Kano – Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN), a women farmer-based organisation, has called for increased food production to ensure food security in the country.
The Executive Director, of the network, Hajiya Salamatu Garba, made the call on Wednesday in Kano at a workshop with the theme: “Targeting Interventions to Foster Sustainable and Resilient Food Security in Northern Nigeria”.
Garba said the call became necessary because more than half of global grain production was used for purposes other than feeding.
“Today, more than half of global grain production is utilised for purposes other than feeding.
“The maize and sorghum that we are supposed to eat, breweries are competing with us to do other things with them.
“So if that is the case, are we not going to increase production so that we have enough to eat if we are to define food security the way it is?
“One-third of all the grains today is used for livestock and feed, which is good, but we need to increase production so that we are able to keep enough to feed humans also.
“Even though we are using them for bio-fuel, which is okay, what is the replacement for the quantity of food that comes to humans?
“And our number is increasing, but the sizes of the farms are not increasing, they are decreasing.
“A lot of farmlands have been used for construction. We have so many estates; these estates have been built on what used to be farmlands.
“When government comes to say they were doing youth empowerment, we want to empower 500,000 youths in agricultural production, where are the pieces of land they have mapped out to give to these women and youth? None.
“But we can take that size of land to build houses. So it means they must go hand-in-hand.
“There must be a replacement, not to thin out the piece of land that we need for production.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop is aimed at ensuring food security by promoting sustainable management and resilience of the ecosystem. (NAN)
