There is rising global insecurity due to crisis and extreme weather conditions. Various international development agencies are trying to make a difference. These include the European Union, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF.
“The dramatic increase reflects the trouble people have in producing and accessing food due to conflict, record-high food prices in local markets in affected countries and extreme weather conditions such drought and erratic rainfall caused by El Niño.
Civil conflict is the driving factor in nine of the 10 worst humanitarian crises, underscoring the strong linkage between peace and food security, says the Global Report on Food Crises 2017 report.”
Like many other African nations, Nigeria is not carrying her weight in the global food production. We prefer to take the easy way out and import from Asia, Europe and the United States.
Its time to treat our underperformance as a major crisis. We need to invest more in large scale agriculture. This investment has to extend to improved infrastructure including roads into rural areas and rail transport to bring produce to market.
We also need to build better air cargo facilities to export perishables to markets in Europe and the Middle East. These are just a few of the many requirments.
Right now it seems the government is doing the least it can in order to gain momentary acclaim. Its a shame.