About 4.02 million Nigerians, most of whom are from Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States, are expected to face acute food crisis between now and end of December 2019, according to a report that analysed food insecurity in 16 states, including the Federal Capital Territory.

This was disclosed in Abuja yesterday by the Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and partners at the official presentation of the results of the October 2019 Cadre Harmonisѐ (CH) analysis for 16 states and the FCT at the food security stakeholders meeting.

The report also said that 5.94 million people in Nigeria were expected to be in serious food crisis between June and August 2020

The 16 states analysed in the report were Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi , Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara and the FCT.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammed Bello Umar, who represented the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the Cadre Harmonisѐ report since 2015 had been the most widely used in taking useful decision to address some of the food security challenges, particularly in the northeast.

He said the projection for next year would provide useful guidelines for policy formulation in dealing with food and nutrition insecurity in the states identified in the report. FAO Representative in Nigeria Mr Suffyan Koroma said: “the exercise, which started in 2015 has now been adopted by Nigeria Food Security stakeholders as an early warning tools for preventing food crisis.

“The projections show that the number of people facing acute food insecurity in the Boko Haram ravaged Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states has significantly reduced from 5.2 million (June‒August 2017) to 2.9million (June‒August 2019).”

The report listed the key drivers of the food and nutrition insecurity as conflict, flood and disease outbreaks. It said the security situation in the northwest remained volatile, especially in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna States affected by banditry.

(Daily Trust)

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