What is food security? Well, when trying to answer this question, there are two keywords that stand out here: food and safety.

Food, according to the dictionary, is any substance that people or animals eat or drink to stay alive.

Rice, beans, millet, fish, meat, water, dairy products, vegetables, fruits, alcohol, wine and soft drinks are some of the foods and drinks we know.

Safety, on the other hand, is about protection and freedom from threats, violence, danger, worry, bloodshed, or even death. So, in my own words, food security is basically about having food to eat with your family.

Let’s focus on Nigeria and look at some statistics on agricultural transformation. Nigeria as you know has an estimated population of around 150 million people from 774 local government areas and 36 states and Abuja. Good market, if you ask me.

But, about 80% of Nigerians live in rural areas. These citizens are mostly elderly, uneducated peasants with crude and outdated tools, trying to keep their souls and bodies together.

On the other side of the same coin, there are large farmers in the major cities of the countries, who are engaged in modern, mechanized agriculture on a large scale.

These farmers in most cases export their agricultural products to developed countries such as the United States of America, the United Kingdom, among other countries to obtain foreign exchange. Little of these products remain for local consumption.

Thus, with around 98.3 million hectares of land mass in Nigeria, only 73.7 million, or less than 50%, is under cultivation, even when poor, elderly and uneducated farmers cannot access it. 80% of the funds provided by the Nigerian government. rural zones.

However, we are preaching the gospel of food security. It is the large, wealthy and well-connected farmers who access the funds.

Not surprisingly, with N18,000, some workers cannot feed themselves on their wages for two weeks.

Research has shown that in the last ten years, our beloved country has spent over $2 billion importing all kinds of food and drinks from rice, beans, meat, fish, dairy products and wheat from other countries to Nigeria.

So what I’m getting at here is simply that it’s the government’s business to create an enabling environment for the farmers, the big boys, and the small farmers to operate to feed the citizens.

The truth is that all over the world, the government does not have the capacity to run businesses and be successful.

The serious business of ensuring that food and drink is available to the citizens of any country must be left entirely to private investors, with the government providing the funds, power supply, water, fertilizer, tools and seedlings. , among other articles.