With uncertainty facing the country’s livestock sub-sector due to scarcity of grains for the production of feeds, the Federal Government has pledged to intervene to salvage the sector. Gradually, the effects of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s agricultural division are showing negative signs on sustainable food security, with key sub-sectors of the agric sector feeling the pinch in their business activities.

The current administration had earlier forecasted that the pandemic would bring acute shortage to food as it ordered the release of 70,000 tonnes of grains from the National Strategic Grain Reserves for distribution to those in need during the lockdown. However, the negative impact of COVID- 19 on food security is obvious now, as farmers struggle to purchase agricultural feeds for livestock, following skyrocketing prices of grains in the markets.

The scarcity of grains in the country’s agric sector signifies a threat to food production and highlights the need for government to urgently intervene, to save the day for Nigerian livestock farmers. Following this development, the President of Feed Industry Practitioners Association of Nigeria (FIPAN), Dr Fola Afelumo, wrote to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Mohammed Sabo Nanono, to seek government’s intervention in the livestock sub-sector.

Explaining the crisis, FIPAN said: “Maize, sorghum and soybean meal, which aggregately constitute about 80 per cent of animal feeds, are in chronic shortages and have become extremely scarce in the market. Concomitantly, we have seen sharp increases in prices rising by about 100 per cent within one month.” New Telegraph