Our food reserve not depleted – Agric minister

In recent times, observers have raised an alarm that country’s food reserve had gone down. This further alludes to concerns raised by farmers, experts and business actors that the Nigeria Strategic Grain Reserve system had been depleted. However, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has debunked this claim. FarmingFarmersFarms gathered that at the recent Joint Senate Committee on the State of the Economy, the minister informed that importation of food option was also being considered to ensure that the country’s grain reserve was intact.

“I know that a lot of senators have raised concerns about the issue of importation; and I think there are also concerns out there. We are also worried about that. We try to protect the local industry and farmers, but at the same time, we are in an emergency situation. I think that just like somebody, who is sinking, if your hand him a sword, he would grab it, just to come out. This is the situation we found ourselves now. But it is an interim situation and not something that will be protracted over a period of time”, Kyari said. The minister disclosed that prices would drop significantly, if the country intensified production efforts during the dry and wet seasons, adding that the current problem was not about hoarding, but speculations.

“I wouldn’t want to say there is hoarding, but there are speculators in the industry. I am sure they will start bringing out their grains to the market. And even when some of these imports start coming, there should be some kind of activity that would lessen the prices of food”, he stated. “On the issue of food reserve, I think a question was asked: Are the grains available? I will say yes, the ones we are about to release are available. Nigeria has 33 silos with a total capacity of 1.3 million metric tonnes for its Strategic Grain Reserve (SGR) system. About 19 of these silos were concessioned to the private sector for a number of years. The ministry has not given details of what is available in the National Strategic Grains Reserve silos”, describing it as a national security issue.

It would be recalled that President Bola Tinubu had announced the release of some grains to cushion the effects of rising food prices while the minister also announced the release of 42,000 metric tonnes of grain from the national reserve as a significant step towards addressing the current hardship of food shortage and inflation in the country. Kyari said, “The release of these grains will help to increase the supply of food in the market, which will lead to a decrease in prices. This will provide relief to Nigerian families, who have been struggling to afford basic necessities”. The minister added that the grains would be released to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) because they had the poverty index of the country. “They know exactly where it is needed; and they have a policy on how they transport and store before it is distributed to the needy. We have started working on that. We have already instructed NEMA to give us their work plan so that we can quickly go ahead and take possession of those stocks”, he said.

“I would like to highlight one very important aspect, which I did when I was here defending the budget of 2024. We have the Malabo agreement in which Nigeria is co-signatory to the comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme of the African Union that, agricultural provision in the budget should be 10 per cent of the total budget. And I think that when we look at the 2024 budget, we are far away from that target. We have seen other countries that have reached that; Rwanda for instance. And that’s why they are actually progressing in the agricultural field”, he said. The minister revealed that the window was still open for production.

Reacting to the minister’s position, some agricultural experts said the Federal Government’s gesture may not achieve significant results in view of the demand and supply gaps across many commodities. For the National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Arch. Kabir Ibrahim, the Federal Government should go beyond what he called ‘one-off releases from strategic reserves’, saying “Nigeria actually needs veritable food banks in all the six geopolitical zones for the attainment of sustainable food security”. He advised that a veritable food system was required towards a proper and sustainable creation of a number of important pillars, which include production, storage, processing, distribution and consumption.

Ibrahim added that, “The efficient productivity of farmers needs an optimum push by ensuring security to enable them go to their farms seamlessly and assisted to deploy science, technology and innovation. This will ensure compliance to good agricultural practice, optimise mechanisation, exposure to relevant education and efficient agribusiness by creating incubation centres, as well as agriculture intelligence centres all over the length and breadth of Nigeria”, the AFAN President said. In a similar development, no fewer than 243 small holders’ farmers in Edo State have received inputs and various capacity building programmes. The beneficiaries were given inputs such as poultry feeds, fish feeds, day-old chicks, maize, pepper, tomatoes seeds and liquid fertilizer, among others. The empowerment was carried out under the National Poverty Reduction with Growth Strategy (NPRGS) of the Federal Government.

Speaking at the event, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Temitope Fadashemi, said the programme was initiated by the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. Represented by the Edo State Coordinator of the ministry, Dr. Owoicho Samuel, he said the initiative was a concerted effort at reducing the level of poverty across the country. The Edo State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Stephen Idehenre, while lauding the Federal Government for the empowerment, solicited for more empowerment for farmers in the state, as he charged beneficiaries to make good use of the inputs to improve their productivity. On behalf of the beneficiaries, a poultry farmer, Mrs. Jane Ojo, gave a promise that they would use the inputs well to aid their productivity.

Meanwhile, the Ogun State government has pledged to do more in providing the needed support and intervention to farm settlements in the state, to boost food production in the gateway state. The Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Hon. Bolu Owotomo stated this during an unscheduled visit to the Ajegunle farm settlement in the Odeda local government area of the state. The commissioner said that the visit was to assess the farm, identity challenges and proffer solution, adding that rehabilitation would soon commence in all the farm settlements in the state because it was key to the present administration’s agricultural agenda.

Owotomo assured that there would an increase in government’s intervention, through the provision of agro input, capacity support for smallholder farmers, as well as storage and processing facilities to reduce post-harvest losses. The commissioner was equally at the Ogere International Market in the Remo North local government where he expressed government’s intention to encourage Private Public Partnership (PPP) to ensure that the market becomes fully utilised, not only to enhance revenue, but to further promote trade and agriculture, most especially in the livestock sector in Ogun State.