It's self-evident that each part of the world has a list of problems they deal with. Some of these are more lethal than others and the list is even more widespread in some parts of the world than others. The rate at which the price of food item is skyrocketing may well be an issue that would lead to mass starvation all-over the the world.
The reasons why this crisis of starvation has been in places like Africa for so many decades are hard to narrow down to one thing. It seems like the issue of mass starvation is caused by the high cost of food items and that's due to food scarcity. Well, food scarcity is mostly caused by a lot of complexities and some of those are self-inflicted.
So, while using Nigeria as a case study, let's see what's really causing this recurring issue of mass starvation.
1. The Massive Disregard for Agriculture.
This is usually the first to take the fall and the reason is fairly obvious. A lot of people in this part of the world see Agriculture as a dirty low-class career path to follow. They prefer to get into the white-collar sector and wear fancy uniforms while working in fancy offices.
This isn't a game of "pointing fingers" so, I'm not blaming anyone for choosing a particular career path instead of the other. Instead, I'm just stating the obvious.
Our government is also disregarding the Agricultural sector. They have been very focused on the extractive industries for way too long and this has made the current Agricultural practice unsustainable for the massive population we have in Nigeria. Just for the record, folks still use hoe to till acres of farmland and they use Cutlass to mow the grass in those farmlands.
2. The Imbalance in Demand & Supply for Food.
We've already made a case about the insufficiency of the food items that are being produced within the country. Because of that, we are often met by situations where the demand for food is higher than the supply for it and this basically means that the cost of food items is becoming higher due to its scarcity. We've had to depend on the importation of several food items from neighboring countries for our survival.
Since the value of our currency doesn't really have a bragging right when measured against other currencies, we end up paying so much to import these food items and the ripple effect of that has led to a situation where the cost of feeding is taking a huge percentage from what people earn. Rice, for example, has already experienced a 250% increase within a decade while the salary increase for an average Nigerian within that same period is barely at 50%.
3. Placing a Ban on the Importation of Food Items.
While it's understandable that Countries have strict import duties, the decision Nigerian government made to ban the importation of a national food like rice was ill-timed. The timing of that action is sus because every household in Nigeria eats rice in different forms and the rice that's getting produced in Nigeria is never enough to meet the demand for it. In addition to all these, no measure was put in place to cover the deficit that will occur in the supply of rice.
Anyone with eyes could see that the insistent move to ban the importation of rice in Nigeria led to a massive increase in the price of rice and other food items. As understandable as that move may be on paper, the ripple effect isn't doing us any good.
At the moment, each of us is paying a premium price for any food item we want to buy. And folks are being forced to eat twice or once a day to survive this food scarcity madness. The real "famine" is not yet here and we are already in mud. Imagine what would happen when massive scarcity of food starts to hit us hard. The mass starvation that would cause would be beyond what's imaginable.
Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop or Comma.
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