Challenges of food safety and security

 

The reality of present day Nigeria is that a majority of the populace is hungry, and therefore angry. This newspaper in its yesterday’s editorial titled, “Rising food prices and insecurity” reeled out several depressing statistics about the current situation in the country. According to The PUNCH, “The National Bureau of Statistics revealed that food inflation rose to 40.66 per cent in May. This was as the cost of food rose by 61 per cent from 25.25 per cent in June 2023 to 40.66 per cent in May, highlighting a steady rise. At 87 million people, the World Bank said Nigeria’s poverty rate hit 38.9 per cent in 2023. This is the second highest in the world behind India’s. A 2022 survey by the NBS said 133 million Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty.”

“Undoubtedly, the country remains food insecure. While UNICEF stated that 25 million Nigerians are at high risk of hunger, it is projected that 31.5 million citizens may face acute hunger between May and August 2024. The global agency attributes the situation to insecurity, climate change, inflation, and rising food prices. The 2023 Global Hunger Index said Nigeria’s hunger level is “serious.” Nigeria ranks 109 out of 125 countries with a score of 28.3 per cent in the hunger index.”

Last Monday, June 24, 2024, I was a guest on “Perspectives”, an audience participatory programme on Invicta FM 98.9, Kaduna. I was asked about what would be the realistic national minimum wage for Nigerian workers in view of the rising food prices and general cost of living. My answer simply is that no matter the national minimum wage, unless we are able to substantially increase food production and supply, prices will continue to rise. The truth is that it is basic economics that when demand is more than supply, price will rise; and vice versa. Note that rising food prices have been the norm from time immemorial. If you want to validate my claim, listen to songs from prominent Nigerian musicians like King Sunny Ade, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, Gen Kollington Ayinla, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and even Ayinla Omowura. Songs released over 40 years ago speak of food being expensive and people now using formula to eat.

 

 

 

Among the causative factors aside from the aforementioned ones by UNICEF are the post-harvest losses which sometimes is about 40 per cent due to lack of good and motorable roads to most of the farms in the hinterland. There is also the astronomic cost of farm implements and inputs. Most people don’t even want to farm because of the arduous nature of farm work, especially if it is subsistence farming. Access to land is another major challenge as many of the ancestral lands previously used for farming have been sold out to property developers who parcel them out for building purposes. Despite the over N1 trillion purportedly given out to farmers under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme under Godwin Emefiele, many farmers still complain of a lack of credit facilities, especially at low interest rate. Perennial flooding and drought have also negatively impacted farming activities in Nigeria. One should also not forget to mention the cost of transporting harvested farm produce to markets. This has trebled as a result of the removal of subsidy on petrol.

The solutions lie in a significant increase in food production. Interestingly, there is over-reliance on Federal Government interventions when it does not even own any land. Agriculture is on the concurrent legislative list and state and local governments should roll up their sleeves and double down on food production. All lands are vested in the state governments who hold it in trust for the people. State governments should embark on a genuine green revolution by cultivating thousands of acres of farmland. I learnt that the Oyo State Government is doing something in that regard. Our universities of agriculture and agricultural research institutes such as the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, and National Cereal Research Institute should all be activated to embark on mass food production.

I have made this point that the Nigerian military and police should also have an agricultural unit where they can cultivate model farms that will be secured from bandit attacks. The time has also come for us to ask about what has become of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s National Livestock Transformation Plan. Recall that this was touted as a panacea to the incessant and perennial herders–farmers’ clashes.

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday, July 13, 2023, declared a state of emergency on food security. He did this through his then Special Adviser on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy, Dele Alake, who is now the Minister of Solid Minerals Development. He listed some of the immediate intervention strategies as follows: Immediate release of fertilisers and grains to farmers and households to mitigate the effects of the subsidy removal; urgent synergy between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure adequate irrigation of farmlands and to guarantee that food is produced all-year round; creation of the National Commodity Board that will review and continuously assess food prices as well as maintain a strategic food reserve that will be used as a price stabilisation mechanism for critical grains and other food items. It’s been a year since this state of emergency was declared, what have been the achievements thus far?

As we are worried about inadequate food production and supply, we should be equally concerned about food safety. Just last week, the Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, warned Nigerians against the storage of cooked food in refrigerators for more than three days. She emphasised the potential risks of storing cooked food for extended periods, which could lead to contamination by disease-causing pathogens, ultimately resulting in foodborne illnesses and even death. Over the weekend, the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Health, Dr Kemi Ogunyemi, said the Lagos State Government had traced the spike in cholera cases at the Eti-Osa Local Government Area of the state to unregistered tiger nut drink ingested by affected persons. There is a strong indication that the drink was not hygienically processed.

There are allegations that some unscrupulous meat sellers in the markets use formalin, used in embalming corpses, to preserve their meat from going stale. There are also reports that some grain sellers use harmful chemicals like snipers to preserve beans and other grains. Some traders allegedly use carbide to fasten the ripening of plantain, mangoes and other fruits. All these substances used for food preservation are harmful to human health, say food technologists and medical experts. There is also the unhygienic production of water, wine, fruit juices and local drinks like kunu, zobo and ogogoro which therefore constitute health hazards to consumers. There is a need for comprehensive education of the public on this issue of food and water safety.