Professor Raphael Okigbo of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, has called on the administration of President Bola Tinubu to prioritize the agricultural sector to address the country’s food crisis. In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Awka on Wednesday, Okigbo, a professor of Plant Pathology in the Faculty of Biological Sciences, highlighted the need for deliberate efforts to overcome challenges in the sector.
Okigbo pointed out that insecurity and high transportation costs are major obstacles to food security in Nigeria. He suggested that the federal government should open the country’s borders to import healthy food items in the short term to increase availability and reduce prices.
“Again, the cost of moving produce from the farm to where they are needed has more than quadrupled; this is another harmful effect of the removal of petrol subsidy,” he explained. “All this explains the scarcity of food items and their high prices where you find them.”
Okigbo urged the government to develop and implement an urgent policy to address these agricultural sector challenges.
