FG initiates policy document to tackle food security challenges

The Federal Government has indicated that it is in the process of developing a national feed policy document to address the issues hindering food production in Nigeria.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr Ernest Umakhihe, who made this known during the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR)’s Resilient African Feed and Fodder Systems (RAFFS) project inception forum in Abuja expressed government concern over the spiralling cost of feed and its impact on farmers survival.

Represented by the Director of Special Duties, Mrs Fausat Lawal, Umakhile indicated that the government was determined to promote innovative approaches to animal feed production to mitigate the challenges against the sector.

According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic and vulnerability to natural disasters highlighted the urgency to further boost the nation’s food security.

He said challenges such as high cost of feed have sparked a hike in food prices.

Highlighting the importance of Resilient African Feed and Fodder Systems (RAFFS) project inception workshop, profiling and launch of AWARFA-N Nigeria, and launch of the feed and fodder assessment in Nigeria, the Permanent Secretary noted that it was a timely intervention that will firm up solutions to tackle food security and identify fodder opportunities to support farmers.

In her remarks, the Director, AU-IBAR, Dr Huyam Salih, lamented that Nigeria and the rest of Africa were highly dependent on the global importation of livestock products with an annual import bill of over S4 billion.

Dr Salih who was represented by RAFFS Project Officer, Dr Sarah Ashanut Ossiya, noted the massive loss of 9.5 million livestock, worth over $2 billion, in the recent drought in the greater Africa region.

Underscoring the level and impact of droughts in the region, she posited: “This is equivalent to about twice the total food import budget for Kenya (which according to KNBS stood at 1.2 billion USD in 2022) or thrice the export value of coffee from Uganda, Africa’s largest coffee exporter, which earned 876 million USD in 2022 (Food Business Africa).

“Huge genetic resources developed over decades, key to adaptation to climate change and for livelihoods and incomes especially among pastoralists and smallholders who produce over 80 to 90 per cent of meat and milk. There were also huge losses for downstream processing and retailing businesses, many unable to service loans closed businesses. “

In the West Africa and Central Africa regions, she also observed that some of the costs of unarticulated feed and fodder sectors is the persistent conflicts over feed resources between herders or breeders and crop farmers. This, she added, often has escalated to tribal and even religion-based divides, and yet the underlying factors could include feed and fodder constraints. With the magnitude of evidence, she stressed the need to address the gaps. Achieving this, she continued, would require a well-developed feed and fodder sector to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement which has emerged as a lucrative and growing market.

Salih sustained her position by positing that livestock assets contribute to food security and are an important source of protein and minerals for nutritional security, hence, the project seeks to engage with a wide range of stakeholders to strengthen the capacity of farmers to experiment with and use fodder technologies to make the sector more productive, resilient, equitable and sustainable.

The project approach, however, she emphasised, was a co-design one with the objective to work public and private sector partners, to co-create and co-deliver demand-driven innovation packages for feed and fodder production that aims to improve livelihoods and farmers ability to adapt to a changing climate and inclusiveness through livestock.

The Nigeria RAFFS Project Inception Workshop, Salih posited, gives visibility to the RAFFS Project and importance of improving access to feed and fodder, and to participate in rolling out the in-country Assessment of the effect of the 3C crises Climate Change, Covid-19 and the Eastern Europe Conflict on Feed and Fodder and livestock sourced foods supply chains.

The findings, she indicated, will inform development of country short-term interventions to address feed and fodder shortages. She said the RAFFS Project will support consolidation of its five-year strategy and resource mobilisation plan.

While livestock is a pathway to better nutrition outcomes, she observed that Nigerians and most neighboring countries are consuming well below global average of per capita consumption of livestock sourced proteins. For this reason, she noted that there was a need to link livestock production to meeting human nutrition targets.

Earlier, the Director, Department of Animal Husbandry Services, Mrs. Winnie Lai Solarin reiterated that fodder development will help to rectify feed shortages and improve livestock production,
According to her, the feed sector has provided an opportunity to reduce imports with increased fodder production.