FAO fears for 14m Nigerians as rising food prices brings hunger closer to their doorsteps

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has raised an alarm on the food security level of over 14 million Nigerians.

Specifically, the agency noted that the number consists of 385,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Jasper Mwesigwa, food security analyst for FAO disclosed this at the presentation of the Cadre Harmonisé report for Nigeria in Abuja on Friday.

The Cadre Harmonisé (CH) is the current ECOWAS/Sahelian Regional framework for consensual analysis of acute food insecurity situations.

The report noted that residents of Yobe, Borno, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Adamawa, Kano, Bauchi. Enugu, Niger and Kebbi are set to face food crises.

Others include Zamfara, Jigawa, Gombe, Benue, Abia, Cross River, Edo, Lagos, Plateau and Taraba.

FAO added that no fewer than 19.4 million Nigerians may face acute food and nutrition insecurity between June and August this year.

According to the report, key and limiting factors that impact food and nutrition are insecurity, particularly in the northeast, inflation rate as evident in soaring commodity prices, loss of employment and reduction in household income.

Read also: Over 3bn people can’t access healthy diets globally —FAO

Also speaking at the event, Fred Kafeero, FAO country representative in Nigeria, said there was a need for a holistic approach towards national food systems transformation to achieve the 2030 agenda.

Kafeero urged the government to allocate more funds to the CH analysis to provide technical support in terms of capacity building.

He also called on humanitarian and development partners to make use of the results of the CH analysis.

Kafeero said this was necessary to provide the much-needed interventions to save lives, sustain livelihoods and build the resilience of vulnerable populations.

He also called for the incorporation of the CH analysis results in national planning, including the designing and implementation of national food systems transformation action plans.

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