With food security suddenly becoming an issue in Nigeria, maybe it is time for those governors who have large tracks of arid land in their states to come to our rescue

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Several of the states in the far north of Nigeria like Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Jigawa, Zamfara and Sokoto are suffering from the effects of desert encroachment. Indeed annually, Nigeria loses up to 350,000 hectares of land to desert encroachment

[2] We thus now have these large tracts of dust bowls that are uninhabited and ideal for desert farming. We just need to look at what has been done in countries like Israel, Libya, China, Australia, etc to appreciate the fact that deserts can be converted into rich and lush farmlands

[3] Are we aware of the fact that despite being made up of mainly barren desert, Israeli agriculture is highly developed as the country is a major exporter of fresh produce and a world-leader in agricultural technologies

[4] More than half of Israel's land area is desert and the climate and lack of water resources do not favour farming but guess what, they have irrigated the desert. Only 20% of Israel's land area is naturally arable but the country produces 95% of its food requirements

[5] Do you know that the area of irrigated farmland in Israel has increased from 74,000 acres in 1948 to some 460,000 acres today?

[6] Israeli agricultural production rose 26% between 1999 and 2009, while the number of farmers dropped from 23,500 to 17,000. Farmers have also grown more with less water, using 12% less water to grow 26% more produce

[7] Due to the diversity of the land and climate across the country, Israel is able to grow a wide range of crops. Field crops grown in the country include wheat, sorghum and corn. Fruit and vegetables grown include citrus, avocados, kiwifruit, guavas, mangoes, grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini and melons

[8] Do you know that Israeli cows produce the highest amounts of milk per animal in the world, with an average of 10,208 kilograms (around 10,000 liters) of dairy in 2009. All of Israel's milk comes from dairy farms with most herds consisting largely of Israel-Holsteins, a high-yielding, disease-resistant breed.

[9] Do you know that when Obafemi Awolowo was premier of the Western Region, he imported a special variety of high-yielding cow from Argentina? Is it unbelievable that no state governor in Nigeria is remotely thinking like that today

[10] Israel is also big in acquaculture. Scientists of the Bengis Center for Desert Aquaculture at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev discovered that the brackish water under the desert can be used for agriculture, aquaculture and a combination of the two. This has led to the farming of fish, shrimp and crustaceans in the Negev Desert

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com