 Welcome back it is still the run-up and we've been having a lot of beautiful conversations first we talked about the three major presidential candidates and then we talked about grassroots politics and then we're moving on to talk about the floods currently ravaging the country the probable after-effects and the looming food scarcity that might come with it the devastating floods which plunged great sorts of agricultural land under water would exacerbate food insecurity as already the economy has seen more than a 50% rise in the prices of rice maize and whiz since the beginning of last year and this is attributed to a lot of factors which includes but is not limited to fertilizer shortage and surging diesel prices and at the president of the Federation of Agricultural Commodities Association of Nigeria has said that outcome of the flooding situation has sparked swarming grains and that a new flood crisis looms as the country faces a likely rise in the prices of many staples and also his vice has also said that the impact of the flooding was going to be a major strain on food security as according to him the recent floods will lead to a spike in the prices of grains and I have just been joined by Mary Ufon the president of small-scale women farmers organization of Nigeria we're going to be having this conversation together good morning and welcome ma'am good afternoon how are you? I'm doing great how are you doing? we're also trying by the grace of God. You are into farming and agriculture this is what you do can you tell us how the floods has affected your business? okay thank you very much as the national president of small-scale women farmers in Nigeria a platform cut across all the 36 states including FCT I have very huge report of a lot of lot is incurred by my women farmers across the affected states and sincerely speaking the report we are seeing and the report we are hearing is very very devastating our major aim is to make sure that Nigeria is food secured if there is no food if there is no woman there would be no food on the table no food no nation we know that and but as it is now a lot of farms have been washed away especially those of the no-holder farmers who are the major people feeding the nation and we are beginning to see the impact that even some families are now living in camps they have left their homes because their homes have been jacking over by water and some have even lost their investment completely so the trauma living your home to go and stay in a camp alone is something else and in that camp they are all being fed by food being donated by other people to feed them in the camp and their families and we can begin to see the effect of this coming up in the market when you go to buy food stock or soup ingredients and the prices has gone up very high and we expect that by this season which is the harvesting season it should be the time we have cheap cheap cheap cheap and cheap prices of food in the market but the reverse is the case now and we're beginning to look at even we as farmers we we don't even think we can even fit ourselves throughout the season talking about you know carrying the food to the market to feed other people and that is why we actually been advocating and calling on government on the need to you know give supports to the affected areas so that we can go into a dry season farming to supplement what we have lost in the rainy season a major concern has been the federal government have actually and meaningful individuals to plan to make sure that they support the small older farmers but how are the support being channelled are the real affected community communities being actually targeted or the support falling into wrong ones that is our major concern now thank you you know the urging the government to come to the aid of you know the women that you work with but I wanted to ask you this question how do you think this flawed you know would affect food production especially in the coming year and do you have an alternative I mean most of the families are submerged under water do you have an alternative to help tackle the effect or cushion the effect of that this is going to have on food production actually the alternative of this flood lie in the hands of government because as smaller farmers we don't have the facilities and the resources to control this water government should begin to open rooms to collect these waters that have submerged these lands I'm quite sure if waterways are actually open the flooded areas will dry up and we can immediately go to production because this flood that has flooded this area have come with a lot of nutrients to settle on the land and this will help us to produce more food in the dry season and unless the waters are channeled through a reservoirs or through the creation of new terms the waters will continue to remain there for some month before it dries up for people to go into dry season so I think the federal government have the solution because we can plant on top of water and we don't have the resources to channel these waters to where they should be channel to so I think the whole book of the integration should come from government apart from the government channeling these waters if you were to make a suggestion what would you say you know can be done to reduce the you know the expected hash hash conditions are effects that would come with this flood and actually we have also been talking among ourselves as farmers on the need for us to maintain sustainable agriculture by when you are farming make sure that you reduce the number of water coming in your farm by doing the way you will plan you can't land on the waterways when you know that that place is a waterway you stop planning from that waterway but most of the time the communities don't have alternatives because that is the only land they have so they have to use it and secondly we should begin to plant crops that can mature LP so that by the time the flood comes we'll be able to harvest our crops as you can see what happened now even the harvested crops were submerged by water so it is another issue and also we want to also you know advocate that as farmers we should also be able to make sure that we use those includes that can help us to have us within the shortest possible time than family longer varieties of crops that take months to harvest maybe if we can start harvesting between August and September by that time some of the crops would have been sold in the market by force because selling it at that time you won't even recover your investment so I think it's much or little we can do a small order farmers the only thing is that we need to adopt the new method of farming so that it can help us to reduce the losses we are incurring and when you say the new method of farming what do you mean by that the new method of farming is by employing technology and like having a green houses which I know is beyond the reach of small order farmers because it takes a lot of money to construct a greenhouse and also you can also you know embark on the dry season farming which is more safer by the time the waters are going away you begin to plant your crop and you have best without any a problem we need to you know cultivate the happiness of all year farming not only to depend on the rainy season because the rainy season is becoming so risky now we can't control the waters and looked at the pest and pesticides that comes with it and it makes farmers to lose their investment and a lot of investment was lost this year especially for young farmers all right thank you so much for coming on the run-up this morning it was really amazing talking to you we appreciate your time thank you for giving us your time this morning ma'am we appreciate that thank you so much okay you've heard it whatever it is that you can do please do and stay safe out there the floods could be coming with a lot of other things ordered and just submerging food food products and you know Jack would be dangerous animals in the water generally just stay safe and this is where we draw the curtain and today's edition of the run-up the run-up will come back tomorrow with more interesting topics thank you so much for watching and stay glued to plus TV you can of course follow us via all our social media handles on Facebook Twitter and Instagram you can also subscribe to our YouTube channels are plus TV Africa and plus TV Africa lifestyle you can also view us on limax at www.limax.tv or you can view us from all glow TV apps everywhere in the world my name is Uche Chuku Onado thank you so much for watching