“Moreover, FAO expects that shortages of seeds and feed and high fertilizer costs will affect the next agriculture season, exacerbating food insecurity, which is expected to persist beyond the lean season.”
The bank highlighted that Western and Central Africa were facing persistent food crisis, with the number of people in need of food and nutritional assistance in the region rising from around 10.7 million in 2019 to almost 29 million in 2021 to more than 40 million in 2022 and 2023. It stressed that between June and August 2023, 42.5 million people in Nigeria and other West African countries were in a food crisis or worse.
It said, “The main factors affecting food security are civil insecurity and conflict, which have led to forced displacement; climatic shocks; political instability; the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic; and the war in Ukraine, which have increased the volatility of prices for foodstuffs and other commodities and caused widespread inflation. Current food prices of the main staple and imported food products remain higher than during the same period last year.