How serious food crisis in Nigeria can be reversed – Peter Obi

Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Mr. Peter Obi, has said that government must invest heavily in agriculture to ensure sufficient food production for Nigeria and the world as a whole.

Mr. Obi, in a statement to mark World Food Day yesterday, restated his long held position that “the vast fertile lands in the North, if put into productive agricultural use, will produce enough food for domestic consumption and for exports, which can give us more revenue than we generate from oil.”

The former Anambra State Governor stressed that lack of adequate investment in agriculture was a serious contributor to the current food crisis in the country .

He also pointed out that “the horrible spate of attacks on farmers in Nigeria by armed and terror groups have continued to hinder food production, food supplies and therefore, threatening to push the country deeper into a devastating hunger crisis.”

Admitting the existence of food crisis in the country, Mr. Obi called for “urgent steps to salvage the people from further hunger and starvation,” noting that “food crisis has remained a serious challenge facing many households in Nigeria, as the country is reported, by Global Hunger Index, to be facing a serious hunger level.

“With more than half of the population living in poverty, a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has shown that over 90 million Nigerians face food insecurity, thus posing obstacles to a healthy population and human development.

“In the 2023 Global Hunger Index, Nigeria ranked 109th out of the 125 countries measured, showing that we currently battle high level of hunger. Reports have it that Nigeria’s food inflation rate in August 2023 was about 30 percent on a year-on-year basis. Consequently, a vast majority of Nigerians spend the entirety of their disposable income on foods, which is often hardly enough,” Obi regretted in the statement, and called for urgent action to reverse the prevailing dangerous trend.