Agripreneur and CEO of Roro Technologies Ltd, Abdulqadir Gambo, has warned that Nigeria is heading toward a deeper food crisis as widespread insecurity forces farmers to abandon their fields, pay ransoms, or risk their lives for basic agricultural activity.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE News on Tuesday, Gambo said the scale of the problem is far worse than many Nigerians realise.
“A lot of farmers pay ransom before they go into their farms,”he said.
“In many states, they pay these people money just to access their own farms, which is very, very bad for agriculture.”
He said the consequences of this security breakdown are already crippling food production.
“We have 200 million people to feed, but 60% of farmers who went to their farms this year ended up in lockdown. No one has been able to do anything,” Gambo said.
According to him, last year’s temporary government food import support did little to address the structural problems.
“Food is accessible everywhere now, but the main problem is that farmers are not able to go to their farms. Food importation is not going to sustain Nigeria,”he said.
Gambo warned that the belief that foreign supply can compensate for declining domestic production is dangerously misguided.
“Which country is going to provide Nigeria with food to feed 200 million people? It’s going to be a different game,”he said.
He explained that many farmers never recovered from the cash scarcity and disruptions during the election period.
“During the election, farmers had no access to food and no access to cash,” he said.
Gambo said reversing the decline in agricultural output requires urgent collaboration between government and security agencies.
“The government has to work hand-in-hand with the security agencies to provide security, surveillance and support to these farmers,” he said.
“Our farms are in the rural areas, and people cannot go there because they face serious threats.”
He stressed that Nigeria’s agricultural capacity is far below what is required.
“We have less than 100 tractors in use, which is very, very small. For 100 hectares, we need at least 200 tractors. In Nigeria we have less than five working effectively,”he said.
Gambo said vast tracts of fertile land are currently abandoned because farmers fear attack.
“We need all these arable lands that are abandoned. We need to rebuild them to grow food that will sustain the rising population,”he said.
Beyond security, he said Nigeria must fix infrastructure and support farmers with inputs.
“At least 40% of food produced goes to waste because we do not have proper storage infrastructure,”Gambo said.
“Farmers need heavy subsidies. Fertilisers are very expensive. All we need is subsidies.”
He added that strong regulatory action is also necessary to protect farmers and stabilise the sector.
“We need a tough policy on agriculture. We need a very, very tough policy on farmers,”he said.
Boluwatife Enome
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