Food Scarcity to Worsen as Floods Ravage Northern Farmlands

Following devastating foods that have ravaged farmlands in the northern part of Nigeria, experts in agriculture and key players in the agro-allied industry are raising alarm over a looming food crisis across the country. As agricultural fortunes in the North plummet, they stress the urgency for immediate and drastic intervention.

“We have limited powers over the strange and dynamic play of Mother Nature but the little efforts we can muster to save ourselves from hunger and starvation must be put in place by all the government agencies. This is not the time for politics,” said Bello Yakazsi, an agricultural investor in Bauchi State, while urging the government to declare an emergency in the food sector.

States such as Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, and Kebbi have been severely affected by heavy rainfall, posing a serious threat to grains and farmland. In Kano, farmers in flood-prone areas are expressing fears that too much rain is stunting crop growth. “Once the flood occurs, farmers are at the risk of losing their crops,” said Mallam Musa Sani, a farmer in Rimin Gado.

In Jigawa State, over 2,744 hectares of farmland have been washed away, according to Dr. Haruna Mairiga of the State Emergency Management Agency, with N1bn worth of crops lost. Similar fears are emerging across Zamfara, with heavy rains destroying towns and farmland.

The Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency has predicted that 31 states and 148 LGAs are at high risk of floods this year, making the situation increasingly dire across the country.