The Federal Government has commenced an integrated approach to remedy the challenges of food ecosystems in the country in order to reduce the huge food deficit caused by the neglect of agriculture. Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, disclosed this at a meeting of the donors/development partners on April 18, 2023. The minister, who spoke on the implementation of the food systems transformation pathways in Nigeria, said food security is the indispensable prerequisite for the survival of mankind.
He lamented that the incidence of food insecurity has been on a steady increase over the past four decades. He also added that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has projected that about 25.3 million people in Nigeria would face acute food insecurity during the June to August 2023 season. In a quarterly report released by the global organization, the figure projected is higher than the 19.45 million forecasts in 2022. He said that this higher forecast is attributed to the huge food deficit due to the neglect of agricultural production and other areas of the food ecosystem for many decades.
Task Team works on implementation strategy for transforming food systems.
At the meeting, the minister disclosed that the government had garnered a lot of support from donors and development partners since the initiative on food systems transformation started. While extending his gratitude to them for their generous support to Nigeria in different fields, he recognized their collaboration with the Government of Nigeria (GoN) on a series of exploratory dialogues that took place in the 36 States, the FCT and some communities in 2021 and the consolidation of the reports, collation of the 78 recommended priorities from the dialogues, prioritization of recommendations, and the commencement of implementation in 2022.
Agba also said the 2023 Implementation Task Team, of which they are members, is currently working on the development of a costed implementation strategy for transforming the food systems. The government is aware that donors have specific states and areas of intervention in all the states in the country and the mapping exercise done by the Implementation Task Team has shown this. He said that there is an urgent need for better coordination of our efforts as stakeholders to ensure balance support by all donors and development partners to enable Nigeria to achieve the transformation pathways.
Universal access to sustainable diets critical to addressing malnutrition.
The Minister revealed that the Federal Government understood that achieving universal access to safe, nutritious, affordable and sustainable diets is critical to addressing the complexities of malnutrition and food insecurity in Nigeria. According to him, this is particularly significant to attaining both economic and human capital development. Thus, it requires breaking down silos among different actors in the food and nutrition sphere while adopting a well-coordinated multi-sectoral approach. He noted that both the technical and financial support for the implementation of the food systems pathway has become a great challenge to the government.
He said the needed funds for this will require the pooling of public and private sector resources, including development partners and donors. According to him, the present administration in its determination to ensure improvement in the food and nutrition situation in the country has adopted a strategic approach towards ensuring that successive governments in Nigeria continue to prioritize food and nutrition interventions in the nation’s development agenda. So, the ministry has been championing the implementation of the presidential directive on the establishment of nutrition departments and the creation of budget line for nutrition in all line ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Agba calls for continuous support of all partners.
Minister Agba stated that the government appreciates the commitment of every organization represented at the meeting to implement the strategy being developed for the implementation of the food systems transformation pathways in the country. He said, “The enormous amount of money needed to assure the food security of Nigerians calls for a fundamental review of past approaches and achievements to see what lessons can be learned to re-strategize and develop an approach that will ensure that better progress is made toward achieving better results.” He called for the continuous support of all partners, especially in funding the implementation of the food systems.
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FG to address Nigeria’s food deficit – FAO projected 25 million people would face food insecurity during lean season. – Express your point of view.
Food deficit in Nigeria is a serious problem. We really need to do more than ensure it can be stopped. It is one of the reasons why we have poverty still ravaging the land.
Addressing Nigeria’s food deficit requires multi-dimensional strategies such as improving access to credit facilities, scaling up intervention programs, enhancing value chain systems, and partnering with the private sector. With these strategies in place, the agricultural sector can achieve its potential in improving the country’s food security and economic growth.
Good deficits should not be something that will happen in a country like Nigeria, Nigeria is blessed all round we have good land for farming. But we need the government to help finance this sector so they can produce more for us
Food deficit should not be happening in our country we need to do something about it the government should invest in agriculture sector so to prevent food insecurity
It’s insane that we need to coordinate our activities as stakeholders so that Nigeria can get the balanced support it needs from all of its sponsors to complete its revamping routes.
It would be wonderful if the farming industry could realise its full potential in terms of enhancing the nation’s food security and contributing to the expansion of the economy.
Our nation should not be experiencing a food shortage; we have a duty to take corrective action, and the government should make investments in the agricultural sector to forestall instances of food insecurity.
Nigeria is blessed all around, and we have good land for farming, so food shortages should not be an issue. However, government funding is essential for this industry to increase output for the public good.
projected 25 million people would face food insecurity during lean season.food deficit is one of the major challenge we are facing in Nigeria. Nigeria government don’t really care because the have all they need, so other citizens don’t matter to them since they have a lot of money and goodies to take take care of themselves
The 2022 flooding, fulani herdsmen attacks on farmers and government policies has resulted in scarcity of food in Nigeria. As projected by FAO projected 25 million people would face food insecurity during lean season. The federal government should address the food deficit in Nigeria.
When you have a terrible government that lack concrete vision for the nation you will always find yourself in all kinds of predicament. Such is the case of Buhari led administration whose tenure is rounding up already now seeking to address food deficit in Nigeria. It is just another opportunity to embezzle public fund under the disguise of addressing food deficit in Nigeria. What have they being doing in the last 7 years plus now? Please, we are wise now, nobody should fool anybody. I hope the next incoming government will do the needful to address the food deficit of the nation.