EDITORIAL: The Food Wastage Nightmare!!!

Beyond food wastage, Premium Times is to be commended for its penetrating analysis illuminating the increasingly frightened and not just disturbing food security crisis in Nigeria.

According to the Premium Times report, “Nigeria is currently widely believed to be losing 20 to 40 per cent of its rice at harvest points and market stages.

“Beyond food wastage, postharvest losses along the rice value chain also come with implications for climate change, accounting for emissions of around 0.65 million tonnes of CO2 eq, into the atmosphere.”

It’s not just about rice which is just one commodity. It goes right across the entire food commodities basket. This is disgraceful of course and we have known about this for decades. We must not continue to bemoan our faith but answer the critical question “What Is To Be Done?”

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For a start, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must now implement his canoeing manifesto pledge to establish a national Commodities Exchange. The ill-advised Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) abolished the commodity boards which had performed so well as price modulating and production increasing mechanisms. This is a critical way out. The Commodities Exchange Boards will ensure guaranteed minimum farm gate prices to stimulate production and provide storage facilities.

Fundamentally, state governments must stop indulging in the construction of fanciful flyovers and concentrate on construction and maintenance of rural roads. In the opinion of the World Bank, the construction of one kilometre of rural road has a multiple effect of times ten! Pray thee, what is the multiplier effect of a fly-over constructed in 80% of the states in Nigeria. We must end the indulgence.

In addition, solar powered cold storage facilities must be constructed in every market in the urban areas of Nigeria. This will lead to a dramatic reduction of waste and post-harvest losses. It will also help to unleash “A Green Economy” which will create jobs and impact new skills. The budget of the Federal, States and Local Governments for 2025 must make significant allocations to this initiative.The present disaster provides an opportunity to have a fresh look at the entire Agriculture framework and value chain in Nigeria. The opportunity for a fresh start must be seized with both hands