This archive report was first published on 24 April 2020.
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across Africa, the continent's food security is under threat. In Nigeria's Benue state, rice miller Mercy Yialase sits idle, waiting for wholesale buyers to return.
With demand high across the nation, Yialase has mounds of paddy rice that are going nowhere due to the lockdown. 'I can't mill because the marketers are not coming,' she said, referring to wholesale buyers.
Food truck drivers, meant to be exempt from lockdown restrictions, are afraid for their own safety or fear they will be fined or arrested by overzealous police. The situation in Nigeria is reflected across sub-Saharan Africa.
Trucking logistics firm Kobo360 said 30 per cent of its fleet across Nigeria, Kenya, Togo, Ghana, and Uganda was not operating as a result. Several farmers said crops were rotting in the fields or at the depots waiting for trucks that never arrive.
Millers cannot get their milled rice to buyers. 'There is no clarity around what can move around...or what is essential transportation,' said Kobo360 co-founder Ife Oyedele.
Millions of people in the region are at risk of not getting the food they need due to coronavirus disruptions, according to the United Nations and World Bank. While domestic crops and capacity go to waste, the imports the region relies on have also dried up.
Major suppliers, including India, Vietnam, and Cambodia, have reduced or even banned rice exports to make sure their countries have enough food to cope with the pandemic. Scarcity has driven up prices of the main staple food beyond the reach of some people since lockdowns were announced in three states at the end of March.
Sub-Saharan Africa, the world's largest rice-importing region, could be heading from a health crisis straight into a food security crisis, the World Bank warns. More widely, the United Nations says coronavirus disruptions could double the number of people globally without reliable access to nutritious food, to 265 million.
Nigeria's Agriculture Minister Muhammed Sabo Nanono told Reuters, 'There is no question about it that there is an imminent problem of food insecurity, not only in Nigeria, but also in nations all over the world.'
The government is taking steps to address the issue, including creating a task force to minimize the coronavirus's impact on agriculture and issuing ID cards for those in the agriculture sector to enable them to move freely.
However, the situation remains dire, with farmers warning that production will fall if governments do not act. A survey by AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited found that Nigeria's fertilizer stocks are currently 20 per cent below normal levels.
Other farmers say the lockdowns are hindering farm inspections by banks, putting their financing at risk, and creating problems physically getting tractors to fields. Planting rice would typically start in May.
'Most people in the industry I speak with are worried,' said Dimieari Von Kemedi, managing director of Alluvial Agriculture, a farm collective.
