Lagos Food Bank Founder Points to Security as a Food Price Issue

Dr. Michael Sunbola, founder of the Lagos Food Bank Initiative, is connecting food inflation with security — specifically the idea that state police could help address the problem, according to The Punch. That may sound like a political debate at first, but in many food systems, safety and price are tied together like twine around a hay bale.

When farmers cannot safely reach fields, traders cannot move goods, or transporters face disruption, food gets more expensive. Even where crops are grown, insecurity can raise costs through delays, spoilage, risk premiums, abandoned farmland, and thinner market participation.

The Lagos Food Bank Initiative’s Green Harvest work also points toward a wider truth: hunger is rarely solved by one tool. Food banks, urban agriculture, farmer support, logistics, storage, and policy all have roles to play. The field is too big for a single plow.

For farmers, the key takeaway is that food inflation is not just a consumer problem. High prices can coexist with struggling producers if middle costs, losses, security risks, or market failures eat the margin before it reaches the farm gate. That is one of the bitter ironies of modern food systems.

Nigeria’s food challenge is complex, and policing alone will not fill every granary. But the broader point stands: safe roads, secure farms, reliable markets, and community-level food programs are all part of the same harvest. Food security begins with production, but it does not end there.