The President of the Cowpea and Beans Farmers Association and Vice President of the Federation of Agricultural Commodities Association of Nigeria, Shitu Mohammed Kabir, has warned that insecurity is steadily disrupting Nigeria’s food production, saying the country’s food supply chain is being weakened as farmers abandon their land.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News on Sunday, Kabir said the continued spread of insurgency across farming communities has prevented many farmers from cultivating or harvesting crops, worsening food shortages.
He said, “We are proposing there should be a mechanism to open up forests in Nigeria and bring all the farmers together to farm in a given secured location to increase food supply.”
Kabir blamed insurgents for driving farmers away from major food-producing areas, saying communities that once supplied rice, wheat, millet and other food crops can no longer do that.
He said, “The more they move, the more they stop farmers from going to farm. The more they invade our forest.”
According to him, insecurity has spread from the North East to other agricultural belts, leaving many farmers unwilling to return to their farmlands.
He said, “Nobody will be able to go, like me sitting with you here, you cannot ask me, even if you are giving me ₦1trn go to my farm now. It’s not possible, I cannot go.”
Kabir also revealed that the impact has extended beyond farms to agricultural processing, saying the shortage of locally produced wheat has forced him to shutdown his flour mill.
He said, “Today, as I’m here, I have to close my flour mill, because we don’t have wheat.”
To address the challenge, Kabir called for stronger security around organised farming clusters and greater support for commercial agriculture, arguing that concentrating farmers in secured locations would make it easier to protect food production.
He said, “You cannot put security everywhere, but you can put security in one particular place in each state, and you’ll be able to secure farmers around that area.”
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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