The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) urged for investments in sustainable agriculture and climate change relief to address the humanitarian and ecological crisis in Lake Chad Basin. Years of fighting and violence are largely responsible for the crisis, but climate change and environmental neglect have further escalated the situation. Approximately seven million people in the region suffer from severe hunger and 50,000 are on the brink of famine in northeastern Nigeria alone. Ninety percent of the Lake Chad Basin population relies on agriculture for food security.
The FAO and its partners urged the international community to provide immediate food assistance and food production support in an effort to alleviate severe hunger among Lake Chad Basin residents. The FAO’s three-year response strategy aims to improve food security and help farmers produce sustainable agriculture. The area also suffers from severe droughts and the FAO is working to help farmers save water through various irrigation strategies. The FAO Director General, Jose Graziano da Silva, warned that the need for agriculture in the region cannot be ignored if the crisis is going to be resolved.