ABUJA (Reuters) – Insecurity in northern Nigeria has caused a serious drop in the country’s food production, its agricultural minister said on Thursday.
Africa’s most populous nation recorded food inflation of 20.6% in June, while aid agencies have warned that West Africa is facing its worst food crisis on record driven by conflict, drought and the impact of the war in Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, most farmers in the northeast, northwest, and the north-central can’t access their farms because of the current insecurity challenges in the country,” minister of agriculture and rural development Mahmood Abubakar told journalists on Thursday.
“This has resulted in a serious drop in food production in the country.”
Nigeria is grappling with rising insecurity nationwide, with an Islamist insurgency in the northeast, armed bandits in the northwest and conflict between herdsmen and farmers in the north central.
Abubakar said a years-old government programme to arm and train “agro-rangers” and a $134 million loan from the African Development Bank approved last month would help increase food production.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah, writing by Libby George; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
