Lagos State has the highest number of food-insecure people among the 21 states and the Federal Capital Territory examined thus far by the Federal Government in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Food Programme, Action Against Hunger, and others.
According to the Food Security Analysis Report, also known as the Cadre Harmonise, which was released in Abuja on Friday by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, a total of 1,780,194 people in Lagos were food insecure.
Borno, Katsina, and Sokoto had 1,429,988; 1,200,906; and 1,027,646 food-insecure people, respectively, putting them in the top four ranking states in Nigeria for food insecurity.
According to the report, the situation could worsen unless deliberate and intensive efforts are made to sustain humanitarian assistance and other government intervention schemes aimed at households for recovery and resilience in their livelihoods.
“This projected marginal increase in the population of people who may require immediate humanitarian assistance may be related to the insecurity wave in the North-East states (Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe) and bandit activities in some North-West and North-Central states (Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna, Benue, and Niger,” according to the report.
Jasper Mwesigwa, FAO Food Security Analyst, told journalists on the sidelines of the event that the report was put together to reveal the number of people who needed assistance.
“This is a framework for estimating the number of people who are food insecure and may require assistance,” he explained. It is done nationally, but for this round, we have done it in 21 states plus the Federal Capital Territory.
