Stakeholders discuss measures to stem food insecurity
Stakeholders in agriculture are in Accra to fashion out appropriate measures to deal with the impending food insecurity in the Sahel and West African sub-regions.
Advertisement
The three-day conference, which opened yesterday, would, among other things, take stock of the food and nutrition situation in both regions and propose appropriate responses and intervention measures accordingly for the 2016 crop season.
It would also come out with measures to beef up some mitigation responses that had already been taken by stakeholders to address the challenge.
It is expected that at the end of the workshop, a communiqué would be adopted to be duly followed by the leaders in the sub-regions to deal with the situation.
The programme has been put together by the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), a technical committee arm of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
According to Cadre Harmonisé (CH), a food and nutrition analyst, nearly 7.9 million people were in need of food or humanitarian assistance in November 2015, with about 5.2 million in Nigeria alone.
It further suggested that if appropriate measures were not quickly taken, the situation could escalate to reach about 10.5 million people during the next lean season.
Interventions not adequate
In his opening remarks, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, said in spite of the interventions by the various governments in both regions, there was the need for more measures to be taken to help address the challenge once and for all.
Other Trending Stories
He mentioned low irrigation development and management, low technology and dissemination, poor and inadequate infrastructure, low productivity levels, poor market access and erratic weather patterns as a result of climate change as some of the challenges prevalent in member countries.
“In the face of the food insecurity situation in the Sahel and West African regions, it is necessary for member countries to have a united front to tackle these looming threats in our respective countries.
“There is a need for various governments to have a holistic and coordinated approach necessary to generate the required production and productivity transformation in the sub-region as well as provide the required infrastructural and essential services in the agricultural and rural sectors in our countries,” he said.
Setting up a regional fund
Alhaji Limuna added that the persistent food crisis in both regions called for effective regional cooperation to combat such emergencies.
He noted that it was time for the concerned regional institutions to set up regional fund reserves that could immediately be deployed to affected countries for immediate assistance.
The minister further called for the need to build strong trade relations to address issues with poor market access among member states.
“There is strong influence of cross-border trade in food access for consumers, and this, to some extent, underpins the food security of rural livelihoods.
“To address the challenges in the inter-trade sector, the sub-region needs to develop an action plan with the commitment of governments to enable countries to significantly expand their trade across all borders,” he stressed.