SPECIAL FEATURE: Food hardship in Nigeria worsens due to terrorism and climate change

Once cultivated land, the wide swath of land that Umaru Tanko had cultivated in recent years has now turned into barren sand. It is useless for the cultivation of rice and wheat which is common among farmers in Jega, an agricultural market town in Kebbi State, a part of the Sahel in the far north of Nigeria.

When the Nigerian government launched the pilot phase of the Anchor Borrowers program in Kebbi State in late 2015, Mr. Tanko was one of more than 70,000 beneficiaries. But his land is now part of the vast tracts of land in the north that suffer from desert conditions. This, combined with insecurity, is fueling Nigeria's food difficulties, with food inflation reaching a record high of 20.60% in June 2022 from 9.20% in 2015, despite the high promises of the PBA intervention.< /p>

The intervention, involving single-digit loans, extension services and agricultural inputs, aimed to help smallholder farmers grow, achieve food security and achieve self-sufficiency in rice production .

Rice, like wheat-based foods like bread and noodles, is the most popular staple food in Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people. The country's national rice consumption is 6.7 million metric tons per year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. However, in 2015 when the ABP was launched, only about 3.7 million metric tons were produced locally, with the rest being imported or smuggled into the country through porous land borders.

The ABP's intervention was therefore also aimed at reducing food import bills and conserving foreign currency as the country's economy then slid into recession due to falling oil prices . Also, rice mills could increase their capacity utilization with more farmers helped to produce more rice fields.

"We were close to full capacity utilization at over 80%, compared to less than 35% before the PBA," said Abdullahi Zuru, general manager of Labana rice mill in Birnin Kebbi, which is buying the paddies. to farmers. like Mr Tanko.

In the two years since the launch of the PBA, Nigeria's local rice production has jumped to around 4.5 million metric tons and five million metric tons by 2021, which means , however, that local production is still unable to meet demand.

Detailed statistics on public spending on interventions are not available. But for perspective, in 2016 the Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that it had released 11.7 billion naira ($45.6 million at the then average exchange rate of 257/1) for culture. rice in Kebbi State alone. And between April and May 2022, the apex bank said it released 57.9 billion naira ($138.8 million at the current official exchange rate of 417/1) for the cultivation of Nigeria's most common cereals, to namely rice, wheat and maize, under the ABP regime.

Thanks to the intervention of the ABP, the Labana rice mill was able to double its number of outgrowers (farmers supplying rice fields) from 3,500 and, in turn, reached more than 80% utilization capacity, said Mr. Zuru, the general manager. .

Nigeria now has at least 68 rice mills compared to 10 in 2015, an increase of more than 500%, following the PBA. But as more rice mills open, paddy supplies dwindle, reversing progress.

“We are now down to less than 40%,” Mr. Zuru said, lamenting that “the gains we had made over the past few years are now undone due to declining rice supply.” , a crisis other millers are facing. .

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