<\/p>\n
By Olokuta Rofiat<\/p>\n
The Federal Government has raised alarm over Nigeria\u2019s deepening hunger crisis, revealing that 161 million citizens, and about 74% of the population are currently food insecure.<\/p>\n
The startling figure was disclosed at a high-level consultative meeting in Abuja, where officials, development partners, and food security experts met to devise a national response.<\/p>\n
According to Alhaji Nuhu Kilishi, Director of Nutrition and Food Safety at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, food insecurity has more than doubled since 2014, when it stood at 35%.<\/p>\n
Kilishi identified key drivers of the crisis as armed conflict in farming regions, climate change, inflation, and declining agricultural productivity, especially in rural and conflict-affected states.<\/p>\n
To address the situation, the government has launched a coordinated intervention plan that includes the distribution of improved seeds and inputs to farmers across all 774 local government areas, prioritizing women and vulnerable households.<\/p>\n
The World Bank is supporting efforts in 21 states, while the federal government is funding the rest.<\/p>\n
Kilishi stressed the urgent need for a long-term preparedness plan, including early warning systems, nutrition-sensitive agriculture, and improved data tracking.<\/p>\n
He warned that without swift action, the crisis could escalate into a full-blown humanitarian emergency, particularly affecting children, pregnant women, and impoverished communities.<\/p>\n
As food prices surge and hunger-related displacement rises, stakeholders at the meeting called for unified action to stabilize food systems and safeguard millions of lives.<\/p>\n
The government now faces mounting pressure to move beyond short-term relief and ensure lasting solutions to avert a national catastrophe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Olokuta Rofiat The Federal Government has raised alarm over Nigeria\u2019s deepening hunger crisis, revealing that 161 million citizens, and about 74% of the population are currently food insecure. The startling figure was disclosed at a high-level consultative meeting in Abuja, where officials, development partners, and food security experts met to devise a national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":70376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-70375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70375"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70378,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70375\/revisions\/70378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}