Save Nigerians from hunger, Kano House Speaker begs FG
Farmers dissect rising food prices, offer solution
SPEAKER of Kano State House Assembly, Jibrin Ismail Falgore, has lamented the prevailing economic situation nationwide.
His outcry comes barely 48 hours after Governor Abba Yusuf declared that hunger is ravaging the ancient city, following the impact of food inflation and rise in the exchange rate of the dollar to the naira.
In a statement, yesterday by his press secretary, Kamaludeen Sani Shawai, the Speaker observed: “Nigerians are seriously facing hardship, as government policies lead to a high cost of living, especially the cost of commodities.”
While encouraging farmers to redouble efforts, Falgore advised religious leaders, institutions, companies and government at all levels to be more proactive.
He charged the Federal Government to come up with a strategic economic plan to ease the people’s suffering. ALSO, President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria ( AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim, has attributed increase in food prices to stress in supply and weak purchasing power. He also blamed it on panic buying ahead of the Ramadan fast.
Ibrahim noted: “There is a stress in supply, and due to the purchasing power of the Naira, some people are buying in panic. Politicians and households are buying in anticipation of Ramadan. Politicians usually buy plenty of food to distribute to their prospective voters.” He told The Guardian that the high cost of fuel transportation was unhelpful to the situation.
“Most foods consumed in Abuja are brought from other places and the traders add the transport costs. However, the farmers sell at the farm gate and get very low prices.
Farmers also do not produce all that they need. They also buy from the market,” Ibrahim added.
He revealed that it costs about N1.6 million to transport a trailer load of grain from Katsina to Lagos State, as against earlier N500,000 to N600,000.
Also speaking, Sokoto State chairman of AFAN, Jemilu Sanusi, stated that the prices of foods might not crash anytime soon, unless the government tackles increases in prices of fuel.
His words: “We fuel our pumping machine to irrigate our farms at the rate of N250 per litre, but now we buy fuel at N650 to N700. How do we break even if we don’t transmit the cost to the consumers?”
Sanusi maintained that although the Federal Government has provided interventions to some farmers, there were aspects of production that needed to be looked into before crashing food prices.