By FEMI AKINOLA
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The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has estimated that recent floods in the country have destroyed crops that would have fed 8.5 million people for six months.
The organisation estimated that about 856,000 tons of crops have been lost based on an average yield of 1.5 tons of food grown per hectare on the waterlogged land.
The world body said farmers in Nigeria were expecting a bumper harvest this year, but land planted with groundnuts, vegetables and rice has been inaundated, in a response to questions on Wednesday.
According to the organisations, livestock ranging from chickens to cattle have been drowned.
The heavy rains ‘are exacerbating’ the already deteriorating food security in the country. Almost half of Nigeria’s more than 200 million people live in abject poverty, according to FAO’s report, and food prices are already rising at an annual rate of 37%.
FAO also said the floods have ruptured enclosures of markets, allowing animals to escpe, and have destroyed storage units with fodder and machinery.
In addition, the FAO report indicated that eleven states along the Benue River are also t imminent risk of further flooding due to the discharge of water from the swollen Lagdo Dam in neighbouring Cameroon.
Quantifying the exact loss as a result of the recent flooding across the country has not yet been possible due to the gravity of the disaster, FAO said.
