Worsening food insecurity in Nigeria: Causes, panacea

By Emmanuel Ulayi, PhD

National Bureau of Statistics recently released a report on food insecurity in Nigeria painting a rather uncommon official gloomy picture of the situation.

In the said report, 20.8% of Nigerian households rely on borrowing and handouts to eat while close to two-thirds of households have to skip meals.

Other highlights of the report indicate the female gender is more affected and that there is geo-political disparity, with the South and the South-south, in particular, being more affected than the North while the North-central lives up to its fame as the food basket by being significantly less affected than the other zones.

A Bloomberg report on the issue attributes the situation to President Tinubu’s economic reforms necessitating the dropping of fuel subsidies and floating of the Naira. Viewed superficially, this might hold.

However, a critical approach to analyzing tissue suggests that the reform is just a trigger. The drivers of food insecurity in Nigeria have been at work long before Tinubu’s economic reforms.

They include insecurity evinced by the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, and herders -farmers incessant clashes.

These triplets have disturbed farming activities for a long. Murdering whole farming communities in the North and the South by herders only is common.

Farmers are usually kidnapped and are being taxed by insurgents and bandits before they can farm.

Importation of staples such as beans from neighboring countries up north is usually controlled and taxed by these non-state actors.

The result is a significant and steady drop in food production over the past decade.

Other underlying factors are official corruption in the Agriculture sector, lack of coordination between the Federal and sub-national governments, inadequate funding of the sector, and lean investment in storage research and facilities.

It should be noted also that the costs of other products affect the cost of food products.

This is a huge factor as the farmers also buy other items. This is where the subsidy stoppage and floating of the local currency seem to be the culprits. But as stated earlier that’s on the facade.

The trouble is over-dependence on the importation of most consumer goods, including staples such as rice, wheat, and beans. Most toilet soaps in Nigeria are imported.

All these exert pressure on the Naira. The solution is not to keep buoying up the Nara artificially but to fix the problem of undue importations and the attendant negative trade balance by ensuring adequate local production.

To this end, the government may need to downplay small-scale industries whose products are deemed sub-standard and help the organized private sector to expand their production capacities and pioneer new products. This also has the advantage of generating employment and increasing the purchasing power of Nigerian households.

The government should act decisively to bring an end to insecurity and ensure displaced farmers are resettled and empowered to restart farming. The issue of herders-farmers clashes should be resolved, too.

Since the herders are now comfortable with ranching, it’s the best option, and the government should help them get lands and other inputs. It has benefits for all in the area of increased and improved dairy and meat production.

In conclusion, most economic experts and even all notable presidential candidates in the last election agreed that subsidy removal was the way to go and that the law of demand and supply should govern any free market, including forex; therefore, the reform aimed at achieving these should not be demonized.

What we need to do is to address the main issues such as undue importation that put pressure on the Naira and insecurity that negatively impacts food production.