Stakeholders in the agricultural sector, has raised concern over the rates of increasing hunger in the northeast, saying the number of people in critical or worse phases of food insecurity may increase to about 16.9 million unless efforts are made to scale up and sustain humanitarian support and other government interventions for livelihood recovery and resilience.
Speaking during the recent the provisional results of October 2021 food security and nutrition analysis – known as the Cadre Harmonise conducted in 20 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and released in Abuja recently revealed that approximately12.1 million people are expected to be in food insecurity crisis or worse through December this year. The analysis involved 154 008 198 people, out of whom 12 135 318 in the participating 20 states plus the FCT are currently experiencing Crisis and Emergency phases of food insecurity.
Speaking during the launched of the result, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Ernest Umakhihe, said this round of CH analysis has included the results from five (5) new states from the South of Nigeria (Enugu, Abia,
Edo, Lagos and Cross-River) for the first time since the inception of the CH the country.
“This became necessary to enable a holistic analysis and understanding of the drivers and limiting factors to food and nutrition insecurity across the entire country. The Government assures all partners of governments’ commitment to upholding the outcome and recommendations arising from it with a view to enhancing the food and nutrition security situation in the concerned states through objective intervention programming,” he said.
Also, the FAO Representative in Nigeria and to the Economic Organization of the West African States (ECOWAS), Fred Kafeero, said FAO adapted its emergency and resilience programme to respond to the increased need. Provision of quality seeds, micro-irrigation and fertilizers during the just concluded 2021 rainy season enabled 65 800 households in the BAY states to improve crop production.
“A further 12 400 households benefitted from livestock restocking support with 475 households having been reached by our aquaculture intervention during that time. Plans are advanced to support 21 700 households in the upcoming dry season. This adds to more than 1 084 309 vulnerable households that FAO has reached in northeast Nigeria, since 2016, enabling them to restart their agriculture-based livelihoods (crops, livestock and aquaculture production); safe access to fuelwood energy and strengthening their resilience.”
The World Food Programme Country Director, Ronald Sibanda, said it is extremely worried about the large numbers of people experiencing food insecurity in the northeast.
