Are you worried about the way things are going in this country; how the prices of food items skyrocket on daily basis?
Many blame the high cost of food items on unscrupulous middlemen whom they accuse of jacking up the prices of commodities to maximise profit.
They even blame the scarcity of food items on unpatriotic Nigerians whom they say smuggle food items to neighbouring countries.
Some in government even blame the poor state of affairs on the opposition.
But, the truth is that the acute hunger in the land is a consequence of farmers being driven away from their ancestral land by the insurgents, bandits or herdsmen, whatever name you may wish to call them.
Majority of the farmers can no longer engage in farm business because of the danger of losing their lives. For instance, farmers are killed with reckless abandon almost on weekly basis in Benue State, the food basket of the nation.
So, if the government wants to solve the problem of hunger in the land, it is simple. Let it secure the lives of the farmers and let them go back to their farms.
The first step is to resettle farmers who are now living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps all over the country and provide them with adequate security. You don’t need to set up a panel or wait for the state police to be operational before security is provided.
Another solution is for everybody to engage in one form of farming or the other.
The only way to survive the hunger, the acute hunger ravaging the country, is for all and sundry to engage in massive food production. Whether employed, unemployed, underemployed, or retired; whether you have investible funds or not, whether you are living in rural area or in the city; you have a role to play. Try to contribute your own quota to food security.
Stop complaining about this or that; start doing something. Start with what you have. If you do not have a large farm, what about that space in your compound lying fallow? You can contribute to food security by planting vegetables, plantain, banana, pepper, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, cucumber, among others, using bag technology.
You can rear chicken, turkey, goat, sheep, pig at your backyard.
Start now, and by three months to come you would have changed the narrative.
You can start with little or no capital and grow your business into a large concern. For example, it takes little or nothing to start snail farming, rabbit farming, grass cutter farming, poultry farming, and vegetable production.
Farming guarantees food security and consequently healthy living, especially when one engages in food production.
Farming gives you the opportunity to grow your own food, to be an entrepreneur, your own boss, building your own business and creating financial freedom for yourself.
The beauty of it is that you can start with little capital. You can start gardening, snail rearing, grass-cutter rearing, poultry, processing, and packaging business from your backyard.
Agriculture is a commercially viable and market-oriented sector that can create jobs along the value chains – food production, poultry, animal husbandry, food processing, marketing, and distribution. If you do it well, you can feed yourself; you can be an employer of labour, and before long, live a happier and healthier life.
These are the solutions to food scarcity and high cost of food items in the country. The recent lunch of genetically modified (GMO) maize by the Federal Government as a response to food scarcity is not going to solve our food problem; rather it will create more problems than government intends to solve.
There are concerns about the health and socio- economic implications of GMO maize varieties.
Experts warn that the built-in insecticides are harmful to humans and might lead to health issues such as immune system damage and sterility, apart from exploiting the food crisis for profit and control by foreign companies.
For these reasons and more, the farmers reject GMOs and ask government to work at securing the farmlands and returning the IDPs to their ancestral homes.
Let all hands be on deck to rescue the nation from hunger and disease, let’s go to farm.
If you need further advice on any issue, do not hesitate to drop me a line.
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