Some agriculture experts have stressed the need for all-year-round crop cultivation to prevent the acute hunger prediction in Nigeria predicted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The experts made the call in separate interviews on Friday in Lagos.

The FAO predicted in its recent report that approximately 30.6 million Nigerians will likely face acute food and nutrition insecurity between June and August 2025.

An agriculture expert, Akin Alabi, described the prediction as plausible and said it could be addressed with increased agriculture productivity.

“The challenges faced in the agro sector are numerous; for example, in Nigeria, the context is always insecurity. Globally, we always have climate change issues, a factor that has greatly affected farmers’ productivity. Climate change has been a major factor that has affected agricultural productivity globally, from drought to floods, to thunderstorms and erosion, among others.

“There would always be predictions of food shortages and hunger crises; all we need to do is play our part through increased productivity,” Mr Alabi said.

Also, Omotunde Banjoko, an agriculture analyst, said hands should be on the deck to ensure year-round farming with adequate irrigation systems.

“This prediction is usually targeted to the lean season, that is, when we are done eating up all our harvests and farmers have gone to plant, and then what we have in the market is not enough. It is a period when demand outweighs the supply of agro-produce locally. So, what we can do is we need to now start having an all-year planting season.

“Enough of seasonal planting in Nigeria; that is not going to feed a population of about 200 million. We cannot still be relying solely on rain-fed agriculture,” Mr Banjoko said.

He said Nigeria must stop seasonal planting to avert food insecurity.

“We now have to stop seasonal planting, but with irrigation and then exploring and river basin authority, maximising the waters that we have, we can plant all year round and have enough food supplies.

“With that, we can stabilise the price, we can control the inflow of produce, and we also need more than ever before to start prioritising storage, both cold storage and storage for grains. This is so that we can have produce en masse; instead of produce getting rotten, we can keep them for those lean seasons and push them out of our reserves,” he said.

(NAN)