From Magnus Eze, Enugu
A big farmer in the South East, Emmanuel Onwe, has decried the spate of food insecurity in Nigeria, lamenting that hunger was biting hard across the length and breadth of the country.
He described as the most ridiculous narrative the belief that farming had been crippled in Nigeria because of banditry in Northern Nigeria. For him, Nigerians should perish the thought that banditry was the major reason the nation was facing a food crisis.
He said insecurity might have contributed to the problems of food, but definitely not the major cause as according to him, it is not every part of the country that has cases of banditry.
The former senator, who represented Ebonyi Central said rather that lack of incentives and high cost of farming equipment were the real reason farmers had not been able to get enough yields to feed themselves and the nation.
Following the rising cost of food and its effects on Nigerians, President Bola Tinubu had, last year, declared emergency on the food insecurity and directed that all matters pertaining to food and water availability and affordability, as essential livelihood items, be included within the purview of the National Security Council, and to ensure that the most vulnerable were supported.
The president also directed the immediate release of fertilisers and grains to farmers and households to mitigate the effects of the subsidy removal.
But, addressing a press conference in Enugu, 10 months after that presidential declaration, Onwe lamented that current happenings across the country with food prices were not meeting the emergency.
In an open letter to the president, which Onwe unveiled to journalists, he absolved Tinubu of the blame on the current economic situation, noting that his administration inherited an economy that went into recession twice.
He said: “Granted that this administration of Tinubu inherited an economy that went into recession twice, but to get it right and address the food insecurity, the administration has to subsidise farmers, identify who those farmers are and meet them at their point of need.
“Food security means food availability, accessibility, sustainability and utility by the greater number of a population
“I’m a farmer myself and have hundreds of hectares of farmlands, but I’m yet to feel the emergency.
“If there’s a food emergency, it means that everything that has to do with agriculture will follow the emergency lane to be resolved.
“I’m weeding my farms currently, and in order to weed, I have to pay N3,000 per each N100,000 I take from the POS to pay farmers. This is not good.
“I saw where someone was advertising 1kg of garri for N9,700. That will amount to over N470,000 for a 50kg bag of garri. That’s not the search for an emergency.
“What should happen is that with every genuine effort of the Federal Government, by December this year, every Nigerian should have known that there was an emergency in food security.
“No nation can claim to be self-sufficient in food production unless you subsidise your farmers.
“This is because the price of fertiliser is too expensive, there are no farm inputs and tractors anywhere.”
He blamed those he called ‘political farmers’ for hijacking the previous government’s incentives to farmers.