Tackling Food Insecurity

Those who wonder why they have to pay such highly exorbitant price for food that is so read­ily available in the markets must be thinking in terms of classical economic theory, which says that where supply exceeds demand, prices will drop.

Those theorists may have forgotten the tongue-in-cheek Latin caveat, “Ceteres paribus,” or “All things being equal.” Another Latin phrase, “Caveat emptor,” or “Buyer beware,” also absolves Adam Smith of responsibility for the assump­tion that prices will fall when­ever supply increases.

One of the conditions that may cause ‘all things not being equal’ could be in Northern Nigerian farmers taking ad­vantage of the weak naira to sell their farm produce to West African and Asian countries, to earn foreign currency.

This resolve to export food produced in Nigeria, coupled with government’s importation of foodstuffs, may both lead to higher prices of food items. Clearly, the Organised Private Sector is unable to persuade the Northern farmers against exporting their produce.

The government’s removal of subsidy from petrol, electricity and foreign exchange has led to the staggering 39.93 per cent food inflation that has reduced the quantity and quality of food that the average Nigerian can afford to buy.

Nutritionists are now sug­gesting new tricks to help Nigerians maintain a healthy diet in the face of high cost of food. Prof Ignatius Onimawo, a university vice chancellor and public health nutritionist, reasons that “If you do not eat meat, chicken or fish on a par­ticular day, but you eat beans, groundnuts or Bambara nuts, you still have taken protein for the day.”

Another public health nutri­tionist, Prof Beatrice Ogunba, suggests that eating egg is as good as eating chicken. She argues that fruits, vegetables, cereals and milk should guar­antee all-round good health in these days of high cost of living.

And Prof Wasiu Afolabi, a former President of Nutrition Society of Nigeria, suggests that, to cut costs of living, Nige­rians should emphasise the con­sumption of locally produced foodstuffs instead of imported foodstuffs.

Other measures could include government selling imported foodstuffs at controlled price, like the Nigeria National Sup­ply Company used to do. This can only be a short-term policy, because it will lead to corrup­tion of the scale that accompa­nied imported subsidized petro­leum products.

In our view, the more realis­tic, but medium-term, measure is for governments, at all lev­els, to secure the farms, using Forest Rangers as the President promised, and provide more agricultural inputs, like mech­anized farm equipment, a stock of spare parts, seedlings and fertilisers.

In addition, government must take a holistic industrial view of the agricultural sector by encouraging local and foreign investors to go into large-scale faming and agro-allied indus­tries that can turn the farm produce into processed food items.

The government must take another look at its policy on commodities boards, com­modities stock exchange and the Bank of Agricultural if the bank is still interested in the legacy responsibilities it inherited from the People’s Bank, National Agricultural and Co-operative Bank and the Family Economic Advancement Project.

Perhaps, it is necessary to explain the implications of the absence of food security to Abubakar Kyari, the head of Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

International relations ex­pert, Hans J. Morgenthau, says that “A country that is self-suf­ficient, or nearly self-sufficient (in food) has a great advantage over a nation that is not, and must be able to import the food­stuffs it does not grow, or else starve.”

In January 1980, America’s President Jimmy Carter im­posed a grains embargo against the Soviet Union for invading Afghanistan in December 1979. Although American farmers felt the brunt of the sales em­bargo, the ban showed the vul­nerability of the Soviet Union that was visibly rattled.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has delivered absolutely no food security to the nation and its hungry people. Does the minister really understand the extent of his responsibilities? The near-fam­ine in Nigeria is dire, and such a strategic ministry should not be used for the poker game of sinecure job for the boys.

We urge President Tinubu to wake his Minister of Agricul­ture and Food Security to his grave responsibilities, so that affordable foodstuffs can be made available to Nigerians, who are not exactly impressed with food palliatives that do not quite go round everyone in the country. The same holds for all the governors of the federating states.