PRAISES have trailed the declaration of emergency on food insecurity by President Bola Tinubu.
But what is responsible for the food shortage that faces us?
Like small scale industries are important to a nation’s economic strength, so also is the role of subsistence farming by large populace to food security. This refers to farming mode that basically caters for family feeding with lesser drive towards commercial goal. Upon this, very little quantity of harvest goes out for sales.
Subsistence farming supports large- scale farming that fetches foreign exchange for the country through export. Unfortunately, farming has gone down extremely due to rural-urban migration. The declaration of emergency on food insecurity must focus grassroot involvement for a successful outcome.
When “Operation Feed The Nation” was introduced, the slogan reverberated to secondary schools in the state. Tractors were mobilised to plough land for students to plant crops and schools also owned poultry managed by agricultural teachers.
Also, in the past, Buhari/Idiagbon military regime mounted pressure on the masses to go back to farm. The effect was that most people in the cities sought portion of land for farming in villages. During weekends, cars, motorcycles and bicycles usually parked in farm boundaries while owners were working on their farms. Some people who had family in villages lodged with them for the weekend to work on farm.
The time to produce food that we need at home in the interest of present and future of this nation is now. Grassroot mobilisation will pave way for self-sufficiency. Expending effort to produce food from limited sources for the exploding population of Nigeria may be a very ineffective approach to reaching the goal of self-sufficiency in food production. Reaching out to the grassroot for involvement will make a resounding difference.
- Bello Muyideen, Ibadan
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