Nigerian born founder of the popular Canadian Black Farmers Association, Toyin Ajayi,has heaped the blame of the shortage of food in Nigeria on citizens of the largest black African country in the diaspora,even as he has tipped the government on how to arrest food insecurity in the country.
Reacting to the cries over food shortage in his home country Nigeria, Ajayi said food shortage being experienced in Nigeria is traceable to the unending demand for local foods by Nigerians in the diaspora,which he remarked, has led to the exportation of the largest chunk of food produced by Nigerians farmers and the resultant hike in the prices of the limited available food in the country.
According to the manager of Karakata food village in Vancouver, British Colombia, the impact of the concentration on the exportation of local foods to Nigerians abroad is being felt because the country is not doing enough to encourage local farming.
Submitting that food insecurity has become a global crisis, Ajayi said the government can ensure food security by adopting the Canadian system of incentive driven farming.
He explained that under the incentive driven system, government give farmers incentives of different kind, towards ensuring maximum production of food.
Further admonishing the government over the exportation of food to Nigerians in the diaspora, Ajayi said government should ensure food export is controlled adding that it’s almost unlikely that government has accurate data of the volume and type of foods being exported out of the country per time.
The Ekiti born farmer said aside the incentives from government to those he described as real and pratical farmers, Ajayi also said the issue of security should be looked into, adding that the insecurity of farmers on their farmlands has also been affecting adequate food supply in Nigeria.
