The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has alerted that the food crisis might hit over 16.9 million Nigerians in 2022, as consumption is expected to slightly worsen, due to possible reduction in the household, market stocks, and rise in prices.
FAO Country Representative, Fred Kafeero, who disclosed this, yesterday, in Abuja, during the 2021 presentation of the Cadre Harmonise Analysis Report for the 21 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, said 16.9 million people in 20 states and FCT were expected to be in crisis or worse, between June and August 2022.
He urged humanitarian and development partners to provide the much-needed interventions to save lives, sustain livelihoods and build the resilience of the at-risk populations.
Kafero said: “Since 2015, 13 cycles of the Cadre Harmonise (CH) analysis have been successfully conducted across 16 northern states and the FCT. We are grateful that early this year, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) approved the request for the expansion of CH to the remaining 20 states.
Obviously, given the capacity and financial needs required for the expansion process, it was jointly agreed to conduct the expansion in a phased manner, starting with an additional five states, namely: Abia, Cross River, Edo, Enugu and Lagos.”
He called on the federal and state governments to allocate yearly budgetary resources in-kind contributions to facilitate critical data generation and state-level CH analysis.
The Permanent Secretary, FMARD, Dr. Ernest Umakhihe, said insecurity had continued to threaten Nigeria’s food and nutrition security.
Umakhihe, represented by the Director of Project, Coordinating Unit in the Ministry, Dr. Bright Wategire, called on stakeholders to contribute positively to issues emanating from CH results to enhance its quality.
