The spate of hunger in Africa has become alarming and deserves urgent attention. In a recent joint report, five agencies of the United Nations: the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) World Health Organisation (WHO) World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) note that 733 million people in Africa and some other continents faced hunger in 2023, approximately 152 million more than in 2019. The joint report tagged, “the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World,” says the percentage of the population facing hunger continues to rise in Africa (20.4 per cent) while it remains stable in Asia (8.1 per cent) and shows some progress in Latin America (6.2 per cent). The agencies warn that “if current trends continue, about 582 million people will be chronically undernourished in 2030, half of them in Africa.” This is a present danger.
For us in Nigeria, the situation is direr. The United Nations had recently predicted that 82 million Nigerians, or 64 per cent of the country’s population, might go hungry by 2030.
The reasons for this are obvious. Most of the countries facing hunger are united by insurgency. In northern Nigeria, especially in states like Borno, Benue and Plateau, terrorists have been terrorising farmers. They have killed a number of them and destroyed their farms. In some of these states, such as Zamfara, farmers are forced to pay taxes to bandits and terrorists to secure their freedom. Herdsmen add to the problem by destroying crops of farmers with their cows.
This is partly why many people have abandoned their farms. Many of our youths never even bother about going to the farms in the first place. Most of them are more interested in white-collar jobs that have become very scarce these days.
The impromptu removal of fuel subsidy in May 2023 and the floating of the exchange rate also contributed to the hunger problem. Today, the exchange rate is about N1,500 to a dollar, far higher than what it was last year. This has affected the performance of many companies, some of which have invariably folded up or relocated to other countries.
Sadly, hunger can affect the health of the population. Children, who are more vulnerable, can suffer kwashiorkor or related sicknesses. Adults are prone to suffer different illnesses as a result of lack of essential nutrients that fight diseases in the body. These nutrients are derived from food.
Hunger has driven Nigerian youths to embark on nationwide protests from Thursday, August 1, 2024. The protest is billed to last up until August 10. Similar protests had taken place earlier in the year and on Democracy Day, on June 12, 2024 in some parts of the country.
The youths are not happy that the prices of essential commodities in the market have gone beyond the reach of average Nigerians. While headline inflation as of June 2024 was 34.19 per cent, food inflation rose to 40.87 per cent in the same June. These are official statistics, as the figures may be far higher than this. Many people have lost their jobs due to the closure of many companies.
It is high time African countries began to do something to develop their agricultural sector and make their countries food secure. We cannot fight hunger without improved crop seedlings. There is every need to make fertilizer and high yielding grains available to farmers. Our farmers also need to transit from subsistent farming to mechanised farming. This is the time to bring back the farm settlements. Dr M.I. Okpara did that in the old Eastern Region. In his time, palm oil plantation boomed in the Eastern region, cocoa plantations in the Western region, rubber plantations in the Mid-West region and groundnut and rice pyramids in the Northern region. We need to revive all these today to solve the hunger problem facing us as a nation.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. Government should turn this high population to its advantage by encouraging people to embrace farming. It should enact policies that will boost agriculture. It can start by increasing the budgetary allocation to that sector and giving subsidy on food items. It should also ensure security of life and property of farmers and give incentives to food companies to enable them produce food in abundance.
There is no room for delay anymore. Government had embarked on some palliative measures that appeared to be scratching the surface. Earlier in the year, it ordered the immediate release of 42,000 metric tonnes of maize, millet, garri and other commodities from the national grain reserve. This has not worked. We should emulate South Africa, which embraced biotechnology and encouraged its farmers to use genetically engineered seeds that have brought about improved crop yields. Nigerian government should support seed companies to produce and supply quality seeds to farmers that will engender higher yields.
As the Executive Director of WFP, Cindy McCain, put it, “A future free from hunger is possible if we can rally the resources and the political will needed to invest in proven long-term solutions.”