The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) on Tuesday expressed concern over the declining rate in cultivation of food crops by farmers due to insecurity.
The Chief Operating Officer of NESG, Dr. Tayo Aduloju, said this at the Agriculture and Food Security Nexus Validation and Consolidation Meeting in Abuja.
Aduloju said there was a huge supply-demand gap across all food crops, saying the country is not producing enough to meet local demand.
Aduloju, who is also the Project Director for the High Level Forum on the Sustainable Development Goals, said there was need for an urgent action to act for Nigeria to be food sufficient.
He called for collective response to halt the demand and supply deficit and to possibly expand agriculture to be net surplus trade centre in the country.
“Some of the jobs we are creating in agriculture remain unsustainable, we are importing more agriculture products than we are exporting.
“The cultivation rate is going down. There is need for urgency to act, there are things we can do internally and externally to make things better.
“This is impacting heavily on our ability to meet the Sustainable Development Goals 2030,” he said
Similarly, Mr. Omoboyede Olusanya, NESG’s Co-chair, Private Sector of the Agriculture and Food Security Policy Commission, noted that reduced incomes and disrupted supply chains, chronic and acute hunger were on the rise in the country.
” This increase is due to farmer-herder conflict, socio-economic conditions, natural hazards, climate change and pests, before COVID-19 pandemic which has slowed down, halted or reversed the last few years’ hard gains,” he said.
