The Emir of Wase, His Royal Highness Alh. Dr. Muhammad Haruna has said Plateau State and by extension, Nigeria, risk having food crisis as insecurity has driven many farmers from their farms into the city where they remain idle.
The Emir raised alarm that terrorists have taken over 50% of the landmass in Wase local government area and the people cannot go to farm and even those that manage to farm, about 70% of their produce is sold out before the next farming season.
The first class monarch disclosed these on Thursday in Jos at the colloquium and fund raising organized by the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Plateau State Council with the theme: “Tackling food crisis in Nigeria through robust research for sustainable development.”
His words, “I am a farmer, and majority of the people in my domain are farmers. Two things I want to mention is the issue of security. A lot of us leave the villages to the city to look for greener pastures because we cannot afford to go to our farms. This is not because we are lazy to be given fish. If the atmosphere is conducive for us to work on our farms, the number of people in city will reduce because they will go back to the villages.
“We want to farm because of the vast land we have which God has blessed us with. There is basically nothing you cannot farm in Wase. Unfortunately, 50 percent of the landmass has been taken over by terrorists. Our people cannot go to farm. This week a very ugly incident happened in one of the villages in Wase and and for the first time, governments of the federal, state and local took the right action by deploying armed soldiers and police to go and flush out all these people.
“I want to appreciate them for doing the job we have been appealing for years. We are making a special appeal that this should continue so that next year, we will be able to go to farm. The second, about 70% of food that is produced in Plateau State is sold out before next planting season. Some people have taken responsibility, they will give you fertilizer and everything you require to farm but the disadvantage is that they take 70% of what you produce.
“We are in December, maize in Wase is N28,000 per bag, imagine by April, how much it will cost. That is the food that is considered the poor man’s food. The one considered the rich man food, rice is N26,000 or N27,000. The kind of problem we are likely to have in Plateau and by extension, Nigeria, if people are hungry during harvest period, imagine the situation that will be the next few months.”
The Guest Speaker at the occasion Prof. Dakas Dakas SAN who spoke on the theme “Tackling food crisis in Nigeria through robust research for sustainable development.”asked that, academicians, governments and industries must work in synergy in order to tackle challenges associated with food insecurity for sustainable development and emphasized that research must be undertaken consciously to tackle food insecurity.
He emphasized, “Research must drive development, if your research does not attract development, it has not achieve the aim of the research which is proffering solutions to problems and research must be taken seriously if food security is to be achieved.”
