ANNUAL OCTOBER LECTURE
 

 

FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA,  HOW CLOSE ARE WE?

A PRESENTATION
BY
 PROFESSOR ANGO ABDULLAHI, CON
(Magajin Rafin Zazzau)

 

AT
FEDERAL RADIO CORPORATION’S
ANNUAL OCTOBER LECTURE
9TH OCTOBER, 2008
ABUJA.


PROTOCOLS/INTRODUCTION:


Let me first thank the Director General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) for her gracious consideration in inviting me to give the Corporation’s “Annual October Lecture” this year. I understand that the under-pinning to the annual event is to engage Nigerians in a discourse on tropical issues concerning, and of significant interest to, the nation. Needless to say, however, there are today numerous topical subjects each of which richly worthy of being chosen for the 2008 Annual Lecture. However, in their wisdom, the organizers of this event decided that this year’s lecture should be on “Food Security”.


It is indeed true that in recent months there has been an upsurge of global rhetoric about food shortages with the attendant rise in food prices in various parts of the world, including in countries which, hitherto, were regarded as food secure. Reactions to the recent global food crisis included violent mass protests in several countries. In other situations of more sobre reflections world leaders in general resorted to the now age old appeals calling for urgent action to cope with the serious challenges posed by food insecurity in various parts of the globe, especially in developing countries. It is generally agreed that food insecurity is the most serious manifestation of absolute poverty which afflict an estimated 1.2 billion people around the world, and without doubt it is a potent ingredient and cause of social unrest around the world. It is even argued that situations of aggravated poverty and hunger are fertile grounds for breeding various forms of crimes including the sophisticated forms of terrorism within and across national borders.


At home, reactions of Nigerians to the recent hue and cry on the so called global food crisis were expectedly varied. While most official circles would not agree there is, at present, a food crisis in the country, there is a significant informed agreement that Nigeria is indeed “food insecure”. I think a distinction should be made here between a ‘food crisis’ and “food insecurity”. A food crisis exists when an entire nation or section(s) of if, for whatever causes, is engulfed by severe food shortages, which result into famines  and even lead to massive dislocations of communities without an apparent national capacity to cope with the problem.

We can site Somalia, Ethiopia and Dafur (Sudan) as examples of countries/regions where food crises exist as a result of varied causes like drought and war. Such countries depend on massive foreign assistance as they apparently have no internal mechanisms or capacity to cope with the crises. In the context of these examples Nigeria does not have a food crisis at this point in time either on the national scale or, for that matter, in any part of the country.


Having answered the question that there is no food crisis in Nigeria, our searchlight should now be turned to the question of FOOD INSECURITY.  Whether or not Nigeria qualifies as a food secure country we need to examine the meaning of the universally adopted definition of FOOD SECURITY.


FOOD SECURITY – WHAT IS IT?
“Food security exists where households have at all times access to adequate quantity and variety of food for all their members to lead active and healthy lives”.
This definition, by its full meaning  and intent, has the following indices for measuring the extent or degree of food security achieved by any country:

  • Adequate aggregate national food supply.
  • Accessibility of supplies by citizens
  • Affordability
  • Nutritional needs of various segments of the population.
  • Food safety considerations
  • Strategic reserves for emergencies
  • Environmental preservation/protection.

THE SITUATION ON GROUND IN NIGERIA.
At independence up till the mid 1970s there were strong trends that Nigeria was, and could remain, largely a self – sufficient nation in terms of the food requirements for its citizens. Before the mid 1970s, Nigeria produced all its food needs and surpluses for its promising agro-industries, and for exports. Our agricultural imports were very small for the special taste of expatriates and some Nigerians who acquired habits for exotic foreign foods and could pay for them. From less than N1billion in the early 1970s, our present food import bills stand at a staggering N400 billion per annum made up of such items like sugar, rice, milk, wheat, maize, beef, poultry, fish etc.


This phenomenal increase in food import is a clear indication that domestic agricultural output is not keeping pace with our domestic needs for essential food items and raw materials for agro-industries.


Surely at the level of our development( or under-development!) we cannot afford the expensive luxury of using our much needed scarce foreign exchange on goods we are in a much better position to produce than those countries from where we import them. All being well, as was that case before the 1970s, Nigeria should still be the net exporter of agricultural goods  rather than being the net importer we are today.


Brief explanation of this situation is that our agriculture suffers from LOW PRODUCTIVITY meaning that the prevailing yields from crops, soils, rivers, lakes, livestock, forests etc are far below their expected and proven potentials. It is also a fact that even with this low productivity a significant proportion of the output is lost for lack of efficient post – harvest handling during storage, transportation etc.


 Accessibility of available food is a critical factor of food security in any country. Food must be moved from the point of production i.e. farms and/or factories to markets where consumers can easily access them. At present the country suffers from a number of weaknesses in its food distribution chain which include:

  • Poor rural roads for easy and efficient evacuation of produce from the farms to the urban centres where non-farm consumers need them.
  • Seasonal gluts and low food prices alternating with periods of scarcity and high food prices. Again the reasons for this cycle are well known and they include poor storage and preservation capacity, poor transport infrastructure, poor market information, poor organized producer and consumer groups, lack of effective intervention mechanisms to ensure steady supplies and stable food prices in various parts of the country.
  • A “Nigeria Food Consumption and Nutrition Survey, 2001 – 2003” showed that one of the most important determinants in Nigeria’s food security status is whether Nigerians are always in a position to afford the food they need to remain active and healthy. The survey revealed that for most of the year upto 40% of Nigerian households could not afford their requirement for food. The survey also showed a significant variation between rural and urban households, between agro-ecological zones of the country, and between occupational groups. Ironically the survey showed that the most food insecure groups are rural communities (mostly farmers themselves!). The survey also further showed that the higher the incomes of households the higher their degree of food security. In this regard the survey showed households in which members are employed in regular paid jobs had greater food security. Overall the prevalent poverty in Nigeria’s households are the main cause of food insecurity in the country. Recent CBN report on poverty in Nigeria corroborated the survey’s findings in terms of a near linear relationship between poverty and food insecurity in Nigeria.

Consequent to the inability of households to afford their actual needs of food led to the necessity of affected families to adopt several survival techniques. The survey under reference identified the following survival measures:

  • Reduction in the quantum of food intake. This means for example instead of three regular meals a day, the meals are reduced to two or even one a day. Instances of skipping an entire day(s) of household cooking were reported. In this situation such families rely on food donations from neighbors.
  • Family budgets shifted from quality balanced diets to bulk diets. That is, limited family incomes were spent mainly on carbohydrates with little or nothing left for foods which supply their needs for proteins, vitamins and minerals. The consequence of this is high incidence of malnutrition within members of the households. But the survey was empathic that the most vulnerable members of the households in situations of inadequate supply of balanced diets are children and women (especially expectant and nursing mothers). Children were found to be stunted and often wasted, while maternal morbidity and mortality increased significantly in such households.

In most food secure countries a major mandatory need is food safety. In other words all foods must be wholesome and free  from biological or chemical contaminations which could be injurious to health of consumers. In fact food safety has become such a major issue in advanced nations around the world. Nations without the capacity to ensure the safety of the food they eat or sell might not be able to find trading partners in the world. Unfortunately food safety in Nigeria has not yet received adequate attention as part of our national food security policy. The lapses on food safety are so obvious going by the frequent outbreaks of food and water born- diseases which claim thousands of lives daily in the country.

Most food secure nations around the world have contingency plans to deal with food emergencies within their borders. In Nigeria at present there appears to be two options of dealing with food shortages:

  • Importing the shortfalls as has been the case in the last two decades.
  • Strategic food reserve. This has been the acclaimed policy of Federal government in the past two decades. Regrettably the implementation of this policy leaves much to be desired. The federal strategic food reserve in the past decade hardly ever exceeded 200,000 metric tons at any point in time. In fact for most of the time the so – called reserve never exceeded 100,000 metric tons. This is hardly sufficient for 100,000 households for just one week!! The small buffer stocks expected to be kept by State and Local Governments would not make any significant difference even at local levels. All this means that Nigeria’s so –called emergency food reserves hardly exist in reality. They are neither enough to deal with any serious emergency nor useful as a tool for price stabilization in times of unexpected and unacceptable rise in food prices.  Comparing India’s 5 million tons of food reserve to Nigeria 0.1 million ton speaks volumes of how far away we are from achieving a re-assuring position in our food security policy.

Like most countries concerned with the long term sustainable food security needs of their citizens, Nigeria has to put in place a strategic plans for conserving and protecting the ENVIRONMNET.  Without due care Nigeria runs the risk of losing that ecological sub-structure upon which the future of sustainable agriculture will be built. We are already aware of the phenomena of desertification, soil erosion, deforestation, oil pollution and general abuse of our environmental assets in the name of short term development pursuits. We only need to take stock of what has happened to the environment in the last three decades to appreciate the dangers we would face in the not too distant future if conservation and protection measures are not put in place.


PROSPECTS OF ACHIEVING FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA:


Based on the forgoing assertions and the indices for measuring food security around the world, it is safe to conclude that Nigeria is yet to achieve food security as universally defined. The question is how far away from the mark are we? This question cannot be answered with any confidence without looking at some of the issues which made our general economic development extremely slow in the first place.
It is agreed that for the foreseeable future the Nigerian economy and its development would revolve around the following major sub- sectors:

  • Agriculture
  • Manufacturing
  • Oil and Gas
  • Solid Minerals

For the economy to grow rapidly these commanding heights should be so harnessed and managed such that each one of them makes its maximum contribution to the national revenue pool. Unfortunately, for almost four decades now the country’s attention has concentrated most on the oil sector to the neglect of the other sectors especially agriculture and manufacturing. Given the crucial role agriculture and manufacturing must play in an economy like ours, it is not surprising that our socio – economic progress has stagnated and is characterized by:

  • High level of  unemployment
  • Pervasive poverty
  • Hunger and disease
  • Inadequate infrastructure
  • Inadequate basic social services
  • Declining life expectancy
  • High level of illiteracy 
  • Over – dependence on foreign economies and foreign institutions.

This general neglect of the REAL SECTORS of our economy has brought Nigeria to its present un-enviable status of being one of the twenty poorest countries in the world with up to 70% of its citizens living on less that US$1.0/day.


AGRICULTURE AND THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY:


In the context of this lecture, we need to appreciate that Agriculture holds the key to any serious effort to addressing the socio-economic problems facing Nigeria today and in the foreseeable  future. It is the provider of employment to about 70% of the country’s labour force. It supplies at least 90% of the country’s food requirement and raw materials for industries. Its contribution to GDP is still about 40% against oil’s 15-18% (very unstable and fluctuates with world market oil prices), and still the largest foreign exchange earner after oil. It is only by paying correct attention to the agriculture sector we could grow the Nigerian economy and address such basic concerns in the following ways:

  • Greater output by farmers leading to a greater generation of higher farm incomes.
  • Greater output could lead to more and cheaper foods for Nigerians.
  • More raw materials for domestic industrial development.
  • Foreign exchange savings through import substitution.
  • General reduction of poverty levels in the country especially among the rural communities.
  • Greater capacity to afford the basic needs of a good life including adequate food at households levels.
  • Significant reduction in malnutrition in the population especially its consequences on young children and women.
  • Greater contentment of citizens,  itself important for national security and patriotisms.

VISION 20:20 AND SEVEN POINT AGENDA:


Whether the slogan is “Vision 20/20 or it is Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), or “SEVEN POINT AGENDA” the wish or desire is for Nigeria to move forward from its present level of under-development to a more acceptable level within the shortest possible time. Hopefully the economy should grow fast enough so that Nigeria could be among the 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020. The real meaning of this objective is that Nigerian citizens would be lifted out of their present poverty into a new era of comfort and affluence. It is expected that the current economic development plans and programmes as captured in the President’s Seven Point Agenda would achieve the desired growth levels in the real sectors of the economy especially agriculture. Going by our past records of poor performance in growing the Nigerian economy, there is justifiable skepticism that these slogans might go the way of many before them. However, the goals set are still achievable with a committed LEADERSHIP AND POLITICAL WILL.

THANK YOU.   

CITATION OF PROFESSOR ANGO ABDULLAHI, CON