The Director-General of the Nigeria Young Farmers Network, Promise Amahah, has said that the federal government needs to provide the enabling environment for companies and startups providing solutions like storage facilities, logistics, payments, among others, for farmers.

He said that an emergency national food security plan that actively engages the private sector is critical to forestall the nation’s imminent food crisis.

The DG of the network spoke against the backdrop of the relentless increase in prices of food and agricultural produce in Nigerian markets which he warned might lead to a national food crisis very soon.

He said that government alone could not achieve reasonable progress in this regard adding that more intensive action was required to address the challenge.

The DG, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday explained that such enabling environment could be through giving them tax breaks and off takers agreements, among others, to enable them deploy their offerings effectively.

According to him, such measures will immediately reduce the impact of food shortages and cost of foodstuffs which will in turn strengthen the efforts towards addressing food insecurity in Nigeria.

Mr Amahah noted that so far, efforts had been made by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) to ensure the nation’s grains reserve was restored to full capacity through the grains buyback process.

He further noted that there had been focus on the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme to make it more efficient while recently, rice pyramids in Kebbi and maize pyramids in Katsina had become prominent.

According to Mr Amahah, those are emergency measures put in place by the government to enable poor Nigerians survive hunger during food crises.

“However, I am yet to see proactive national awareness and sensitisation directed towards public enlightenment on the current food crisis and providing an inclusive strategy thrust to address the issue,” he said.

(NAN)