Nigerians have been warned to brace up for serious food crisis ahead following the menace of banditry and flooding currently ravaging the country.
The warning was given by a renowned industrialist and food processing expert, Mr. Duro Kuteyi at an event organised by Spectra Industries Limited to mark this year’s World Food Day in Lagos.
Kuteyi, who is also the managing director (MD)of Spectra Industries Limited, a leading indigenous food processing and manufacturing company therefore, called on the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, save Nigeria of an imminent food crisis by urgently setting a workable agenda for food security in Nigeria by addressing the current challenge of banditry and flooding that have made it difficult for farmers to access their farms unhindered.
Kuteyi, who particularly lamented over the general insecurity in the country, stated that while the rest of the world is fighting hard to tackle factors such as climatic change that is a big threat to food security, however, expressed regret that apart from climatic change, the major threat of food security in Nigeria is the uncontrollable level of terrorism and banditry which has made it difficult for farmers to go to their farms.
He warned that the current rate of inflation and escalation of food prices will be a child’s play by next year if urgent measures are not taken to ensure that farmers are allowed to farm without the fear of being kidnapped or the current practice where bandits force farmers to pay royalty and taxes on their farm to bandits.
He said: “It is either the federal government does not know the full import of what is happening in Nigeria today, or they lack the political will to confront banditry and terrorism so as to make the environment safe for farmers to have unhindered access to their farmland. What we have on ground today is already having huge negative impact on manufacturers who can no longer have enough local raw materials that used to come from local farmers.”
Kuteyi stated that while it appears as if the current government may no longer have time on its side, he, however, expressed optimism that come 2023, a new government that will be in place can address the problem if there is sincerity of purpose and political will.
“The first three months in the life of the administration that will emerge in 2023 will determine whether Nigeria will be saved from food crisis or not. Once there is a commitment from the new government on tackling banditry and terrorism, then Nigeria can be assured of food security and that can be determined within the first three months of the administration otherwise, Nigerian should brace up for tougher time next year,” Kuteyi declared.
In his key note address on the occasion, the Chairman of Lagos Chapter of Food Safety Committee, Mr. Abiru Abayomi, who spoke on ‘Leave No One Behind’, which is the theme for this year’s World Food Day, stated that from the theme, the desire of the world is that no one must be left hungry, stressing that leaving anyone hungry poses a security threat to the world.
He, however, lamented that this global concern of ensuring that every human being is well fed to guarantee security seems not to mean anything to the various level of government in Nigeria as nothing concrete is being done to address food wastage as well as other factors such as insecurity, flooding and climatic change that poses great threat to food security.
“Even in some African countries like Egypt, government has a lot of intervention programmes to encourage farming such as provision of high yielding seedlings as well as enabling environment that makes farming flourish in these countries,” Abiru submitted.
He therefore, call on all levels of government in Nigeria to save farming and manufacturing sector by setting aside intervention funds that will truly be channeled into agriculture that will help feed the manufacturing sector with raw materials.
World Food Day is set aside on October 16 every year by the United Nations through its Food and Agriculture Organisaton(FAO) to create awareness across the globe on the need for the consumption of safe, functional and quality food.
As part of its activities to mark this year’s World Food Day, Spectra Industries Limited, makers of Spectra Cocoa, Spectra Suco, Sobake and Hyfiba among other products, used the occasion to present a new product called Instant hyfiba, which is an instant meal made from maize, soya, vitamins and minerals as they made guest to prepare the instant meal themselves while they were served soup to have a taste of the meal.
