Nigerians Projected To Experience Food And Nutrition Crises

This includes 116, 765 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP’s).

The current report shows a drop in figures which is an improvement compared to the October and November report which projected that 33.1 million people will experience acute food and nutrition insecurity.

The CH report also indicates that about 30.6 millions people including 150 978 IDPs in 26 States and FCT in the country are expected to be in Crisis (CH Phase 3) or worse between June and Auqust 2025.

Key Limiting Factors are High prices of foodstuffs limiting households’ access

to food, Reduced food stocks at household levels Limited income generating activities, loss of jobs and other livelihood activities constrains access to food, Inadequate food consumption, poor health care-seeking behaviors, poor dietary diversity and lack of minimum acceptable diets results in poor nutrition outcomes and the limited access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene services exacerbated the prevalence of diseases affecting health and nutrition.

The Cadre Harmonise (CH) analysis is conducted in 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to ascertain food insecurity situation and make projections for the future for informed decision making and proper planning.

The CH report projections serve as a guide for policy makers in focusing on areas that are in dare need of interventions.

The representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to Nigeria and ECOWAS who was represented by the Assistant FAO representative of programmes Mr. Salisu Mohammed said Nigeria is experiencing the worst inflation in 20 years which has made it difficult for households to access food.

 “We have faced the worst inflation in over 20 years, which has driven economic hardship making it difficult for households to secure food and other essential commodities.

He said the main goal of the CH analysis workshops is to document populations and areas at risk of food and nutrition insecurity in the country.

“This is done twice every year in March and October. Depending on the magnitude and severity of food insecurity, the CH also proposes appropriate measures to prevent emergency or escalation of ongoing food crises”.

Mr. Mohammed called on stakeholders to play their parts and support data collections so that the cadre harmonise exercise could be extended to the remaining 10 states in the country.

Speaking on the challenges, he said there are some hard to reach areas that could not be reached for data collecting while conducting the CH analysis.

“We also had challenges collecting data from inaccessible locations.

The representative of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), Director Food and Strategic Reserve of the ministry, Engr. Onyema Okwudili said the government is committed to ensuring food security by applying the recommendations generated from the report.

 “We remain resolute in achieving our mandate as the nation’s major stakeholder in the food security sector and assure all our partners of government commitment in utilizing the outcome and recommendations generated from these results and workshop in addressing the country’s food and nutrition security crisis”.

He urged the humanitarian communities to adopt the CH report for proper planning and implementation of interventions.

 “We also recommend that these results be adopted by the humanitarian communities for planning and implementation of nation-wide food and nutrition security interventions”.

CH analysis was conducted and validated by highly skilled professionals of the CH analysis task force.

The results of this cycle of CH analysis is coming at a time when government at all levels is leaving no stone unturned in reinvigorating the nation’s economy by first addressing the challenges of food and nutrition Insecurity.