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Food Security

posted on Sunday, February 03, 2008 04:30 PM

President Yaradua's second agenda for Food security must be taken seriously, since 80% of the population of Nigerians are living below poverty line, meaning that majority who have breakfast are usually not sure of lunch or dinner later in the day. Our Approach to food security must be centered around creating institutions and managing our best - trained minds in many ways in other to avoid brain - drain, which has crippled our economy, today, 30,000 Africans holding Ph.Ds live outside Africa and 130,000 Aficans are currently studying overseas. WIth this high level of brain - drain, it would be necessary for Yaradua's government to work towards avoiding whatsover centrifugal forces that are cause the pull away of our best brains who can profer scientific agrarian solutions to the problems in food sector. One of this solutions would be a better reward system for our great minds in diaspora.

Beyond this declarations, it would be necessary for students in institutions to be farmiliar with proper farming, surfice it to say that, this is only practiced in secondary schools within rural communities, despite its potentiality for improvements in the living conditions and mental - physical empowerment of the Nigerian people, it could be seen that its effect is limited because of its avoidance in most urban secondary schools. It is clear that whatever the causes for this lack of teaching and implementation of farming in urban secondary schools, we must be reminded that the youth are the future of the nation and it would be very difficult for Nigeria to reach her full potentials if she doesnt concentrate her efforts in empowering the young thereby using her as a driving force to propel agricultural development.

Mechanized farming is still not and would never be the panacea to a food secured Nigeria, our leaders must be careful in implementing borrowed policies and techniques for addressing problems in Nigeria - this is the danger we attract when we try to follow the dictates of IMF and world bank to the letter. We must help to build our research and development departments in all the Universities and tertiary institutions of Agriculture and even technology who would be able to profer solutions according to our perculiar characterristics. Nigerians must be taught to practice farming, no matter how small. This way, we would be able to have crops and products available to all and also crash the high prices of produce in the market, with these, we would be able to achieve food surplus and the poor of the poorest would be able to aford meals anytime they want it.

In conclusion, the big question is; can we really secure food in Nigeria without adequate power supply?

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