Dr Adams Oshiobugie, an agriculturist, has said that the recent floods in some parts of the country may not cause food crisis in the country.
Oshiobugie, the Deputy Provost, Edo College of Agriculture, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Agenebode that if properly managed the flood could turn out to be a blessing.
He said that it would be proper for government to deploy resources to idle farmers, especially in areas ravaged by the flood.
Oshiobugie noted that proper mobilisation of farmers that were displaced by the flood as well as those that had been idle would help to address the post-flood challenges and the anticipated food crisis.
“It is possible that before now, we have idle farmers who have been producing and had become disinterested because nobody buys their products.
“We have to move resources from where they have been idle into active production; what we need do now is to harness, maybe literally, move resources from where we have surplus to where we do not have,’’ he said.
He called on all stakeholders in the agriculture sector to work together to end the fears being nursed by Nigerians.
The agriculturist also called on ministries of agriculture at various levels of government to urgently carrying out impact assessment of the flood on agriculture.
“Most people have jumped to the conclusion that there is going to be starvation in the country next year as a result of the flood that has washed away most farmland in the affected states.
“But this is not exactly the opinion of experts.
“What we are expecting should be done at this point in time is that stakeholders in the sector should mobilise and go to the field and carry out what I refer to as impact assessment.’’
He said that all the stakeholders, including ministries of agric at the federal, state and local governments levels, should assess the damage caused by the floods in terms of farmland that were lost and agric outputs that were lost.
“It is possible that more arable land areas that were not fertile before may have been covered with a form of manure that will be useful for agric production and development.’’
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