Estimated 7 million people may suffer severe hunger in the
Lake Chad Basin region, including northeastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and
Niger, reports NaijaAgroNet.
Speaking during a visit to Lake Chad Basin, the
Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Mr. José
Graziano da Silva, this region requires immediate food and livelihood
assistance.
"The situation we have now is largely due to the
conflicts and armed groups that have devastated the lives and livelihoods
across the whole of Lake Chad region. It is like an opportunistic infection,
which is largely taking advantage of an already weak body from underlying
problems of environmental degradation, related droughts, low investment in rural
development and limited employment and livelihood opportunities for young men
and women. We need to work on the symptoms by restoring peace and treat the
disease by making the body stronger. This is all about resilience,"
Graziano da Silva said.
In addition, NaijaAgroNet
reports that over 1 million returnees and the majority of internally displaced
people in areas which have recently become relatively strife-free, have access
to land and may benefit from the forthcoming rainy season starting in May 2017
should sufficient agriculture support be provided.
"Protracted conflict has eroded coping capacities,
exhausted livelihoods and left people with no way to feed themselves and their
families. Agriculture cannot be an
afterthought. More than 80 percent of people rely on farming, fishing and
herding for their livelihoods," the FAO Director-General said.
NaijaAgroNet
reports that Graziano da Silva during his visit, met local farmers on several
FAO supported farms in Gongolong and Old Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria's
Borno State.
He was accompanied by the Federal Minister of Agriculture
and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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