The Federal Government has reiterated its determination to tackle food inflation and ease the economic burden on Nigerians.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, made this known while addressing journalists on the government’s strategies to lower food prices.
A video of the minister’s press engagement was shared on Monday by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Nentawe Yilwatda, on his X handle.
Kyari attributed the high cost of food items to market dynamics and the activities of hoarders but assured that government policies and increased food production in 2024 were already addressing these challenges.
The minister reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ensuring food availability and affordability, highlighting a dry-season farming initiative designed to make staple food cultivation an all-year-round activity.
“I have always said it from time immemorial, market prices are determined by supply and demand, simple microeconomics. What happened at that time was a challenge of high demand and low supply. But for 2024, I have said it, we had a positive harvest which means that we have more supply than previous years.
“And that is what is possible, and it was a deliberate attempt by Mr. President to make sure that we bring down food inflation to the barest minimum. We’re not relenting, we’re looking at price stabilisation mechanisms. Within the next two weeks, we’re going to roll out the stabilisation and also further dampen and bring down the price without discouraging local production.
“We have seen, for instance, last year, when Padi Rice was going for ₦780,000 per tonne, the cost of producing that tonne was ₦350,000. So we felt there is still that margin, somebody somewhere is making an arbitrage that is not in line with government’s agenda.
“Whereas the farmer is getting ₦350,000, so who is making all that much? So it could be in the market. Now we have seen people that are hoarding bringing the foodstuff out because they bought it at a high price and they don’t want to make any losses. So we’re also discouraging hoarding at the same time.
“We have done the first season, the first part of the dry season in November, we are now going into the second part of the dry season, and we are going to do almost three cycles of dry season and then we go into the big wet season. So hopefully, we are going to have a situation where we’re going to make it a tradition to have all-year-round harvesting of staple crops. We will hopefully be self-sufficient and the issue of affordability, we’re tackling the affordability,” Kyari stated.
The minister reaffirmed that the administration remains committed to implementing policies that will ensure food security and stabilise market prices in the interest of Nigerians.
