The Honourable Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi has expressed optimism that the price of rice would fall in the country.
The Minister expressed the optimism in a live Interview on NTA Good Morning Nigeria programme in Abuja, on Tuesday while speaking on the ”Renewed Hope Agenda: The task before the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
He traced the increase in the price of rice to the 2021, 2022, massive flood which according to him impacted on food production that unfortunately no insurance policy was put in place to guarantee farmers getting some appeasement as a result of their loss.
He said that it would take a lot of effort and hard work for the price of rice to come down.
”Yes, the price will come down, if we do the necessary things and work very hard.
”Let us not forget too quickly. Nigeria, I think in 2021, 2022 had very massive floods that impacted on production and a number of farms were swept off and farmers had massive losses and unfortunately we have not really put in place a kind of insurance policy that will guarantee farmers getting some appeasement from the losses and that is why if you ask those in the anchor borrowers’ programme, there is challenge currently.
”If you look at Kogi, Jigawa, Niger, Kebbi, and Kano states, most of these states suffered grave flood and farmers lost. When a farmer takes a decision to go into production, he gives his all because he puts his hopes there and when his hopes are dashed, it takes alot of efforts to bring him back. That perhaps is one of the problems that impacted on the rice industry. Currently, we are reviewing all of those challenges”, he said.
Speaking further, he affirmed that the present administration will bring back a situation where Nigerian farmers will be proud to be called so.
”We really want to bring back a situation where a Nigerian farmer can be proud to say I am a farmer. That is what we are looking up to in the renewed hope agenda”.
The Minister stated that to bring renewed hope to our food system, President Tinubu changed the name of the ministry from Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
”President Bola Tinubu has always talked about our humanity and that whatever we do as leaders we must show concern for every citizens who is a Nigerian and if you also remember in the 9th Assembly, there was a constitutional amendment where the issue of food security was properly polished and brought to the fore and of course it became something that every government at all levels must show concern for. In fact, its being upgraded. So, I think putting all of these together, its understandable that the presidency of Bola Tinubu has upgraded that subject matter, hence the changing of the name of the ministry from Federal MInistry of Agriculture and Rural Development to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to underscore the purpose. Now, if you look at the challenges you will understand why. The insurgency and the bandits issues have actually challenged our food system. So, overall to bring the renewed hope to our food system that is why the name was changed to the the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security”, he stated.
Senator Aliyu highlighted that amongst the 8 point agenda food security was the number one most prioritized nationally.
”Of course within the context of the 8 point agenda, food security has now become the number one national priority”, he pointed out.
Furthermore, he stated that the task before the ministry was to make sure there is sufficient production of food such as cassava, maize, rice, yam and other crops.
He emphasised the need to maximize planting of crops both in dry and raining seasons.
His words; ”We came amidst all the challenges and like you said there were existing programmes that were running. Government does not have vacuum, it is always continuity of actions. Since we came on board we have been receiving briefings but along the line we have to cut off the briefings because we have to attend to some very critical programmes that require decisions within the context of food security programme that the ministry already has. For example, we intend to ensure that double cropping happens dry season and rainy season. We need to maximise the two periods and so one of the dry season crop that we do have within the context of irrigation is wheat and you know if you look at the bill, Nigeria imports over 2 billion dollars worth of wheat annually. That is huge import bill and we are trying to see what we can do to at least do something in-house to cut down on the volume. So, within that context there is an existing programme that we met which is just at its beginning and we have to do all we can to make sure that we take certain decisions to push the programme forward. In fact, that explains why the minister have to be away because we want to see how we can get the required seeds. So, alot of work is still happening within that context.
”Now, in the next couple of days we want to sit down and completely look at reviewing what already has been happening and see what is working and what has problem so at the end of the day, we can be able to decipher through all of these and come up with a realigned programmes and projects that will be able to target national food security concern. You know when you talk about food security, basically you are talking about four dimensions; food has to be available, now if food is available, it must be accessible at the same time. The third dimension is that it must be affordable and ofcourse, the last dimension it must be in the required nutritional content and it must also be safe. If you check in the renewal hope agenda where President Bola Tinubu has unveiled the 8 point agenda, the food security which is number one, the main target there is that we are making reference to the global food security index and in the global food security index currently for Nigeria, it is 91. And the task before us now is over the next four years we want to bring that index back to 60, which means we must work on the dimensions to make sure that we have sufficient production of our food security crop, talking about Cassava, maize, rice, yam”.
