Covid19 pandemic in Nigeria poses a threat to food security for the burgeoning northern population if the current lockdown directive persists.
Although the federal government only announced a lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), several state governments including Kaduna, Osun, Abia, Bauchi and others also imposed some forms of curfews on their residents, bringing to a halt, activities for more than half of the estimated 200 million population in the country.
Analysis of prevailing data by Dataphyte indicates that about 4.02 million people in the northern part of the country may be hit by worse food insecurity if the COVID-19 situation persists until June 2020.
Majority of the population which fall within the informal sector are currently finding it hard to make both ends meet. But the identified 4 million fall within a critical food insecurity threshold due to existing unfavourable conditions pre-existing COVID-19.
This projection is based on a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report of November 2019 which indicates that over 4 million people in Nigeria, across 17 states were already experiencing food insecurity.
For this population, several factors including civil conflicts, large-scale displacement, rising food prices, climate change, natural resource degradation, poverty, and population growth contribute to the situation.
Specifically, FAO predicted that an estimated 2.6 million people faced severe food insecurity in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in November. The organisation also noted that the number may rise to 3.6 million from June to August 2020.
Other states captured in the report are Jigawa, Kano, Kastina, Kaduna, Bauchi, Benue, Gombe, Niger, Kebbi, Taraba, Zamfara, Plateau and Sokoto as well as the FCT.
Four states (Gombe, Kaduna, Plateau, and Taraba) also have some population impacted by communal conflict; while the remaining nine states have been affected by adverse climatic conditions, the report noted.
While presenting the report, FAO Country Director, Suffyan Koroma, said cumulative figure for the 17 states is projected to rise to 5.94 million people between June and August 2020, if nothing was done.
This situation could be worsened by the emergence of COVID-19 currently ravaging the globe as the vulnerable population in these states largely on aids
Although these states have very few cases, the impact of lockdown imposed by the state governments and the general economic pressure could worsen food security.
As part of measure to cushion the deep in oil prices occasioned by the viral disease, the federal government already cut the 2020 budget to reflect the current situation.