Prevailing violence in the northern part of the country, as well as climate change, have rendered the efforts of the Nigerian government to boost its local grain production fruitless.
Currently, Nigeria is struggling to produce sufficient wheat to close a supply imbalance of over five million metric tons. This is as a result of extreme weather conditions, violence from gangs, and the clashes between farmers and cattle herders over resources. Even the administration’s efforts to create loan schemes, aimed at enabling farmers to access loans and invest into grain production, did not yield much result.
Idayat Hassan, senior fellow at Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), opined that the federal government’s loan schemes “work to a reasonable extent, but corruption played a part, as did the failure of farmers to repay the loans as climate change and insecurity undermined their production.”
In a bid to assuage the situation, the government has introduced a new program to promote land harvesting and offer improved seedlings, herbicides, and equipment to wheat farmers.
According to the Trade Data Monitor, wheat happens to be one of the most popular grain in Nigeria, which is primarily imported from the United States, South America, and Europe. In the midst of the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russia’s supplies have depleted, despite being a major supplier of affordable wheat.
Ukraine declared that, it would be transporting wheat to the West African country at a cheaper cost. However, Moscow’s decision to pull out of the Black Sea deal that permitted to Kyiv to transport its grains to the international markets, may also intensify the grain problems in Nigeria.
According to USDA’s reports, “security challenges across the wheat-production region restrict farmers’ access to fields,” aside the unpredictable rainfall, excessive heat, and parched lands caused by climate change.
The department also revealed that, the prevailing causes of the decrease to wheat production in Nigeria, will also amount to the decrease of rice and corn production.
According to Hassan of CSIS, farmers inability to access their farmers, in the wake of violence have brought about “both human security and food security crises.” The prices of products made from wheat, such as bread and pasta, has nearly doubled, putting consumers at a 24% food inflation disadvantage.
“The price surge has affected me because I have to double the costs of what I normally buy, and I would still not be able to buy enough, pasta has gone from 370 (naira) to 550 per unit.”
Chinedu Edeh, a retailer in Abuja.
In a policy statement on food and agriculture released last week, President Bola Tinubu acknowledged soaring food prices, and declared “a state of emergency.” The President also promised to integrate the accessibility of food and water into the government’s national security framework.
In spite of this, many rural parts in norther Nigeria have been under the grip of criminal groups, who commit murders and kidnappings for extortion. Also, there have been an ongoing conflicts between farmers and cattle herders, who have been fighting over control of water and land.
“Of course, insecurity is affecting our activities because sometimes we can’t go to our farms even if we plant, and some of our colleagues have completely stopped farming, while some of us have reduced the number of our farmlands,” Sama’ila Zubairu, a wheat farmer said.
Zubairu added that “climate change affects me in two ways: excessive heat and rain patterns, which affect my turnout.”
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