Food Sufficiency For National Development

Food Sufficiency For National Development

By Moses Kalu

The significance of food security in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized as the challenge of insufficient food production may have a dire implication on the people.

Prior to the sixties and the post independence era, agriculture was the back-bone of the nation’s cconomy, providing adequate food, income and employment for the people and carmed foreign exchange for the country but sadly, for a long time, Nigerians have continued to complain about incessant increase in the cost of food in the country.

The situation is believed to be the fall-out of the factors that hinder the production of adequate amount of food for the teeming population which includes, insecurity, inconsistent government policies unavailability of high yielding crops, poor storage system and lack of credit facilities.

However, the expression “a hungry man is an angry man easily comes up when issues concerning food security, distribution and management take the center stage of national discourse.

Issues concerning the re-direction of attention from oil to agriculture and resuscitation of the food value chain to earn income and generate revenue, always stimulate reactions among stakeholders in the agricultural sector.

Naturally, Food remains a valid instrument of bringing positive attitude in social interactions and relationships among members of a society.

Experts are of the opinion that poor eating habits and diet have economic, social and health implications on human life. According to them, the health of a mal-nourished individual is always the root cause of different diseases.

It is estimated that over one billion people are malnourished across the world.

Evidently, as a developing country, Nigeria shares a significant portion of this number.

However, experts believe that hunger and abstinence from food for a long time can cause serious physical, psychological and emotional imbalance and even the death of an individual.

They predict that the effects of war, poverty, drought, famine and insecurity are capable of leading to food scarcity.

Natural disasters such as flooding, hurricane and volcanic eruptions have the capacity to threaten food security.

For instance, in 2012, over twenty states in Nigeria witnessed devastating effects of flooding which destroyed farm lands, crops, fish ponds and livestock.

Inadvertently, the activities of the Boko-haram insurgence, militancy and most communal conflicts across the country no doubt threaten Food insecurity.

These are unacceptable conditions and all hands must be on deck to check these ugly trends in order to avert food insufficiency.

The recent Yam exportation to Europe, China and America is a welcomed development and its sustainability depends to a large extent on massive yam production that will carter adequately for both domestic and international consumption.

Unfortunately, in this era of Technological break-through, the Agricultural sector is still battling with the full integration of digital technology to boost massive food production.

Many Nigerians perceive the situation as serious enough to necessitate urgent public and private investments to alleviate hunger and provide sustainable food security while others called for technological cooperation between governments and non-governmental organizations to address the problem of food scarcity.

It is obvious that the planning of the production and distribution of food in today’s world requires different technological mechanisms.

Therefore, individuals, families, communities, social organizations and the government should work collectively to achieve food security in the country.

Edited By Grace Namiji