LAGOS, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nigeria is not threatened by food insufficiency despite the armyworm outbreak, the Nigerian government said Tuesday.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, said in Abuja, the nation's capital, that with the outbreak of armyworm affecting most states, the country does not have the threat of food insufficiency, but high cost of food items in the market.
He spoke at the Capacity Building Training for ECOWAS member states to control and manage the armyworm outbreak in West Africa.
The training was organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which brought together stakeholders from 15 West Africa countries to proffer solution to the pest.
"Eventually, every state is affected by armyworm outbreak in the country; Armyworm outbreak began from Oyo state and spread very quickly to Ondo, Edo and other states two years ago," he added.
"Right now, there is hardly any state that is not affected by this pest," the minister told reporters.
The official added that factors that led to the high food prices in the country also include bad roads network.
"Roads are bad and transporter will tell you that it costs high to move food from one place to the other," he said.
Ogbeh, however, advised Nigerians not to panic, and to keep working to improve production, adding that the country was already getting support from experienced organizations to mitigate the problem.
"This issue happened in Europe and they were able to curtail it. Our own climate encourages the development of all kind of pests because it is so warm here, but we shouldn't be scared," the minister said.
