SOLUTION TO FOOD SCARCITY

4.0 SOLUTIONS TO THE FOOD SCARCITY IN NIGERIA

4.1 Our government should have maintenance sectors/departments which look into the standardization of transportation.
4.2 Our government should extend roads from urban to rural areas to easy transportation of goods and services.
4.3 High cost of petroleum should be reduced to the minimum.
4.4 Excess crude fund should be invested in agriculture to catalyse the provision of foods both in the rural and urban with adequate infrastructure, especially power, mechanization farming, private sector investments and railways.
5. With human capital development, our government should do the following.
(a): empower our farmers to start planting various crops now such as these.


Maize. Cocoa



Rice Cassava


And others crops.

So that we can have massive harvest such as these:

CASSAVA MAIZE HARVEST




COCOA HARVEST

RICE BAGS OF RICE



Planting & Harvesting Periods for Major Exportable Agricultural Commodities in Nigeria




CROPS
Planting Periods
Harvesting Periods





COCOA
APRIL – JUNE
OCT – MAR.

OIL PALM
MAR. – AUG
FEB – SEPT.

RUBBER
MAY – JUNE
MAR – JULY

CASHEW
MAY – JULY
MAR – APRIL

SOYA BEAN
MAY – AUG
SEPT – OCT

GINGER
MAY – JUNE
DEC – JAN.

COTTON
JULY – AUG
OCT, DEC – JAN
GUM ARABIC
MAY – AUG
Throughout the year
COFFEE
MAY – JULY
Throughout the year
PINEAPPLE
MAY – JUNE
DEC – FEB.

BENISEED
MAY – JUNE
NOV – DEC

SHEANUT
MAY – JUNE
JULY – AUG.

GROUNDNUT



Early season
MAY – APR.
JUNE – JULY

Late season
JULY – AUG
OCT – NOV.

CHILLIES
APR – MAY
OCT – DEC.

RICE MAY-JUNE NOV-DEC
CASSAVA MAY-JUNE DEC-JAN.
MAIZE MAR-APR OCT-NOV.

(b): Our government should provide high incentives, salary scheme, housing with constant power supply, internet services, machines for planting, harvesting, cultivating alongside with support for research and the implementation of their findings to agriculture for graduates from various higher institutions and youths who have the passion to go into the agricultural sector, This will reduced unemployment in our country.

5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
Domestic production of agro-raw materials should be encouraged in our country.
Industries should be involved in the dissemination of information on raw materials specifications so that suppliers could meet their demands.
Efforts should be made to improve value addition in the agricultural sector by encouraging secondary and tertiary raw materials production.
An appropriate model should be worked out to assist indigenous researchers to perfect and take findings to the market
Government should provide appropriate legislation to support Guarantee Minimum Price (GMP) and encourage industries to commit a certain percentage of their profit to backward integration.
Controlled atmospheric storage technologies or hermitic storage should be developed by Research Institutes with private sector participation.
The private sector should utilize the existing livestock and raw material potential in the country to encourage their production both for domestic consumption and export
A forum for interaction of stakeholders should be coordinated by RMRDC.[Raw Material Reproduction Redevelopment Commission.]
Stakeholders advised the Government to review the degree to which oil resources are continuously used for domestic budgets and ensure that substantial amount of this money should be used for the development of infrastructure and amenities such as:
- Power generation.
- Roads
- Water supply
- Capital Equipment and Structures for Research



Industries should optimize the use of indigenous crops and other under utilized plant species.
Industrial Agro Raw Materials Production Advisory Centers should be established and put in place by RMRDC in the zones to act as advisory centers, and co-ordinate interaction of stakeholders on sectoral basis to encourage production and value addition.
The Federal Government should strengthen the Nigerian Agricultural, Co-operative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB), and reduce the interest rate to 5%.
Our leaders should have the mindset to the development of agriculture in our country.
Change in our constitutions that will favour food productions in our nation.
Seminars should be organized to inform Nigerians on the important of food production in our country at various Christian, Islamic and traditional gathering and impact such information to agricultural development in our country.
5.1 CONCLUSION
‘Don’t envy the man who is eating fruits, he planted the tree years ago, plant your own now.’ With this research, future occurrence of food scarcity would be averted if our government would considered the recommendation listed above and then Nigeria should be able to feed herself and one-quarter of the world population.