How climate change endangers food security

With an overall vision of ensuring sustainable access, availability, and affordability of quality food for all Nigerians and being a significant net provider of food to the global community, Nigeria’s National Food Security Programme has been adjudged to be very ambitious and capable of making the nation self-sufficient in food production if well implemented. However, the implementation has been fraught with many challenges, including the devastating interruption caused by climate change.

Climate Corner interacted with Professor Nkiru Theresa Meludu, a former Head of Department, Agricultural Economics and Extension, of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, on the interplay between food production and climate change. Prof. Meludu is also the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture in the same institution, the Vice President of the Agricultural Economics and Extension Society of Nigeria, the Treasurer of the Association of Deans of Agriculture in Nigerian Universities, ADAN, and the President of the Home Economics Professionals Association of Nigeria.

Question: What is the National Food Security Programme all about?

Prof. Meludu: The National Food Security Programme is about access to food. It was designed to ensure that every individual in Nigeria has access to food. In other words, food must be available, affordable, and of high quality. In terms of quality, the food must be organic. It is hygienically prepared, processed, and produced in a sustainable manner. The National Food Security Programme also intends to position Nigeria to produce enough food to serve the world. It is indeed a lofty programme.

Question: Does climate change in any way undermine this lofty programme, as you called it?

Prof. Meludu: Yes. Climate change is a natural occurrence, though there are some human activities that cause it. It affects everything, including the programme. Climate affects the food security programme in terms of flooding and the prevalence of diseases. Sometimes, it can be droughts. The rains come, and before you know it, it stops suddenly and without announcement. Things are fast changing, and the farming system is being affected in several ways. Diseases in farms, different types of pests, and farm infestations are coming. But the food security programme, if well implemented, will help to cushion the effects of climate change.

Question: How has climate change really interrupted food production in Nigeria?

Prof. Meludu: Climate change has interrupted food production in many ways. Unfortunately, farmers don’t know those interruptions are caused by climate change. We now talk of extreme weather conditions. It could be very hot, and crops could dry up. It could be excessive rains leading to floods that devastate farmlands. Last year, many farmers lost their crops. Rice farmers had their farms washed away. Although researchers are trying to produce flood-resistant rice species, that is not yet popular. In the livestock sector, you see forced migration by cattle rearers. Sometimes, there is confusion and violence, which has become a security issue in the country because some criminals infiltrate the genuine cattle rearers to cause havoc. The crops and livestock—the birds, the broilers, etc.—die because of excess heat. We learned about what is happening in Kaduna now, where ginger farms running into thousands of hectares have been infested. A woman farmer was crying two days ago because the farm she cultivated with up to twenty million naira was affected. Due to climate change, many strange things that you have not been seeing are happening.

Question: How do you see the government’s efforts towards mitigating the impacts of climate change on food production? Are they enough?

Prof. Meludu: I wouldn’t say they have not tried. But just like the question says, they are not enough. Drastic and harsh actions are needed to address the challenges posed by climate change to food production. Just yesterday, I heard in the news that Nigeria has 90% food insecurity, while Ghana has over 70%. South Africa has over 60%, and many other countries have different data. There is no doubt about it. We can all feel it. People are hungry and angry, and we have growing insecurity and insurgencies in unusual dimensions because a hungry man is an angry man. The government should do more. We have everything needed to solve the problem of food insecurity. Timely information is key. We must embrace information technology to ensure that key information gets to the rural farmers at the grassroots. How do we generate adequate, reliable data that can aid our planning? Malnutrition is ravaging, and floods are wreaking havoc. Information sharing must be sustained.

Should we deploy modern technology to cushion the effect of climate change on agriculture through the use of drones and artificial intelligence? Remember, some farmers could not harvest their produce because of the insurgency. We need equipment that can monitor what people do on the farm and how to trace hoodlums. We will move very fast towards achieving food security. Even in animal livestock, there are technologies that can keep livestock within a range, and they will still be moving and will not cause any harm to crop farmers. The technology will not permit them to go beyond that range.

Question: How informed are the ordinary farmers in the rural areas? What do we need to do quickly so that they will have a better understanding of the events around them?

Prof. Meludu: Like I have said, information is key. We need to get close to the rural farmers using extension agents, who are the professionals on the field. We must understand what the farmers are facing because those experiences are not the same everywhere and every time. We need to know how events of the time affect both crop and livestock farmers must be properly informed. Encourage them not to keep their observations to themselves. When you see something strange, raise the alarm immediately. Don’t wait until things get messy and unmanageable. Like the example I gave about the ginger farm, the disaster could be because the farmers did not raise the alarm in good time. When it was affecting the first hectare, that farmer should have interacted with an extension agent, who would now carry the information to relevant authorities and professionals who would address it before it spread to the entire farm.

I recommend the creation of a farmers-consumers forum where information about climate-induced events is shared and people are aware of the changes around them. The government needs to pump money into this so that the impact can be felt. There is a need for water management during floods and droughts so that the farm will remain. We must embrace an irrigation farming system for all-year-round farming. We can eat sweet potatoes three times a year. Rice can be produced massively, two times a year, and so on. We must embrace sustainable farming practises. Which technology do we have that we can use to ensure that land resources are maximised? When I travelled to Japan, I saw a country that does not have land but whose land is utilised to produce something. I saw rice everywhere. Whenever I travel to the Niger Delta area,

I feel like crying because of the level of damage done to the land resource. You cannot see cassava like you see here. The land is being wasted.

Writing by Alfred Ajayi; Editing by Saadatu Albashir and Julian Osamoto