Experts harp on increased agro-productivity to prevent hunger

Some agriculture experts have stressed the need for all-year-round crop cultivation to prevent the acute hunger prediction in Nigeria predicted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The experts made the call in  separate interviews on Friday in Lagos state.

FAO predicted in its recent report that approximately 30.6 million Nigerians will likely face acute food and nutrition insecurity between June and August 2025.

An agriculture expert and co-founder Corporate Farmers International, Mr Akin Alabi, who described the prediction as plausible said it could be addressed with increased agriculture productivity.

“There has always been predictions based on corresponding data that there is going to be food crisis globally. It has always been there since the year 2000, and such predictions will not stop.

“In fact, the World Bank has been releasing data that the world would suffer food hunger from the year 2000.

“But as humans and as a player in the sector, what we should constantly do is to ensure that we keep increasing agricultural productivity despite the global challenges we face regularly.

“The challenges faced in the agro sector are numerous for example, in Nigeria, the context is always insecurity. Globally, we always have climate change issues, a factor that has greatly affected farmers productivity.

“Climate change has been a major factor that has affected agricultural productivity globally, from drought to flood, to thunderstorm, and erosion among others.

“There would always be predictions of food shortage and hunger crisis, all we need to do is to play our part through increased productivity,” Alabi said.

Also speaking, Mr Omotunde Banjoko, an agriculture analyst, said on hands be on the deck to ensure all-year-round farming with adequate irrigation systems.

“So, the FAO prediction has always aligned with most of what even our own agencies come up with in the last couple of years.

“So, I am not sure we have any reason to doubt what they are projecting and they are even saying it might be about 33.3 million people who may suffer hunger crisis.

“This prediction is usually targeted to the lean season, that is when we are done eating up all our harvests and farmers have gone to plant and then what we have in the market is not enough.

“It is a period when demand outweighs the supply of agro produce locally. So, what we can do is we need to now start having all year planting season.

“Enough of seasonal planting in Nigeria, that is not going to feed a population of about 200 million. We cannot still be relying solely on rain-fed agriculture,” Banjoko said.

He said Nigeria must stop seasonal planting to avert food insecurity.

“We now have to stop seasonal planting but with irrigation and then exploring and river basins authority, maximising the waters that we have, we can plant all-year-round and have enough food supplies.

“With that we can stabilise the price, we can control the inflow of produce and also we need more than ever before to start prioritising storage, both cold storage, storage for grains.

“This is so that, we can have produce en masse, instead of produce getting rotten, we can keep them for those lean season and push them out from our reserves,” he said.

NAN / Foluke Ibitomi