According to Olotu, who attributed the situation to economic instability, insecurity and climate change, the government must urgently put in place measures to tackle pest infestations and other threats to agricultural productivity.
Akin Olotu, an agriculture expert and former Senior Special Assistant on Agriculture and Agribusiness to the late Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, has warned that the food crisis in the country is likely to persist for an extended period.
According to Olotu, who attributed the situation to economic instability, insecurity and climate change, the government must urgently put in place measures to tackle pest infestations and other threats to agricultural productivity.
The agricultural expert, while disclosing this during the annual lecture series of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Ondo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, held in Akure, the state capital, lamented that his previous warning on the food crisis was ignored.
The former aide to the late Akeredolu, who berated various agricultural research institutes in the country for failing in their responsibilities to alerting farmers ahead of farming seasons, stressed that the earlier prediction by the United Nations that 82 million Nigerians, or about 64 percent of the country’s population, may go hungry by 2030 was true.
“In the months ahead, there will be more food crises. The present climatic condition is not favourable to farming activities. Something has to be done. The food crisis is still ahead.
“President Bola Tinubu has to set targets for the state and local councils. Presently, Nigeria’s poultry industry has collapsed.”
While urging Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to dedicate 24 percent of the state’s 2025 budget to agriculture to enhance food production, Olotu disclosed that the late Akeredolu cultivated 87,000 hectares of oil palm out of a target of 100,000 hectares in pursuit of the ‘Red Gold’ revolution, adding that the initiative created over 30,000 jobs.
“Ondo State has a comparative advantage in tree crops. We targeted 100,000 hectares for oil palm, but we did 87,000 hectares. We also succeeded in tomato cultivation in Ondo.
“Nigeria is importing oil palm heavily. We need a concerted effort to tackle the food shortage. We need to plan; we need to know where we are and where we are going.”
