Flood: FG allays fear of food scarcity

The Federal Government has assured Nigerians that in spite of the recent flooding across the country, there won’t be food scarcity.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammad Abubakar, gave the assurance at a news conference on the impact of the flood on food security in Abuja on Tuesday.

The minister said the federal government was also making sure that the floods does not affect food production.

” The ministry, the Government,  through various interventions is doing everything possible with our development partners to ensure that the floods does not cause food shortage in the country.

” There is no food shortage at this point by the grace of God, no food shortage in this country now and even in 2023.

“We are making sure that production does not stop; we are also intensifying in dry season farming,” he said.

Abubakar said that agriculture was an integral part of the land space and its activities are prone to occasional adverse effects of naturally occurring or human made disasters.

“An agricultural endowed and climate change vulnerable nation like Nigeria must anticipate and managed risks including flooding, and bush-burning,“he said.

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He said the ministry and its partners have implemented some interventions  to mitigate the anticipated disruptions of food production by floods.

” The ministry and its partners conducted an immediate Needs Assessment of affected communities and farmlands in all the affected States based on available Remote Sensing report on 2022 flooding,“he said.

He said that the federal government has distribution assorted food commodities from its strategic food reserve to the vulnerable and flood victims.

Abubakar said the distribution was done through the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

The minister said early maturing seeds (wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, cassava cuttings), fertilisers, agro-chemicals and agro-equipment has been distributed to affected crop farmers across the country.

He said the federal government was also distributing subsidised agricultural inputs like fertilisers, certified seeds and agro- chemicals to affected wheat, rice and maize farmers for dry season farming.

“Deployment of micro irrigation kits and water pumps to flood prone areas for flood recession Agriculture and dry season farming is ongoing,“he said.

He said that Soil Survey and Soil Fertility analysis on flooded agricultural land, Geo – referencing of all prone and flooded agricultural land have been conducted.

The minister said the exercise would ameliorate and improve food security and reduced losses to the farmers,” he said.