By Gabriel Ewepu
WITH the consistent rise of food prices across the country and hunger, the All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Tuesday, called for all year round subsidy on farm inputs, increased mechanization, and others to reduce the trend of food inflation to enable Nigerians afford prices of food and reduce hunger.
Speaking with Vanguard, the National President, AFAN, Arc Ibrahim Kabir, said food inflation has been a big concern to the Association, which is the apex body of Nigerian farmers, and said farmers at this point need more attention to ensure they feed the over 200 million mouths on daily basis.
Reacting to the recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, which indicated that the total average food price for the 43 food items rose by 31.5 percent to N51,414.1 from N39,108.5, Kabir said the issue of tackling high food prices should be largely addressed from the local and state government levels, where the farmers are more, therefore, synergy should be formed between the Federal, State and Local Governments to ensure high production of food together with the private sector to drive the expected outputs along various value chains in the agricultural sector in order to boost food security and also create jobs for the teeming youth population.
Meanwhile, according the NBS, the food inflation has risen to 29.34 per cent as the prices of major food items such as maize, milk and plantain have almost doubled within 12 months leading the pack in terms of the largest price increase in the country.
He said: “The simple law of demand and supply tends not to work seamlessly in an economy that faces serious food inflation because intervening by buying on contract in order to accentuate the supply chain exacerbates inflation.
“Today, the provision of palliatives to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy has caused government to buy in the middle of inflation, which clearly makes prices to up thereby making things worse for the majority of Nigerians.
“The only foreseeable remedy is to support the farmers to scale their productivity all year round by providing subsidy on all inputs, providing increased mechanization, STI and sustainable access to credit.”
However, the AFAN boss counseled President Bola Tinubu to implement National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy, NATIP, basically aimed to bring about long-lasting economic and social change through public and private sector investments in agriculture and rural development.
“The Tinubu administration should implement the current National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy, NATIP, transparently and ensure close monitoring and evaluation.
“The government should also continue to engage all the stakeholders in the agricultural space constantly as well as constructively”, he added.
Meanwhile, he (Kabir) advised the Tinubu-led administration to attract investors into the agricultural sector with incentives and also incentivise those who are already investing in the sector.
He also said the ease of doing business should be prioritized, implemented and sustained as a platform to boost food production, reduce high food prices and create jobs.
“The large population of Nigeria and its abundant cultivable and irrigable land portends a prosperous investment portfolio for agribusiness so prospective investors should be incentivized by the ease of doing business call or proclamation by the government.
“We should continue to attract the flow of foreign direct investment by liberalizing our agribusiness activities and so both domestic and foreign investors will have a field day going forward”, he stated.
Source: Vanguard
