Women farmers under the umbrella of Smallscale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria, SWOFON has called on the Federal Government to start food voucher intervention to curb current food crisis across the country.
National President of the Organisation Mary Afan in a communiqué highlighted the recommendations after a ‘2-Day SWOFON National Advocacy Forum’ held in Abuja from 29th – 30th November 2021.
The communiqué made the recommendation based on its report that 12.8 million people in 16 Northern States of Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Plateau, Taraba, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT are currently faced with food insecurity due to climate change, insecurity, farmer/herder clashes, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
It added that apart from these 16 Northern States, other States are also faced with food and nutrition insecurity due to similar factors earlier mentioned, while food and nutrition insecurity is further exacerbated across Nigeria through post-harvest losses of about 3.5 trillion naira annually.
