An assessment conducted by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), has shown that the 2022 flood in Nigeria destroyed about N700 billion worth of investment in the agricultural sector.
While presenting the assessment report to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Mohammad Mahmood, in Abuja, the Executive Director of NAERLS, Professor Emmanuel Ikani, disclosed that the floods damaged crops and destroyed livestock and fish resources, resulting in economic losses for farmers.
The finding shows that 1,798 communities were affected in 263 local government areas, and the major causes in the south-east and north-central regions were releases of excess water from Lagdo Dam, Cameroon, and excessive rainfall in the south-west, while the occurrence of floods in the north-west and north-east regions was due to heavy rainfall and blockage of existing drainages.
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The survey revealed that Kebbi, Delta, and Cross River States were the most severely affected by the flood, while Nasarawa, the FCT, and Oyo were the least affected among the 30 states selected for the study.
According to Ikani, the flood is a potential threat to food security due to the loss of about 8.4 million tonnes of fourteen crop varieties, valued at N384.4 billion, with the fish sector accounting for the loss of N100.2 billion, while over N93.04 billion was also lost in the livestock sector, and agricultural structures and farmlands amounted to over 120 billion naira, with 863,648 hectares of farmlands affected.
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He said it is estimated that there are over 3000 gully erosion sites in the 10 most-affected states in the south-east, south-south, and southwestern parts of Nigeria.
In his recommendation, he said NAERLS, in collaboration with state agricultural development programs (ADPs), should be funded to provide technical support through sensitization and dissemination of flood early warning systems to the farmers.
