According to farmers registered with the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), President Bola Tinubu’s palliative was not the answer to the nation’s food crisis.
This was stated in a letter to the president, which was signed by Arc Kabir Ibrahim, National President of AFAN, and urged him to build sustainable food banks to address the nation’s present food production issues.
The statement mentioned a number of difficulties, including the high cost of agricultural inputs, fuel, terrorist attacks on farms, farmer killings, and others.
According to architect Ibrahim, if qualified individuals were hired to make use of the country’s agricultural resources, the nation might become self-sufficient in food.
According to him, the pursuit of sustainable food security in a country with a population of more than 200 million people goes beyond the provision of palliatives and instead ultimately demands increasing production and reviving the entire food system through the adoption of bold measures.
“A temporary relief may assuage a hungry person for a few days or months depending on the magnitude of the relief package but a more sustainable solution to the ailing food system is the most desirable proposition in the face of the almost existential challenges we are facing.
“Nigeria is subdivided into six geopolitical zones comprising of North Central with six states; North East with six states plus FCT, North West with six states; South East with five states; South-South with six states and South West with six states, with each of these zones having its food or preferred meal,” the statement read in part.
“We must do the following without any delay: Expand our cultivable and irrigable land; commit to educating our farmers to embrace Good Agricultural Practices (GAP); climate smart agricultural production leading to all year round cultivation; invest in sustainable mechanization, Science Technology and Innovation (STI); and biotechnology leading to genetic engineering as well as genome editing and others”, Architect Ibrahim said.
