Editorial: Let the states' Government invest in buffer storage for food security

  

The present buffer stock unavailability in many of our states, going to Thirty-three ( 33) out of 37, including Federal Capital Territory (FCT) calls for great concern in view of our food challenges in terms of prices and scarcity in recent times.

No doubt, one of the surest ways of making food available throughout the year is through a storage mechanism against scarcity and hikes in food prices.

Unfortunately, in Nigeria, many states have failed to comply with this standard as stipulated in 1987 by the Federal Government (FG) food security policy law behoved storage food responsibility to the three tiers of Government for future availability and constant food supply sustainability in times of want and scarcity in the country.

The first tier is the on-farm domestic storage stock, where 85% of annual food production is expected to be held by farmers for consumption and trade. At this level, small-scale farmers and private individuals are seen doing their best within the confines of their powers to ensure storage and preservation. 

The 2nd tier is the buffer stock where respective state governments, which is particularly our area of concern, are expected to keep 10% of its annual food production within the state through buffer storage so as to serve as the first line of food interventions during emergency and for the purpose of price stabilization.

This effort is believed to complement the effort of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS) Strategic Food Reserve Stock, as the FG keeps 5% of annual food production being a second line of food interventions during emergencies and price stabilization.

Unfortunately, many of the states have neglected this part of building these buffer stocks to checkmate food insufficiency, which requires a total capacity of 2,646,000 optimal metric tons of assorted food commodities in a year.

No wonder the impact of food scarcity and the increase in prices is going unabated, because the business of food storage has been left to the FG during emergencies.

As the impact of climate change is talking its tolls on food security negatively together with other vices, it will be not out of way for these 33 states to compliment the effort of FG by building buffers so as to be able to preserve 10% of their food production within the state for emergency food supplies and also to mitigate hike in prices.

The state's Government cannot continue to shack in their responsibility and expect food to be secured. All tiers must hold firm on the policy's food implementation before sustainable food security can be achieved, and not a situation whereby many of the agricultural produce annually is being lost to gluts and wastages.

We hereby call on the state government to heed to put in place an efficient buffer stock in order to harvest and preserve 10% of the food production every year to mitigate food scarcity during emergencies.