By Onome Amuge.
President Bola Tinubu has declared a state of emergency on food security to address the rising cost of food and its adverse impact on the citizens.
Dele Alake, special adviser to the president on special duties, communications and strategy, made the disclosure in a press statement following a meeting between Tinubu and stakeholders on food security, food pricing and sustainability.
The president observed that while availability is not a problem, affordability has been a major issue to many Nigerians in all parts of the country which has led to a significant drop in demand thereby undermining the viability of the entire agriculture and food value chain
As a direct and immediate response to the food crisis in the country, the Nigerian leader noted that a number of initiatives will be deployed in the coming weeks to reverse this inflationary trend and guarantee future uninterrupted supplies of affordable foods to ordinary Nigerians. This, he explained,is in line with his administration’s position on ensuring that the most vulnerable are supported.
Tinubu also disclosed that all matters pertaining to food & water availability and affordability, as essential livelihood items, be included within the purview of the National Security Council.
“In an earlier meeting with Agriculture Stakeholders (today), we drafted a memorandum of partnership between the government and the individual stakeholder representatives that encompasses the decisions taken and actions proposed from our engagements,” he stated.
According to the statement, as with most emergencies, there are immediate, medium- and long-term interventions and solutions.
In the immediate term, the president said his administration intends to deploy some savings from the fuel subsidy removal into the agricultural sector focusing on revamping the agricultural sector.
The immediate intervention strategies include:
– Immediate release of fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to mitigate the effects of the subsidy removal.
-An urgent synergy between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources to ensure adequate irrigation of farmlands and to guarantee that food is produced all-year round.
-Establishment national commodity board that will review and continuously assess food prices as well as maintain a strategic food reserve that will be used as a price stabilisation mechanism for critical grains and other food items.
-Security architecture to protect the farms and the farmers so that farmers can return to the farmlands without fear of attacks.
-The Central Bank will continue to play a major role in funding the agricultural value chain.
– Activation of land banks to increase availability of arable land for farming which will immediately impact food output.
-Collaboration with mechanisation companies to clear more forests and make them available for farming
-Utilisation of the 11 river basins in the country to ensure planting of crops during the dry season with irrigation schemes that will guarantee continuous farming production all year round, to stem the seasonal glut and scarcity that we usually experience.
-Deployment of concessionary capital/funding to the agricultural sector to ensure increased food productivity and improve Nigeria’s Human Capital Index (HCI), which currently ranks as the 3rd lowest in the world.
-Exploration of other means of transportation including rail and water transport, to reduce freight costs and in turn impact the food prices.
Principally, the president stated that one of the major positive outcomes of these interventions will be a massive boost in employment, job creation, and employment percentage of the agriculture sector from about 35.21 per cent as at 2021 to about 70 per cent in the long term.
