A general problem facing the country is high prices of food commodities. This resultant effect is that many people people go hungry while malnutrition continues to stare people in the face. To ensure that this tide is controlled, there a number of moves that the government and stakeholders in agriculture need to embark on in a bid to ensure that food security is promoted in Nigeria. Discussing this issues were experienced food marketers and farmers. The central line of their argument is that those in authorities should rise up to their responsibilities, reduce the level of corruption and make subsidy available for agricultural inputs.
A food and delicacy specialist, Mrs. Morenikeji Sodipe believes that the unabating price increases cut across all staple foods and beverages, which have affected a large number of household in the country, adding that the government should boost domestic food production to ensure food security. “There should be targeted policies and implemented programmes by the Federal Government to reduce or stabilise prices and put subsidy on some essential food items while providing social amenities in the rural areas to attract more people into farming”, she added.
Mrs. Sodipe equally called for government’s intervention in the agricultural sector across all regions while urging extension workers to organise regular seminars and workshops to educate local farmers on modern agricultural practices.
“Government should implement whatever policy they have made and put in place a monitoring team for effective implementation”, she added while attributing high prices of farm inputs, increase in the global demand for food, and security challenges, as some of the factors that had led to increase in prices of food items, stressing that with these nagging issues, farmers cannot meet up with the food demand of an ever-increasing population, hence the need for more farmers. The specialist charged Nigerians to go back into agriculture by producing part of what they consume to drastically reduce the rise in food items and boost agricultural production in the nation. It has also been revealed that poor infrastructural development and low level of research are some of the factors militating against the achievement of food security in the country, saying beside farmers and herders clashes, there is banditry, lamenting that farmers no longer go to farms to avoid being kidnapped.
According to Prof. Abdulrazaq Adebowale, a food technologist, the government should step up research and development in the country and be sincere about it, saying this would drastically improve farmers’ yields. He charged farmers to stop replying on rain-fed agriculture and embrace irrigation, adding that there were several River Basin Authorities spread across the country. The Don urged Nigerians to move from agriculture-for-passion to agriculture-for-business. “The technology we are using in the country is another challenge. Higher percentage of farmers in the country is peasant farmers, and cutlass-and-hoe farming cannot take the country anywhere”, he maintained.
In the same vein, Farmer Ayopo Somefun, has called on farmers to look for high yielding agricultural varieties, maintaining that this would reduce the cost of production and increase their revenue. He said the population of the country was growing at 2.55% while food production was growing at 1.33%. Farmer Somefun warned that any nation that cannot provide adequate food for its citizenry was endangering their lives. Meanwhile, the nature of soil, weather and topography are key factors that can determine the success or otherwise of agricultural production. The farmer, Mr. Hafeez Labulo observed that topography must be right as it must satisfy the type of soil requirements.
For instance, “In the cultivation of pineapple, a farmer must get the location right from the outset in terms of soil requirements. Pineapple thrives on almost every soil, apart from clay soil. Be it sandy, or loamy soil, it grows well there. It is equally a hardy fruit, and it grows well in humid regions of the nation”. He explained that such a farmer “Must get the suckers from the parent plant and for you to get the suckers, it means the parent pineapple plants must have produced its first fruit. It is after the first fruit that the suckers sprout forth by the side of the plants. The removal of the suckers from the parent’s body is called de-sucking”. Labulo added that it was not compulsory for a pineapple farmer to plant the suckers immediately, stating that they must, however, be kept in a place where they can be wet with water or be sprinkled water them before being taken out for transplanting.
To address the exorbitant food prices and production challenges facing the country, there should be a boost of domestic food production, targeted policies and implemented programmes to reduce or stabilise prices, addition of subsidy on essential food items, providing of social amenities in the rural areas to attract more people into farming, organisation of regular seminars and workshops to educate local farmers on modern agricultural practices, producing what is consumed locally, improved infrastructural development, farmers-herders clashes, planting high-yielding varieties, among others, hoping that the perennial food stuff and production challenges in the land would be tackled.
