Crises threaten food availability
MAL SHEHU Ladan took a boat across what was, until this month, a growing rice paddy. Now, like thousands of hectares of rice in Nigeria’s Kebbi state, it is under water. “Almost all my farm has been flooded. I didn’t harvest any rice,” Ladan said. “It’s going to be devastating.”
Floods early this month across north-west Nigeria destroyed 90% of the 2 million tons that Kebbi state officials expected to harvest this autumn, the head of the state branch of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria said. The loss amounts to 20% of the rice Nigeria grew last year, and the waters are still rising.
Farther south, outside Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, chicken farmer Hippolite Adigwe is also worried. A shortage of maize forced him to sell most of his flock of more than 1 000 birds, and the 300 left are hungry. Chicken feed prices have more than doubled and he isn’t sure how long he can cope.
Twin crises, floods and maize shortages, came just after movement restrictions and financing difficulties caused by Covid-19 containment measures complicated spring planting.
Some farmers and economists say it could push Nigeria, Africa’s most
populous nation, into a food crisis. Rice is the country’s staple grain, and chicken is a core protein.
“There is a real fear of having food shortages,” said Arc Kabir Ibrahim, president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria. “The effect on the food system is going to be colossal.”
Nigeria took 4 000 tons of millet and sorghum from the regional economic bloc’s (Ecowas) strategic stocks last month and released 30 000 tons of its own maize. It also gave four companies special permission to import maize.
The prominent Nigerian Economic Summit Group has called for “a complete overhaul” of agriculture policy.
Problems accessing foreign exchange to import food are adding to shortages. In July, the central bank added maize to a list of items for which importers are banned from using its
dollars. Rice and fertiliser were already on the list, along with other items that Nigeria wants made locally.
Even as food prices spike, President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed that not one cent of central bank dollars will go to food or fertiliser imports, as Nigeria will continue encouraging local farmers over imports. Importers can use dollars from pricier parallel markets. But these are tough to find due to an oil price crash that has cut Nigeria’s core source of foreign exchange.
Rice prices had already risen substantially due to a land border closure last year that aimed to stamp out smuggling and boost local production.
Farmers say that consumers grappling with inflation, the first hike in fuel prices since 2016 and a power price spike can only pay so much more for food.