Editorial - Poor Research funding makes food security vulnerable

The climate change challenges is taking tolls on food security even at the point that no amount has been released to any research institute to perform its statutory capital project responsibilities as the year cross over the middle of the 2024.

How do we relate this to the state of emergency being declared by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the sector. How can research delivery be helpful to food security when the necessary funding are not timely released. These are the questions on going in the minds of concerned stakeholders.

Apart from much expectations on repositioning the methods and styles of policies implementation of the sector, more expectations on research development is highly envisaged in this present dispensation for smarter climate change agriculture in view of scarcity of foods in Nigeria. 

But all these are all in doubt even as no dime has been released to any Agricutural research institute to justify the seriousness of Government to tackling food security in the country through more availability of new research improvement into farming systems.

Six months have already been counted with no fund being released to enhance research, neither is any concrete direction through the National Agricultural Council Meeting where the decisions to chart direction for the sector is been taken.

Our concern particularly on this editorial is why are we repeating the same mistake of untimely funding to research particularly on matters that relate to food security.

The impact of climate on food security has necessitated the need for research institutes to double their efforts towards drought and floods resistant seed varieties with ecologies adaptability so as to be able to give high yielding crop varieties even in the face of shorter and longer rainy periods as the case may be.

All these will be wishful thinking without a proactive finding system to research and extension, because the present situation where money to operate in our agriculture research institute is a signal to unpreparedness to checkmate food insecurity.

And this must be uppermost in the heart of any Government to help the growth of the food systems in Nigeria.