South-eastern States
In the meantime, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) yesterday warned that states in the north central and south-eastern parts of Nigeria should brace up for more flooding.
The Director General of NiMet, Prof. Mansur Bako Matazu stated this on the sidelines of the ongoing Hydro-meteorological status and outlook system (HydroSOS) in Abuja.
This was just as the Nigerian Hydrological Service Agency (NIHSA) revealed that the Ladgo dam in Cameroun would continue to spill till next month.
The NiMet DG, while speaking on the current flood impact across the country, explained that though flooding as a result of rainfall may have reached its peak, noted that as a result of the opening of dams and other water holding facilities could still affect states in north central and the south-east.
“You remember, we issued the forecast in February and we followed up with the monthly updates that we are going to have above normal rainfall in most part of the country.
“So in terms of the rainfall-induced floods, we have seen the peak, but remember we told you that this rainwater gets collected into the reservoirs and dams, and whenever they are filled, it gets filled.
“So on September 13, the Ladgo dam was released. Other dams were also released. So what we are witnessing now is riverine flooding. And from the information we are getting, we are going to see more flood.
“And now the rains are concentrating in the north-central and the southern states. So that will be a combination of short duration, high-intensity rain, with riverine flooding. “We are going to see more of these floods in the north-central states as we have seen in Kogi and also south eastern and south-western states as we are beginning to see in Anambra and some of parts of south-west.”
While speaking on the HydroSOS workshop hosted by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency in collaboration with the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) with support of the United Kingdom Centre 7 for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the director-general said: “It is no longer news to anyone here that water-related hazards and threats has become a global challenge in the face of a changing climate coupled with population growth and increasing socio-economic activities.
“Every year water-related hazard affects millions of people globally and cause damages to properties worth billions of dollars. It is expected that water-associated risks are going to intensify in the coming years as the full weight of climate change begin to bear on our earth.
” In Africa, water-related hazards such as flood, drought have become a major cause of food insecurity, strains on livelihoods, health risks and conflicts in many parts of the continent.
“Water-related challenges facing governments at all levels include securing water supplies, designing appropriate water governance schematic, sustaining the management of trans-boundary basins, managing flood and/or drought as well as ensuring the protection and conservation of our ecosystem.
“It has been observed that one of the major factors to effectively manage water resources and address some of the above challenges is the availability of hydro-meteorological information and products targeted to serve the needs of the different sectors,” Matazu said.
Olusola Bello