The Nigerian government has revealed that it is working with development partners to ensure that the floods do not cause food shortages in Nigeria.
This was disclosed in a conference on Tuesday by Nigeria’s agriculture minister, Dr. Mohammad Abubakar. He was speaking about the impact of flooding on Nigeria’s food security.
Nigeria’s humanitarian ministry has revealed that over 390 thousand hectares of farmland have been destroyed by the flooding, which could lead to a food crisis if not addressed.
Round-the-clock effort:
The minister noted that the FG is working round-the-clock to ensure the floods do not affect food production.
” The government, through various interventions is doing everything possible with our development partners to ensure that the floods do not cause food shortage in the country.
“We are making sure that production does not stop; we are also intensifying effort at dry season farming,” he said.
He noted that an agriculture-endowed and climate change-vulnerable nation like Nigeria must anticipate and manage risks, including flooding, and bush-burning, citing that the ministry and its partners have implemented some interventions to mitigate the anticipated disruptions of food production by floods.
“The ministry and its partners conducted an immediate needs assessment of affected communities and farmlands in all the affected states, based on available remote sensing report on 2022 flooding,” he said.
He noted that the FG has also distributed food commodities from its strategic food reserve to the vulnerable and flood victims, done through the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
The minister also added that early maturing seeds (wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, cassava cuttings), fertilizers, agrochemicals, and agro-equipment have been distributed to affected crop farmers across the country.
You may recall:
- Nairametrics reported last week that the number of Nigerians affected by flooding has risen to 3.2 million. Casualties have risen to 612 Nigerians, with 392,399 hectares of farmland totally damaged.
- The minister of humanitarian affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouq said: more than 1.4 million persons have been internally displaced; 2,776 persons were injured, 612 people lost their lives and 181,600 houses were partially damaged. The number of totally destroyed houses was 123,807; 176,852 hectares of farmland were partially affected, while 392,399 hectares of farmlands have been totally destroyed.
Simply put, without Development Partners we will perish!
What a people, a leadership.