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The Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have stepped up efforts to assist farmers and alleviate hunger in Nigeria and Congo. In north-eastern Nigeria, hunger has considerably declined for the first time since the Boko Haram crisis. According to the latest Cadre Harmonise food security analysis, the number of people living in the three states affected by violence who are facing acute hunger has halved since last August from 5.2 million to 2.6 million. The analysis attributed this to an overall improved security situation and the ramping up of humanitarian and longer-term livelihoods assistance by the Nigerian government and its partners. FAO has helped farmers in the area by providing cowpea, maize, millet, sorghum, vegetable seeds and fertilises to one million people - internally displaced people, returned refugees and host communities - to get them through the last rainy season which ended in September 2017. Food stocks b...

Dr. Yakubu Bununu, Coordinator, School of Post Graduate Studies at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria has urged the Federal Government to prevail on herdsmen in the country to adopt the zero grazing model being practised in Kenya, saying pastoral nomadism is primitive and outdated.   Herdsmen in Nigeria Bununu who made the appeal while speaking at the end of this year’s African Land Policy Conference in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, said the Kenya model would lessen the clashes between herdsmen and farmers. He said adoption of the model would significantly modernise the cattle economy and prevent the attendant loss of human and cattle lives as well as destruction of farm infrastructure and produce. The university don, who also heads a team of researchers funded by the University of Groningen, Netherlands, said the anti-grazing law enacted by some states of the federation may end up creating more security challenges than intended. “On the other hand,...

Worried by the abysmal level of food safety in the country which is deteriorating at a frightening rate, the Federal Government yesterday unveiled a programme tagged Agricultural Sector Food Security and Nutrition Strategy as part of a concerted effort to drastically reduce malnutrition and enhance food insecurity in the country.   Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development While launching the strategy, which will be implemented over a decade, Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, who was represented by Prof. Abubakar Hafiz, Deputy Governor of Kano State, said the document would serve as a guide towards ensuring the safety of food throughout the various stages of production, preparation and storage. Ogbeh said the strategy would help the country to tackle malnutrition challenges, adding that “With this strategy, agriculture and food systems in Nigeria are being deliberately harnessed to boost nutrition. “It is expected...