The Commodity Alliance Forum (CAF) says rice and other food items will cost more in 2025 if the government and other stakeholders fail to address the challenges impeding food production.
CAF’s Vice Chairman, Enugu Chapter, Mrs Lovelyn Ejim, expressed this view in Abuja yesterday.
The Forum was established as an implementation model for scaling up the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s (IFAD) Value Chain Development Programme (VCDP), which targets rice farmers and buyers.
Ejim, a rice farmer, processor, and rice off-taker under the IFAD-VCDP, identified major challenges militating food production as finance, climate change, and insecurity.
“The type of food scarcity we will face this year will take God’s intervention because of the climate change issue; drought came last year when the rain was most needed in the country.
“Farmers that introduced irrigation could not meet up because it came suddenly and unplanned; hence, the high cost of rice and other commodities at the moment.
“Also, a lot of farmers abandoned their farms and produce because of security challenges.”
She, however, recommended that the government develop vast agricultural land and incorporate security into it.
According to her, the gesture will go a long way in mitigating the factors affecting farmers and big donor projects geared towards food sustainability in the country.
Ejim urged the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) to be alert, provide farmers with timely information, and develop a system for sending SMS messages to farmers.
She implored NiMet to liaise with network providers to ensure farmers were acquainted with timely weather information that could enhance their productivity and make the country self-sufficient in food production.
“Any country that cannot have food sovereignty is a country under slavery, and a country under slavery is a country that cannot sustain itself,” she said.
