A News Analysis by Doris Esa, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
By most accounts and evidently, headline inflation is pushing food prices almost beyond the reach of average Nigerians.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicates that food inflation rate in May 2024 increased to 40.66 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 15.84 per cent higher compared to the rate recorded in May 2023 at 24.82 per cent.
Experts attribute the soaring food inflation to weakening of the naira, depletion of food reserves, insecurity, supply chain disruption, rising cost of transportation, cost of farm inputs, climate change, among others.
Nonetheless, the Federal Government is making conscious and exigent efforts to address the trend.
Just recently, the Federal Government rolled out new initiatives to ensure food and nutrition security in the country.
The new plans aim to boost agricultural productivity and strengthen the economy by creating opportunities in the real sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, construction and to provide urgent economic relief for Nigerians.
President Bola Tinubu, at the 142nd National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, approved the immediate rollout of the National Construction and Household Support Programme to cover all geo-political zones in the country.
He said under the programme, the Sokoto-Badagry Highway, which would traverse Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun and Lagos, was prioritised.
Tinubu said other road infrastructure projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, which was underway, and the Trans-Saharan Highway, which linked Enugu, Abakaliki, Ogoja, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, and Abuja, would also be prioritised.
“The Sokoto-Badagry road project is specially prioritised for its importance as some of the states it will traverse are strategic to the agricultural sustainability of the nation.
“Within the Sokoto-Badagry Highway corridor, there are 216 agricultural communities, 58 large and medium dams spread across six states, seven Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZs), 156 local government areas, 39 commercial cities and towns, and over 1 million hectares of arable land.
“In addition, other items under the National Construction and Household Support Programme include one-off allocation to states and the Federal Capital Territory of N10 billion for the procurement of buses and CNG uplift programme.
“Others are delivery of N50,000 uplift grant each to 100,000 families per state for three months, provision for labour unions and civil society organisations and deployment of N155 billion for the purchase and sale of assorted foodstuffs to be distributed across the nation.”
Tinubu also tasked state governors to provide feedback on their plans to rev up food production in their states.
He said that the Sokoto-Badagry Highway was a pivotal project as the states within the axis formed the food belt of the nation with Badagry being an important artery for food export.
“Our states must work together to deliver on the critical reforms required of us to meet the needs of our people; time is humanity’s most precious asset; you can never have enough of it; it is getting late.
“We are ready and able to support you in the form of the mechanisation of your agricultural processes and the provision of high-quality seedlings.
“We are prepared to provide solar powered irrigation facilities to support our farmers across seasons but we must now produce.’’
The president added that states must produce enough food for people to eat and that it would require coordination and intentionality between members of the NEC.
“There is nothing we are doing that is more important than producing high-quality food for our people to consume, buy and sell.
“How much support do you need from me and in what form? I am prepared to provide it but we must achieve the result; we must deliver on our targets at all levels.
“Please report back following your consultations and submit to my office within seven days,” Tinubu said.
More so, the meeting deliberated extensively on the need to distribute fertilisers to the farming community in the country free of charge as a way of encouraging them to produce food massively.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari, said he briefed the council on the national food security policies.
Kyari said he also briefed council on the interventions on the 42,000 metric tonnes of grains of which all had been delivered to all the states as well as 20 trailers of rice per state.
The minister disclosed that the Federal Government had distributed 42,000 metric tonnes of grains, 20 trailers of rice, as well as released 1.5 million bags of fertiliser to states, which he said were awaiting evacuation by the state governments.
“We have also released over 1.5 million bags of fertiliser, which is under evacuation by the state governments.”
On the agriculture mechanisation programme, the minister said that the council received briefing and approved the Greener Hope Agric mechanisation consortium, a ten year programme totaling 1 billion dollars in investments.
According to him, the consortium is expected to set up 1000 agro centres with service providers across the country.
He said the centres were also expected to engage about 600,000 youths, providing 2000 tractors yearly, for the next five years.
“Others include the John Deere/ Tata tractors arrangements and the 2000 tractors to be supplied per year, with the establishment of 52 service and maintenance centres.
“The tractors will be delivered in the next 60 days.”
He also disclosed that the Saudi Arabia government had requested for 200,000 metric tonnes of red meat yearly and 1m metric tonnes of soya beans.
“The request is part of the fall out of the President’s visit to Saudi Arabia,” he said.
Deserving no less attention, Mr Akinyinka Akintunde, Chief Executive Officer of AFEX , a leading commodities exchange firm in Nigeria, recently pledged the group’s support to government’s programmes and policies in the agricultural sector.
He said the group was proposing an initiative that would support two million farmers across four value chains (Rice, Maize, Sorghum and Soyabeans) to enhance sustainable agriculture and ensure the success of the food security drive of the Federal Government.
Akintunde said the consortium which comprised of mid-sized agricultural companies in Nigeria would achieve the set objectives by engaging and collaborating with key stakeholders, including Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) and farmer aggregation companies.
On its part, the Nigerian Youth for Agricultural Revolution Initiative (YOFAGRI), an NGO, said that agriculture had the potential to solve the youth unemployment crisis as well as to be transformed.
The National Chairman, YOFAGRI, Mr Jerry Ngene, said that the agriculture sector contributed about 21 per cent to the Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Ngene said that with 70 per cent of the population engaged in the agricultural sector, agriculture had the potential to solve the youth unemployment crisis as well as to be transformed.
“It is in view of this that YOFAGRI has the vision of empowering 1,000,000 Youths annually with quality seeds of crops that have comparative cultivation advantage in their domain,” he said.
Dr Deola Lordbanjour, Director, Extension Services, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, said that the growing demand for food meant that there was scope for the forces of supply, to take advantage of a growing market.
“Global food prices are at their highest point in several decades and are expected to remain high for the foreseeable future and Nigeria is not exempted.
“Youths as the life wire of any nation when empowered, can take advantage of the food crises for national food security and sustainability,” he said.
Stakeholders are optimistic that the new measures by the Federal Government to boost agricultural productivity, enhance food and nutrition security are capable of salvaging the nation from the prevailing food crisis. (NANFeatures)(www.nannews.ng)
**If used, please, credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)