Desertification a Major Threat to Food Sufficiency in Nigeria

The president of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), Alhaji Kabir Yari, revealed that desertification is a major threat to food sufficiency in Nigeria and called on the government to take urgent measures to address it. Yari said on Friday in Abuja that urgent action should be taken to check the scourge which affects mostly states in northern Nigeria before it affects the economic well being of the West African sub-region and spread to other regions of Africa. He explained that with desertification and increased population pressure, yield and agricultural productivity had sharply declined. Yari said this would lead to issues of food insecurity, migration, land degradation and impoverishment of communities. According to him, the settlement pattern of the northern region of Nigeria is being adversely affected with people leaving the drier and more barren settlements affected by desertification. “Many small and medium sized settlements that once flourished have tended to experience out-migration and decline in size and population. “I enjoin us as planners and managers of the environment of human settlements to use the opportunity of this conference to fully understand the root causes and effects of desertification and evolve practical solutions,” Yari noted. Desert encroachment is noticeable in Nigerian northern states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Yobe.