Arc Kabir Ibrahim, National President of
All Farmers Association of Nigeria(AFAN) has offered suggestions on how Nigeria can stop the impending food crisis.
He advised the Federal Government to revive the National Food Reserve Agency(NFRA), Guaranteed Minimum Price(GMP) and restock the Strategic Grains Reserve(SGR) as part of measures to stem the looming food crisis and reduce the current skyrocketing prices of food items in the markets.
He also advocated the need for the Federal Government to restock the Strategic Grains Reserve between October- November, 2021, when the new harvest will start entering the traditional food markets.
He said: “The looming distortotion in the food system by skyrocketing prices of food items can be tamed by taking decisive action in eight weeks when the new harvest will start entering our traditional food markets such as Dawanau, Saminaka, Giwa, Dandume, Scheme and several others across the country.
According to him,last week had witnessed a marginal drop in food prices due to the fact that early maturing crops have started hitting the market, adding that the trend would likely to continue until it reaches a crescendo at the end of September and mid-October.
He added that:”The right time to intervene by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development through the SGR is at this point by resuscitating the GMP and transparently placing supply contracts.We must set up a separate produce purchasing committee comprising upright individuals to work with the SGR to transparently perform this exercise.
“The SGR should be freed from any encumbrance occasioned by the concession done in 2016/17/18 which left it with a mere 400,000 storage capacity out of its bandied 1.3million capacity attained between 2008/2010. Whatever is strategically reserved can then be released in the first and Second quarters of 2022 to mitigate any inflationary trends and this intervention can be done again during the same period in the last quarter of 2022 for the year 2023!
“The farmers will get a good price to be able to sustainably produce, the consumers will have fairly affordable prices and Nigeria will ultimately have sustainable food sufficiency and the much desired food security to bring about sustainable development which will eventually lead to attainment of the 17 SDG goals in the medium term as well as the ultimate Agenda 2050”
He said these measures could be actualized through the harmonisation of all the initiatives by the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and all cross-cutting efforts like the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative,Food Security Council and National Economic Council, among others in the agriculture space.
He implored President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the NFRA and NADF Bills being processed by NASS as soon as they are presented,just as he advised him to re-appraise the FMARD by appointing competent persons to drive it as well as appoint a Special Adviser,who knows what to do,on food security to work directly with the Food Security Council.
He lauded the incumbent administration for taken bold initiatives to make agriculture work in Nigeria, stressing that the CBN’s Anchor Borrower Programme, the assent to several bills such as the Seed Act 2019, the Plant Variety Protection Act 2021 among others were giant strides taken by the administration.
He said:”The obvious threat factor to the attainment of food sufficiency, however for now, is probity, competence and knowing what to do in the management of the entire food system and this calls for reinvigorating it by appointing capable and competent hands with integrity”.
He acknowledged that there are many challenges in the global food system occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, insecurity and climate change among a myriad of threats against the attainment of Global Food Security.
