FG to Establish Commodity Board to Tackle Rising Food Inflation, Others
Shettima: We'll deploy security forces to protect farmers, activate more farmlands Says govt to restore 10m acres of degraded lands within nation's borders
The federal government yesterday, hinted of plans to establish a National Commodity Board as a solution to rising food inflation in the country.
In tackling price volatility, the board would be given the mandate to assess and regulate food prices, as well as maintain a strategic food reserve for stabilising prices of crucial grains and other food items.
Vice President Kashim Shettima made this known at the opening of a two-day high-level strategic meeting on climate change, food systems and resource mobilisation at Abuja.
Delivering his address titled, "Climate Resilience and Food Security: Nigeria's Vision for the Future," the Vice President said the two-day event was an attestation of Nigeria's efforts at mitigating the effects of climate change and ensuring food security for Nigerians.
Recalling that food security was one of the eight areas of priority declared by President Bola Tinubu as part of his Renewed Hope Agenda, which led to the declaration of a state of emergency on food security, Shettima highlighted ongoing policy reforms by the administration to ensure food and water availability, as well as affordability.
According to him: "Our solution to the potential food crisis has become immediate, medium, and long-term strategies. The shortterm strategy entails revitalising food supply through specific interventions like the distribution of fertilizers and grains to farmers and households to counteract the effects of subsidy removal; fostering collaboration between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Water Resources for efficient farmland irrigation, ensuring year-round food production; and addressing price volatility by establishing a National Commodity Board.
"This board will continually assess and regulate food prices, maintaining a strategic food reserve for stabilising prices of crucial grains and other food items."
He assured that while the Tinubuled administration was fully invested in the restoration of degraded land, there were ongoing plans, "to restore four million hectares, or nearly 10 million acres, of degraded lands within the nation's borders as its contribution to the AFR100 Initiative.”
Commenting on government's handling of the security challenges preventing farmers from working on their farms, the Vice President said, "I wish to assure you that we will engage our security architecture to protect the farms and the farmers so that farmers can return to the farmlands without fear of attacks.
"We won't only make it safe for farmers to return to their farms, but we will also ensure the activation of land banks. There is currently 500,000 hectares of already mapped land that will be used to increase the availability of arable land for farming, which will immediately impact food output.”
Shettima added that the Tinubu administration was also collaborating, "with mechanisation companies to clear more forests and make them available for farming," even as the Central Bank of Nigeria "will also continue to play a major role in funding the agricultural value chain.
"We will deploy concessionary capital to the sector, especially towards fertilizer, processing, mechanisation, seeds, chemicals, equipment, feed, labour, among others. The concessionary funds will ensure food is always available and affordable, thereby having a direct impact on Nigeria's Human Capital Index (HCI).
“This administration is focused on ensuring the HCI numbers, which currently rank as the 3rd lowest in the world, are improved for increased productivity," he added.
The Vice President also restated efforts by the administration, "to ensure a massive boost in employment and job creation," noting that it, "is another presidential area of priority.
"The government will make agriculture attractive for our teeming youth population with a view to creating between five to 10 million more jobs for them within the agriculture value chain, working with the current 500,000 hectares of arable land and the several hundreds of thousands more farmlands to be developed in the medium term," he pointed out.
These efforts, Shettima said, were part of federal government's bid to actualise the, "UN-Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development Goals 2 of “Zero hunger” and African Union Agenda 2063, which aims to transform Africa into a global powerhouse of the future.
"But we can't achieve this unless we guarantee food security by building the capacity of smallholder farmers who account for about 88 per cent of the total food production in Nigeria."
He implored those at the event, including development partners, private investors and the diplomatic community, among others, to make sure the high-level engagement results in a positive outcome.
Earlier in her speech, National Coordinator of NEPAD, Mrs. Gloria Akobundu, praised Tinubu for his efforts towards making Nigeria a great nation.
“We are happy with the resolve by the administration of President Bola Tinubu to stand undeterred by any odds in his objective to build a viable, effective and great nation,” she said.
Akobundu said NEPAD decided to convene the stakeholders' forum in order to strengthen small holder farmers in Nigeria as a way of addressing food shortage problem in the country.