Stakeholders in Nigeria’a agric sector have called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency in the sector to save the country’s economy from experiencing more hunger.
They pointed out that the exponential food crisis and the alarming prices of food items in markets nationwide called for serious concern from the government.
Speaking at a forum in (where) ,they further warned that if care is not taken, the announcement by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO’s, that 19 million Nigerians are currently in poverty level, could become more worrisome.
They specifically noted that the number of hungry people in Nigeria could be doubled and multiplied unless measures are sustainably implemented to disruptive, innovative and strict supervising of important milestones with defined timelines between now and 2023.
One of the stakeholders that spoke was the former National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Mr. Kabir Ibrahim, Who pointed out that Nigeria’s agriculture is at crossroads and begging for urgent solutions.
Mr Ibrahim explained that nation’s population explosion, the COVID-19 pandemic, general insecurity, incipient laziness in policy implementation and lack of cohesion are ‘threat factors’ to food production, processing, distribution and consumption in the country currently.
