Achieving food security is the desire of all nations, and is hinged on continuous planning in improving the food system. This is one of the sustainable development goals: that by 2030, all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their food preferences and dietary needs for an active and healthy life (United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security).

Agriculture cannot work for us all in a hostile environment where farmers are afraid of their lives and their livelihood
In Nigeria, to achieve this goal by 2030 is quite impossible, as factors such as insecurity, high food inflation, weak food distribution system and COVID-19 lockdowns have impacted the food system. For instance, insecurity is a big threat to production as many farmers have abandoned their farmlands to avoid being kidnapped or killed by terrorists in some farming communities. This has affected the volume of food available, and has largely contributed to food inflation (which stood at 20.57% in January 2021).

Agriculture cannot work for us all in a hostile environment where farmers are afraid of their lives and their livelihood. There is an urgent need to identify the main causes of insecurity, address the issues, and ensure that strong systems are out in place to avoid future occurrence. Also, relevant agricultural stakeholders should collaborate with the government in providing guidance for palliative distribution for farmers, especially smallholder farmers, to reduce the impact of COVID-19. This will serve as a short term measure and also develop a long term policy to help improve agricultural productivity towards achieving food security.

There is no better day than now to rise to the needs of the farmers in creating an enabling environment to thrive for sustainable growth.

Yours-in-Service

Babatunde Olarewaju

In his weekly column Letter to my Farmers, Babatunde Olarewajo writes about personal experiences and insights on farming, curated through working with smallholder farmers in Africa. Last week's letter is available here.