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The current food crisis is not Nigeria but also some countries in the world. The Course of food security in the world could be linked to the global crisis such as war in Russia- Ukraine, and global economic crisis but in Nigeria could be linked to insurgency, failure from government to take appropriate measures to curb it, recession and bad leaders.
In the year 2023, before the presidential election, food commodities were not as high as the current price. It was 23% high in the year 2023, but right now, it is 42% high. The problem right now is that “31.5m Nigerians will face serious hunger in the month of June- August. It is happening right now because a government worker, precisely working in the ministry of education approached last week, she said, “can you lend me 20K ($13, current price of dollar to naira)?” I looked at him and a thought came to my mind which was, ‘what of people that are not working, and those that do menial jobs?
I know her monthly salary is up to 130k ($84) which is enough for her to take care of herself. When she narrated how she spent her money, I understood that her salary cannot take care of her. She doesn’t speed lavishly but the inflation and cost of living is too high. Even the bosses that earn more than #500k every month are also lamenting.
She said, “I just paid my son tuition fees in basic class of a sum of #84,230 and also bought: I was supposed to pay the money since last year but I couldn’t.”
The situation of the country has gone to an extent where some civil and public servants could not afford to eat three meals per day.
The current extreme hike of the price of food products in the country is a complete wickedness: some of my friends used to kill ram in every id el Kabir but just few of them could afford to kill a ram, majority of them contributed money to buy ram.
Some years ago, when the minimum wage was #18,000, husband, wife and a child were still living very fine; #18,000 was manageable for them. Today, that minimum wage is #35,000, the current minimum wage cannot take care of a person. I remember when I was in the north, #100 food and meat was more than enough for me; right now, I spend more than #3,000 in a restaurant, yet, I'm not satisfied. My body will still be craving more food.
I realized that the following things caused food inflation:
Insurgence: 60% of agricultural products are produced from northern states such as Benue, Niger, Nasarawa, Kano, Kaduna katsina and Adamawa. Majority of these states have been attacked by a group of terrorists, they have killed thousands of farmers and destroyed their farm products; others farmers that are alive are afraid of them, yet our government did not find a quick solution to curb it. If our government had responded when it was started some years ago, it wouldn’t have reached this level right now.
Individual Gain: I realized anytime the festive period approaches, some business men and women hike the price of products to ensure maximum profit. This is because our government does not have control of prices, and individuals have a monopoly to sell his/her product at any amount without being questioned by anyone. A business woman that bought a bag of rice at $40 can decide to sell it at $80 or more; and if Mrs. B sees that Mrs. A is selling a 50kg of rice at $80, even though she buys at a rate of $20, she will adjust the price to $80. It is the best thing for the government to control the price of commodities both locally and internationally made.
Insecurity: nothing cripples the economy of a nation like insecurity: - the war between Russia and Ukraine damaged a lot of things such as international trade; and investors will not like to invest in a place where there is insecurity. Right now, farmers in northern states are afraid to go to farm, there is no free movement because of kidnappers, some people are afraid to sleep in the night due to robbery cases around them and there is no thorough inspection in our borders. I heard that the guns those criminals and terrorists are using are more powerful than the ones our military and paramilitary are using and they were imported from other countries.
Lack Supervision: the more governments are introducing intervention programs to alleviate food insecurity in the country, the more citizens are hungry. This simply means that the funds that the government released do not reach the hand of the farmers or people that would carry out the project- simply means the money is siphoned. If there are bodies that checkmate and supervise it, the project may yield positive results.
“By 2050, the population of the world will reach 9 billion, which will result in hunger and famine if we fail to invest in agriculture. One of the lucrative businesses in the future is Agriculture.”
Right now, I have a farm where I planted cassava and maize. I hired laborers to help me do everything.
The pictures below is my farmland, I believe that by next year, i should increase it to 1 Hectare
This picture belongs to me
Me too I'm working to alleviate hunger
This picture belongs to me