Tag: FOOD SECURITY

High food prices loom, USAID warns Nigeria, others

Aminu Imam

The United States Agency for International Development, (USAID) has warned Nigeria and other African countries to brace-up for higher food prices, following recent developments that have temporarily halted Ukraine’s food exports to African countries. USAID’s Deputy Administrator for Policy and Programming, Isobel Coleman, who stated this on Thursday at a virtual press conference, said Russia’s decision to withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Initiative had already begun to trigger higher food prices around the world. According to her, the impact of this food price hike would be more felt in…

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25 million Nigerians to face food crisis by August 2023 – FAO

Aminu Imam

About 25.3 million people will face food insecurity across Nigeria between June and August 2023, according to the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation, (FAO). The FAO, in an issued statement, warned that if actions are not taken to avert the crisis, 4.4 million people in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States will be affected. The UN food agency, in its October 2022 food and nutrition analysis said about 17 million people in the country were already facing a food crisis. These include internally-displaced persons, (IDPs) and returnees in 26…

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“Inflation better than hunger; Nigerians have enough food” – Agric Minister

Aminu Imam

The Federal Government has assured the citizens that the country had enough to eat and that there would be no shortage of food. The Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Muhammad Abubakar, gave the assurance yesterday in Abuja, at the fifth edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s Scorecard 2015-2017 Series. The Scorecard Series was organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture to showcase the achievements of President Buhari’s Administration in over seven years of being in office. Responding to questions after his presentation, Abubakar said the inflationary…

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Flooding: 25 million Nigerians risk severe hunger in 2023 – Report

Aminu Imam

Stakeholders in the nation’s food and agriculture value chain have said that unless urgent steps are taken by the Federal Government, the massive destruction to farmlands by the recent floods may result in a severe hunger crisis in 2023. Aside from financial losses incurred by farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs, the destruction has been estimated to put 25.3million people across 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in acute food crisis between June and August next year. This estimation is contained in the Cadre Hamonise report on the food security…

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Ukraine: Food crisis may worsen in Nigeria, as Russia pulls out of grain export deal 

Aminu Imam

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, has pulled out of a deal to allow the supply of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. This is coming three months after both the Ukrainian and Russian military delegations signed an agreement to allow Russia to export its grain and fertilisers. The deal, which also involved the United Nations (UN) and Turkey, was to re-start grain exports from Black Sea ports which have been blocked since Russia’s invasion, in a bid to ease the ravaging global food crisis; as it would enable Ukraine to…

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25 million Nigerians suffering from hunger – Nutritionist

Aminu Imam

At least 25 million Nigerians are suffering from hunger, according to the National Coordinator of the ‘Academic and Research Network for Scaling-up nutrition in Nigeria‘, (ARN-SUNN), Prof Kola Matthew Anigo. He said this in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, while delivering his Keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 52nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) and scientific conference of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria. Speaking on the theme of the conference: “Bridging the Malnutrition Gap: Nutrition Multi-sectoral Commitments for Sustainable Nutrition in Nigeria”, Anigo lamented the prevalence of malnutrition in Nigeria.…

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Food Insecurity: ActionAid Nigeria seeks eradication of banditry, farmers-herders clash 

Aminu Imam

The Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Ene Obi, has lamented the impact of banditry on the country’s food security, adding that the Government should tackle it in order to solve the food crisis. Obi made this disclosure in her remarks on Monday, during the ‘National Stakeholders Consultative’ meeting on the 2023 Agriculture Budget, in collaboration with Oxfam, ONE, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Department of Agriculture & Rural Development, the ECOWAS Commission. She called for deliberate efforts from…

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Conflict, a major driver of food insecurity in Nigeria, others – World Bank

Aminu Imam

The World Bank has identified conflict as one of the critical drivers of food insecurity in West Africa, especially in the north-western part of Nigeria and the Liptako Gourma region, which borders Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic. In its latest ‘Food Security Update’ report, the multilateral institution noted that the number of conflicts and fatalities reported between January and June 2022 had already surpassed what was recorded in the first half of 2021. According to the report, conflict and fatalities were expected to reach a record high in 2022,…

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Nigeria, others face severe food, energy and finance crisis – UN chief

Aminu Imam

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has warned that the Ukraine conflict may cause a social and economic crisis in Nigeria and other countries of the world. The conflict, combined with other crises, is threatening to unleash “an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake,” Guterres said on Wednesday, at the launch of a second report by the Global Crisis Response Group on ‘Food, Energy and Finance over the Ukraine conflict’. “Food prices are at near-record highs. Fertiliser prices have more than…

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Food Security: Farm protection, agric funding only solution to food scarcity, unemployment in Nigeria – ActionAid

Aminu Imam

The only solution to food scarcity and unemployment among the youth that have turned to crime to eke out a living is the protection of farms from incessant banditry attacks and funding of agricultural mechanisation. This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a one-day Non-State Actors (NSAs) Post National Dialogue & Dissemination on Nigeria’s Performance at the 3rd Biennial Review Exercise on the Implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), which was held in Abuja recently. ActionAid Nigeria (AAN) and ActionAid International pointed out…

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