Nigeria is vulnerable to food crisis like any other country in the world, the President of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), an agency of the UN, Dr Kanayo Nwanze has warned.
He gave the warning yesterday in Abuja when he featured at an interview session of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
“Nigeria is one of the five countries that is vulnerable to food crisis like any other country in the world.
“The reason for this is very simple. If you end up importing over 50 per cent of what you consumed , then you are subject to international vagaries of prices, weather and what have you and with climate change.
“You see, if a country is highly dependent on food imports, there is no way it can assure the means of feeding its people. Because, even if you have the money and there is severe crisis like drought, they will want to feed their population first,” he said.
The IFAD president explained that the drought that ravaged some parts of Russia last year made the government to ban wheat exports.
He also recalled that the flood that submerged large areas of Pakistan last year, affected rice production in that country.