The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called on the United Nations to issue $62 million to support farming in the north-eastern part of the country during the wet-season.

“FAO is asking for 62 million dollars, under the Humanitarian Response Plan, for Nigeria. A combination of food assistance and food production support is the only way to address the scale of hunger facing the people of north-eastern Nigeria,’’ said Nourou Tall, the Acting FAO Country Representative in Nigeria.

Speaking at a news conference in Maiduguri on Thursday, Tall explained that $20 million out of the money will be used to support farming in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states during the upcoming planting season in June 2017. The remaining amount would be used to fund other humanitarian projects in the states.

According to him, about 5.1 million people are likely to face acute food insecurity in the three states, if no intervention is put in place. “Missing the main planting season will force many Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), returnees and vulnerable host communities to rely on expensive and challenging food assistance well into 2018.This will have a broad negative impact on rising hunger, lack of economic and employment opportunities as well as possible harmful consequences, including youth radicalization,” Tall said.

FAO in an effort to help internally displaced farmers in the North East, established farms in the region to boost agriculture, which is the people’s main source of living. In 2016, the organization received about $7.2 million to finance agricultural activities in the region, the representative recalled.

Anita Fatunji