How food prices defied interventions in agriculture sector, soared by 170% in 5yrs

caused mainly by the insecu - rity ravaging the nation. Under President Muhammadu Buhari insecurity assumed a new dimension, with bandits sacking whole villages and forcing them into internally displaced persons ( IDP) camps. Farmers are killed or kidnapped in their farms and others are forced to pay money to bandits to ha ve access to their farms. Many farmers have fled their farms. Food access has been affected by persistent violence in the north- east states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe and armed banditry and kidnapping in states such as Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Benue and Niger.

This has continued even under the present administration and the security agencies have not been able to find a solution to it.

All these have culminated in the food scarcity that has befallen the nation.

National President, the All Farmers Association of Nigeria ( AFAN), Arc Kabir Ibrahim said any effort to address the food crisis without addressing the security issues will be a fruitless exercise.

Kabir who spoke in an interview said many of his members have been killed in their farms and many others are currently taking refuge at different IDP camps.

While appreciating the effort of the present administration to ensure food security for the nation, he said, "The fundamental thing is to get our people back to the farms and that can only be done when there is security, when they are sure they can go to their farms and come back alive. So, security is the first place to start."

A lawyer and fiscal governance expert, Mr Eze Onyekpere said the issue of food inflation in the country apart from the insecurity that has made it almost impossible for farmers to go to their farms, is also the exchange rate crisis.

"Are you not aware that most of the farm inputs such as fertilizers, chemicals and machinery are all imported," he asked rhetorically.