Experts across West African States and Sahel region are currently in Abuja for a two-day meeting to deliberate on the prevention of food crisis and malnutrition.
Dr Abdou Ali, Head of Information and Relationship Department, Agricultural and Hydro Metrology (AGRHYMET) Regional center), stated this on Thursday in Abuja.
According to him, the meeting is crucial to the region, adding it availed the participants opportunity to brainstorm on response to food and nutrition situation in West Africa and Sahel region.
He said the meeting would enable them to forecast for the future about the situation of food and analyse the situation of food market to avert negative impact as well as to have big initiation on having abundant food in the region.
“This period of raining season play a very important role in food and nutrition situation in our region, coming down to what we met here in Nigeria, we need to analyse the situation of the market, the global impact on our vision and focus.
“The perspective of the prospect of how it will be for the initiation for the upcoming months, it is very important because you know if the raining season is going to be very dry or bad, this will have a huge impact on the food security.
“If we are going to have more rainfall, the situation will be very good for food provision and this will also have a very good impact on food situation.
“So the fact that we are here is to analyze those information on the region and make the conclusion on how leadership will support food security in the the region.
“From the observation of the forecast that was done in May, there is an overall expectation of having an average rainfall situation in the region with a little effect on food production,” he said.
Ali said that from the information available, the region is a little bit confidence that it will not face a general drought situation and this will have a good impact on the region.
Also, Mr Kouacou Koffy, Regional Emergency and Resilience Team Leader for West Africa and Sahel, Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), attributed some of the conflict in the region and Russian/Ukraine war to shortage of food in West Africa and Sahel.
He listed other factors working against large production of food to include climate change, deficit of fertiliser, increase in price of cereal, among others.
According to him, the organisation is putting effort together to know the root causes of some of the crisis, adding that it would support government of all countries in the region to boost food production.
Koffy said that FAO would continue to do its best to boost production of food and encourage all the partners to join hands together to allow food population to grow.
Similarly, Dr Issofou Baoua, Chief Regional Coordinator, Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in Sahel (CILSS), called on stakeholders to look for ways to fight against food insecurity and malnutrition.
The meeting, he said, would discuss challenges and proffer lasting solution to food insecurity in the region.
On his part, Dr Earnest Afolabi, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), said the ministry had responded to some of the challenges militating against high food production in Nigeria.
Represented by Mrs Fausat Lawal, Director of Special Duties in the ministry, Afolabi said the ministry had supported National Program for Food Security (NPFS) in the implementation of food security and livelihood support programs.
He said that several interventions and supports in form of farm inputs and equipment where made available to vulnerable farmers in areas identified with high food and nutrition insecurity, particularly to the identified food victims.
The intervention, he said, covered 4,896 farmers in 12 states of the federation.
He disclosed that in 2022; a total of 12,397 selected vulnerable farmers from the result of the CH-Analysis benefited from the intervention supported by the Africa Union Commission and the ministry.
Afolabi said that several other interventions to improve the food security situation across the country is being implemented by the department and the donor funded projects under the supervision of the ministry.
