Increase Food Production Or Risk Hunger- Minister

Increase Food Production

With increasing population comes an increasing demand for food, a basic human need which cannot be substituted, but unfortunately while the demand for food continues to increase, its production is still tottering as a result of varying challenges, ranging from poor access to land, lack of access to agricultural machinery, poor access to loan facilities, youth drudgery, and even the unavoidable effect of global warming and climate change.


All these and more continue to beset the development of the nation’s agricultural sector, even as the Federal Government has stressed the need to increase food production by 100 per cent or risk hunger in the near future as the nation’s population increases.This call aligns with its resolve to end food importation and increase local production to meet the food demands of the Nigerian people.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, recently revealed during a press briefing in Abuja, plans by the Federal Government to redirect Nigerian agriculture from a seasonal event to an all year round activity, which would include both wet and dry season farming.

He said, “If we continue looking at agriculture as a rainy season event, we would go hungry. While Nigeria can manage its food production if it were to feed itself, it is no longer realistic as neighboring countries, through porous borders, also depend on Nigeria for their food needs.”

He revealed that the present government was determined to return Nigeria to where it was in the 1960s, as a food-producing nation which depended on local production rather than the sorry state the nation has found itself today,where it depends on food imports, translating to high imports bills. The Minister lamented that using over N20 billion annually in importing food was not reasonable, and stressed the need for all Nigerians to rise to the challenge of producing its food needs.

Ogbe revealed that Nigeria has 5 per cent of the world’s population within its borders, making it the third most populated country in the world with its over 160 million population, and added that the population, which would grow to 200 million people by the year 2020, could be an asset if Nigerians decide to go into food production. He warned, however, that it could also become a challenge if food production is neglected, and stressed the need for states to partner with the Federal Government towards increasing food production at the state and ultimately at the rural level.

“Let’s try seriously and reduce poverty at the rural level to curtail the rural-urban drift,” he said.