Floods: Will Nigeria witness food crisis in 2019?

It is no more news that general elections will be held in Nigeria in 2019. However, in the aftermath of the floods that inundated large swaths of farmland across the country this year, could 2019 also be the year of hunger and food crisis? Experts are divided in their opinions as to whether such will happen next year.

Ruth is a young woman in BuluAngiama, a community in Patani Local Government Area of Delta State. Her cassava farm like that of others in her community has been inundated by the floods that struck the Niger Delta this year.

Ruth told Nigerian Tribune that the community had to take measures to prevent impending hunger and food shortage in their midst. She said, “We had to go and uproot our cassava. If we left them in the field, the water would spoil them and there will be hunger in our community next year.”

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The story of Ruth and Bulu Angiama is similar to those of several farming communities across the country.

Speaking on the recent floods and the possibility of food crisis next year, a professor of Ecology and Environmental Management, Professor Olusegun Awotoye said, “Flooding is one of the most critical environmental problems we have in this part of the world. But we have not put measures in place to control them. Concerning agricultural activities, it is certain we will have food security challenge.

The one-time Director of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said after the floods this year, certain measures ought to have been put in place for farmers.

Professor Awotoye said that government had announced 10 to 20 per cent decrease in agricultural productivity, but added that “I think we will experience more than that and that is a serious challenge to food security.”

He said that with the trend of heavy rainfalls that has continued till date in the country, when rainfalls should be receding, it meant there could be more damage affecting crop and animal production in the coming year.

“Farmers are facing flood-forced livelihood shifting,” which he explained to be the tendency of farmers to shift to other means of livelihood because they have faced repeated loss of harvest year after year due to floods, and their interest in farming has diminished. The result would be fewer people getting involved in peasant farming and a reduction in food production.

“This is a serious issue our government is yet to address. They must address it before we run into serious food crisis.”

Professor Rasheed Awodoyin, a specialist in Plant/Weed Ecology and Vegetation Science at the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, University of Ibadan, said, “There may be food crisis because all crop fields along the flood plains were submerged and farmers displaced from their homes.

“However, if the flood recedes early enough, the farmers can return to their locations and the plains will be available for dry season farming. Government’s intervention will be needed in the resettlement of farmers and provision of farm inputs because they must have lost everything.”

Director, Teaching and Research Farm, University of Ibadan, Professor Andrew Omojola chooses to remain optimistic.

“I don’t believe there will be food crisis because floods have always occurred year in year out,” he said as he recalled previous instances of massive flooding in the country. “There is no cause for alarm.”

He explained that Nigeria unlike developed countries did not have expansive farmlands in one location which might warrant a crisis if flooding occurred there. “We have a lot of farmers scattered all over the country ready to contribute their quota to food production.”